Place:Birtley, Northumberland, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Birtley is a village in Northumberland, England southeast of Bellingham. It is about 10 miles (16 km) north of Hexham.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Birtley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BIRTLEY, or Birkley, a parochial chapelry in Bellingham [registration] district, Northumberland; on the North Tyne river and on the Border Counties railway, near Wark station, 5 miles SE of Bellingham. It was disjoined in 1765 from the parish of Chollerton; it includes the township of Broomhope and Buteland; and its post town is Wark, under Hexham. Acres: 6,720. Rated property: £3,428. Population: 404. Houses: 80. The property is divided among six. Coal and other useful minerals occur. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value: £122. Patron: the Duke of Northumberland. The church is not good."

Birtley was a township in the ancient parish of Chollerton and became an ecclesiastical parish in 1765 and a civil parish in 1866. From 1894 it was part of Bellingham Rural District. In 1958 it absorbed the neighbouring parish of Carrycoats. In 1974 rural districts were abolished and Birtley became part of the Tynedale District until 2009 when Northumberland became a unitary authority.

Research Tips

• Northumberland Archives previously known as Northumberland Collections Service and Northumberland County Record Office. Now based within Woodhorn Museum in Ashington and providing free access to numerous records for local and family historians alike.

Full postal address: Museum and Northumberland Archives, Queen Elizabeth II Country Park, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9YF; Phone: 01670 624455

There is a branch office in Berwick upon Tweed.

• Northumberland and Durham FHS covers both Northumberland and County Durham. The Family History Society have a research centre in Percy House in central Newcastle upon Tyne (full address on website), open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. Browse the website to see what else the society can provide.
• Further information from GENUKI
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1832 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time. This map includes the boundaries of the various Wards (or "hundreds") in existence at that time.
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, particularly helpful in large towns and cities.
• Unfortunately, there is no Victoria County History for Northumberland.