Place:Hexhamshire Middle Quarter, Northumberland, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

Hexhamshire Middle Quarter is described in A Vision of Britain through Time as a township of Hexham and a civil parish. From 1894 until 1955 it was part of Hexham Rural District. There are no other references in either Wikipedia or A Vision of Britain through Time. On the two later maps listed below it is located south of Hexham beyond Hexhamshire Low Quarter. Hexhamshire Middle Quarter includes the settlement of Whitley Chapel which has an article in Wikipedia and the following description provided by A Vision of Britain through Time quoting John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WHITLEY, a chapelry in Hexham [registration] district, Northumberland; on Devils water, 5 miles S of Hexham [railway] station. Post town: Hexham. Population: 419. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value: £124. Patron: W. B. Beaumont, Esq."

Further settlements in Hexhamshire Middle Quarter include Dalton near Hexham, Mollerstead and Raw Green. See Hexhamshire for a description of Middle Quarter in the 19th century. There is another Dalton which was a township of Newburn.

The term "quarter" is not defined, but would appear to be of similar meaning to the terms "without" and "rural" which are attached to the names of fairly urban parishes in other counties of England. These rural parishes came about after the introduction of Urban and Rural Districts in 1894, when it was deemed appropriate to divide the country into urban and rural areas which had different demands and rates for property taxes.

Co-ordinates are those for Whitley Chapel. Wikipedia mentions the "parish of Whitley". This is probably the ecclesiastical parish of Whitley.

Research Tips

• Hexhamshire local website
• 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.