2,101 baptisms at Brancepeth St. Brandon from Aug 1599 to the end of 1644. These records named the child’s godparents from Oct 1627 to Mar 1639, and gave the child’s birthdate from mid-1629 to Mar 1639, then listed both birthdates and godparents again from Jul 1642 to Sep 1644.

Brancepeth is one of County Durham’s ancient parishes. Residences mentioned in this time period include Bigging, Billy Row, Boggle Hole, Brancepeth, Brandon, Burninghall, Burnt Gill, Cockside House, Crook, Dicken House, East Brandon, Halliwell, Hare Holme, Helmington Row, Hill House, Ivesley, Langley, Littleburn, Little White, Morley, Mown Meadows, Oakenshaw, Page Bank, Primrose Side, Pugle House, Skutes House, Sleetburn, Stanley, Stob House, Stockley, Tudhoe, Unthank, Waterhouse, West Brandon, Wheat Bottom, Willington, and Wooley.

Anyone with Tudhoe roots or any interest in the area history should visit Jeremy Hutson’s Tudhoe website.

6,918 burials in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery 1882 – 1885

Like earlier records from Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, these burial records usually provide the names of spouses, parents of deceased children, addresses, ages, and occupations. For example:

• 20 Nov 1875 John George Wanless, of 33 Lawrence Street, age: 10, son of George Wanless (Commercial Traveller)

This block includes the burials following the horrifying and tragic Victoria Hall Disaster of June 16, 1883 in which 183 children were crushed to death as they pressed against a door to receive treats. We have already seen that 31 of these children were buried at Mere Knolls Cemetery and 1 at the graveyard of Southwick parish church. Now we find that 116 were interred at Bishopwearmouth Cemetery – 48 on June 19th, 64 on the 20th. and 4 on June 21st. This still leaves 35 children unaccounted for and we would expect to find all of these when we cover the last large burial ground of Greater Sunderland – Sunderland Cemetery at Stockton Road, Grangetown.

More articles about the Victoria Hall Disaster of 1883 can be found at:

• List of victims (provided by GenUKI)
• Personal remembrances (Victoria County History project)
• Wearside Online
• Wikipedia