Heighington St Michael

Parish Notes Durham

Heighington St Michael

[Population 1911: 1,050]

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Church

The Church, situated on the northern side of the village green, is dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, and is of Norman foundation, consisting of nave, chancel, south aisle, and western tower. The basin for holy water remains in the wall within the southern entrance. The oaken pulpit is a unique specimen of oak carving, having five compartments with delicate tracery, and bears the following inscription round the mouldings:- 'ORATE P'A'IB.S. AL(EXAN)DRI FLETTCHAR ET AGNETIS UXOR EJUS," a request which proves very clearly that the pulpit dates from before the Reformation. There are galleries on the north and south sides, and at the west end. A new organ was erected by subscription in 1852, and the tower clock face was renewed in the following year. The tower, which contains three bells, dedicated respectively to Our Lady, St. Peter, and St. Paul, commands a very extensive view over a considerable portion of the counties of Durham and Yorkshire. There are several chaste and elegant mural tablets in this church, and two effigies, apparently those of females, lie in the churchyard. The living of Heighington was anciently a rectory, and was granted, during the episcopate of Bishop Kirkham, to the priory of Durham, for "the maintanance of hospitality and relief to the poor," on condition of maintaining a perpetual vicarage, with an endowment of thirty marks per annum. It is now a vicarage, in the deanery of Darlington, and a peculiar of the dean and chapter of Durham, valued in the Liber Regis at £12 14s. 9½.; gross income, £265. The corn tithes of Heighington belong to the ninth stall in Durham Cathedral, those of Bedworth to the second, and those of Walworth to the eighth. The townships of Heighington and School Aycliffe pay tithe of hay and small tithes to the vicar in kind. Redworth pays tithes of hay and all small tithe, excepting that certain belonging to Robert Surtees, Esq., and some others pay moduses or prescripts in lieu of hay tithe, amounting altogether to 5s. 7d. Newbiggins pays small tithes, and a modus of 5s. in lieu of hay. West Thickley pays 40s. in lieu of all vicalial tithes. Walworth pays small tithe, and a modus of 26s. 8d. in lieu of hay. Killerby, small tithe, and 8s. in lieu of hay. The dean and chapter have given, in augmentation of the living, a rent charge out of Killerby tithes, £10; Aycliffe corn tithes, £50; a tithe-barn and ground at Heighington, £4; total annual value, £64. The parish register commences in 1570. The Rev. W. Beckett, B.A. vicar. [Whellan's History, Topography and Directory of Durham (and Newcastle) (1856), pages 400-01.]

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