"Walsend Coat of Arms"

In the year 1536, two years after throwing off the power of the Pope, Henry VIII swept away the most important privileges of the princely bishops of Durham, and those living in the Palatine came much more directly under the laws common to the whole country. Then followed four years of uncertainty and doubt concerning the fate of of the greater abbeys.   This was settled, so far as the Wallsend district was concerned, on the last day of December,1540, when Hugh Whitehead, who was then Prior of Durham, quietly surrendered the convent and its possessions to the representatives of the King, and the landholders of Wallsend and Willington became the tenants of the Crown. The King, however, treated the monks of Durham gently, for in the following May (1541), he appointed Hugh Whitehead, the late Prior, to be the first dean, and twelve of the monks, including Edward Hindmarsh, to be the prebendaries, and he incorporated them with a common seal as the "Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Marythe Virgin," and he restored to the Dean and Chapter thus created a large proportion of the lands of the old monastery.

The Hall and Hindmarsh Family Estate

The most important residence in the township for a long period has been the Hall, or the buildings which preceded it.  We are unable to trace with absolute certainty the occupiers further back than two hundred years, but it is almost certain that nearly four hundred years ago it was in possession of the Hyndmers, or Hindmarshs, who were then the chief family in Wallsend.  They bore arms - three hinds heads couped argent on a field vert.

The town house of the family was opposite the end of the High Bridge in Pilgrim Street.   For two hundred years we have some records of the births, marriages and deaths and other events connected with the family.

One of the family, Edward Hynemers, was a Benedictine monk who advanced to high office in the Durham Monastery.  He took his BA degree at Oxford in 1527, became a DD in 1553, and held the office of Spiritual Chancellor to Bishop Tunstall.   He continued as warden of the Durham College, Oxford, until the monastery was surrendered on 31 December 1540 and, as the College of Oxford was not regranted to Durham, Henry VIII madehim the First Prebendary of the first stall in the Cathedral.

In 1539, Gawan Hyndmers was holding one-seventh of the township under the Prior and Convent of Durham at a rental of 34s.7d.

In 1628 "Richard Hindmarsh of Wallsend, Gent" was taking legal proceedings against a neighbour, "John Butler of Greys Inn and Wallsend," for outlawry for debt.   Incidentally, we may add that a jury, making an inquest into Butler's estate on Mr Hindmarsh's behalf, reported on oath "that the said John Butler wa possessed on 1st May last (1628) of one tenement and appurtenances at Wallsend of £3.6s.8d (5 marks) clear annual value and also two stacks of hay standing on the premises, value £4.6s.8d (6.25 marks) and nothing more."

To one of the Hindmarshs we owe an ancient document which describes the boundaries of the township of Willington as they were originally.   It is as follows:

Willington Town.   The Bounder of Willington beginneth at ye seite of Wallsend Dean,  And up ye same till that come to the Moares between them, and Benton to the Haggerstones;  And then to the Moares between Benton, Willington and West-Shirton and then down ye Burne called Greene Chesters burne, till it come to ye Moare-stones, at ye North-East Nooke of Rawes Moore;  And then down ye Dyke and Dean called Howden between Flatworth, and Willington, till it come to ye Water of Tine  And so up to the Water of Tine, till it come to ye Mouth of Walsend Deane where it began.

I copied this Boundary from a paper I found in my father study and which is now put (with some others) in the map safe.            As witness my hand October 15 1720.          THO:HINDMARSH.

As to the date of this original record, all we have to guide us is that when Thomas Hindmarsh copied it over 280 years ago, the spelling in the original document was already antiquated and the name Howden had come into use.   It is known that the moor on the Milbank estate was partly enclosed about 1680, for in the award soon after that date, in the Tynemouth Manor Court, the boundary of the shire moor is traced up a "letch to a place in Willington New Close called Greenchester".   The date of the original document would therefore appear to be sometime between the years 1600 and 1660.

In a record made in the reign of Charles II (1660) of "Proprietors of lands in Wallsend" we find Richard Hindmarsh and his son John Hindmarsh, each holding one farm and fine to the Dean and Chapter of Durham, of the value of £140. 

"Holy Cross Porch from Inside"

"Holy Cross Chancel"

Richard died on 12 Nov 1667 and was buried in the chancel of the church of the Holy Cross.   Six years later, in 1673-4, John had taken over the holding of his father and increased his own, for he is recorded as holding two farms and six-fourteenths of the value of £400.   Thus he became by far the largest leaseholder in Wallsend.  He died on 1 Nov 1707, aged "ninetie yeeres" and was also buried in the chancel of Holy Cross Chruch, near other members of his family.   The grave cover is still in situ in excellent state of preservation.  The inscription is:

"Richard Hindmarsh, who dyed ye 12th day of November 1667.   Elizabeth his dyed ye 6th day of January 1675.   Elizabeth ye wife of John Hindmarsh, who departed this life the 16thday of April, AD 1702.   John Hindmarsh, he dyed ye 1st November, 1707, aged ninetie yeeres.   Richard Hindmarsh Esq, who departed this life ye 15th April, AD 1703, aged 58 years."