HALTWHISTLE, a parish in the western division of
TiNDALE ward, county of NORTHUMBERLAND, comprising
the market-town of Haltwhistle, and the townships
of. Bellester, Blenkinsop, East Coanwood, Featherston,
Hartley-Burn, Henshaw, Melkridge, Plainmellor, Ridley,
Thirlwall,Thorngrafton, and Wall-Town, and contain-
iag 3583 inhabitants, of which number, 707 are in the
town of Haltwhistle, 36 miles (W.) from Newcastle,
and 315 (N. N.-W.) from London. This town, formerljy
called Haltwesel, is pleasantly situated on the high road
from Carlisle to Newcastle, on an eminence which commands
a rich and extensive prospect of the surrounding
country, and of the windings of the river Tyne through
its fertile vale. The buildings are irregular, and there
are but few good houses; the streets are neither paved
nor lighted, but the inhabitants are plentifully supplied
with water from wells,, and from brooks which are situated
northward from the town. The only branch of manufacture
is one of coarse baize, recently introduced. A
market, in which grain is sold, is occasionally held on
Thursday; and the fairs are on the 14th of May and the
22nd of November, chiefly for cattle; those on the 12th
of-May and the llth of November are statute fairs;
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Northumberland;
and diocese of Durham, rated in the king's
books.at £12. 3. 1., and in the patronage of the
Bishop of Durham. The church, which is dedicated
to the Holy Cross, stands on an eminence southward
from the town; from the church-yard there is a -beautiful
and extensive prospect. Here are places of worship
for Primitive Methodists . and Presbyterians. A
charity school was founded and endowed with £35 per
annum,- arising from lands at Fayersham, in Kent, in
the year 1719, by Dorothy Capel, Baroness Dowager of
Tewkesbury: the number of boys at present is about
eighty: the master receives a salary of £30 per annum-,
with a small quarterly payment from the scholars. The
vicar of this parish- allows £ 10 per annum to a
schoolmaster at Greenhead, for instructing the children
of labourers.  On an eminence eastward of the
church are the vestiges of a. fort, environed on all
sides but the south by an embankment of turf; in
the centre of the enclosure is a large spring, which from
neglect haS converted the place into a bog. In the
township of Thirlwall are the remains of a castle, formerly
"one of the boundary forts between England and
Scotland.