WINLATON, a district (parochial) in the western division
of CHESTER ward, county palatine of DURHAM,
6; miles (W. by S.) from Gateshead, containing 3295
inhabitants. The church was finished in 1828, at an
expense of £2500, of which sum,£2000. 11. 5. was defrayed
by the parliamentary commissioners; it is in the
later English style of architecture, and contains eight
hundred sittings, of which six hundred and thirty-seven
are free. The village occupies an elevated site between
the rivers Tyne and Darwent, and-owes its rise to the
extensive iron works, removed hither from Sunderland by
Sir Ambrose Crawley, about 1.690, for carrying on which
the neighbourhood affords peculiar advantages, in the
abundance of coal, the facility of water carriage, &c.
Edge-tools, files, and nail-rods, are the principal articles
manufactured; and those of a heavier kind, such as anchors,
anvils, pumps, and cylinders for steam-engines,
chain cables, spades, shovels, saws, and cast-iron utensils
of every description, are made at Swalwell. A code of
laws for the workmen was also established, which, in a
great measure, has superseded the general law, and under
which a court of arbitrators sits every ten weeks, by
whom justice is promptly administered, at a very trifling
expense. The principal manufacturers (Crawley, Millington,
and Co.) have large warehouses in Thamesstreet,
London, and at Greenwich; and constantly employ
two vessels, of about three hundred tons' burden
each, in transporting their goods thither and to Newcastle
for sale. A chapel was built here, in 1705, on the
site of a more ancient one, which is said to have been
demolished in 1569; but having been suffered to go
to ruin, a spacious school-room was erected, in 1816,
on the spot, in which divine service was occasionally
performed by the rector of Ryton, to which parish Winlaton
formerly belonged, till the new church was built,
when it was made parochial.' At the village of Blaydon,
in this township, there is a place of worship for Methodists
and there are works for refining lead on the banks
of the Tyne.