WITTON-LE-WEAR., a parish, with a village, in Auckland district, Durham; on the river Wear, and on the Bishop-Auckland and Stanhope railway, 4½ miles WNW of Bishop-Auckland . It has a post-office under Darlington, a r. station, and a bridge. Acres, 2,955. Real property, £18,017; of which £13,033 are in mines, £1,586 in ironworks, and £15 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 918; in 1861, 1,366. Houses, 270. The manor belongs to the Bishop of Durham. W. Castle is the seat of H. Chaytor, Esq.; and includes portions of an old castle of the Eures, built in 1410, and eventually destroyed by fire. W. Park is a hamlet, with extensive ironworks; and has a post-office‡ under Darlington. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £300.* Patron, alternately H. Chaytor, Esq., and the Crown. The church is tolerable. There are two Methodist chapels and several schools.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))