HAYDON, or HAYDON-BRIDGE, a small town and a chapelry, or in some respects a parish, in Hexham district, Northumberland. The town stands on both banks of the South Tyne river, and on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway, 7½ miles W of Hexham; consists chiefly of two good streets, extending parallel to the river; has a good bridge of six arches; had formerly a weekly market; and has a post-office‡ under Carlisle, a railway station with telegraph, one or two good inns, a church, four dissenting chapels, a free grammar school, a national school, and alms-houses. The church is an edifice of 1797, with a square tower. J. Martin, the painter, was a native.—The chapelry contains also the hamlets of Brokenhaugh, Deanrow, Ellerington, Lipwood, Chesterwood, and Langley. Acres, 13,688. Real property, £5,440. Pop. in 1851, 2,085; in 1861, 2,221. Houses, 434. The manor belonged formerly to Lords Lucy, and belongs now to Greenwich hospital. Langley Castle is a large and stately ruin; first mentioned in 1365; standing now in nearly the same state as when described in 1416; and forming an oblong, with massive, projecting, corner towers. Langley smelting mills are large works of lead and zinc ores. There is also, at the town, a large iron and brass foundry. The tract along the Tyne is fertile and beautiful; but much of the rest of the surface is moor and upland. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Warden, in the diocese of Durham. The old church stands about a mile N of the town; and was converted into a mortuary chapel. The old cemetery bears the name of "cruel syke," probably from some Border foray.

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