LYNESACK AND SOFTLY, a township-chapelry in Auckland-St. Andrew parish, Durham; on headstreams of the river Gaunless, 3 miles W by N of Cockfield r. station, and 7 NNE of Barnard-Castle. Post town, Bishop-Auckland, under Darlington. Acres, 5,946. Real property, £3,215; of which £1,095 are in mines. Pop. in 1851,787; in 1861,1,120. Houses, 223. The property is much subdivided. Part of the land is a barren hilly tract, called South Side. Many of the inhabitants are employed in coal mines. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £300. * Patron, the Bishop of Durham. The church is modern.

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