In a message dated 14/07/2007 01:14:54 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: I am new to this list. I recently found my g-grandfather James Newton in Durham living at Willington New Row. He was born in Hawarden North Wales and later moved to Monks Coppenhall Cheshire. He married a Margaret Dover in 1853 living in Willington New Row and two years later he married an Ann Coulthard living in Willington New Row. They were married in the Branch.....? Parish Church. Can SKS please tell me what Parish it would be and what was the name of the church. Also was Willington New Row miner's housing in the 1850's. Any assistance most appreciated. Joy: I agree with Stan that Branch---- will be a mis-reading of Brancepeth. The term "New Row" is found in several places in the Co Durham coalfield. If a new pit was opened close to an older one, or if an existing pit became larger, though working more seams or through extending its workings into new districts, then the workforce would increase and new housing would be built in the local pit village to accommodate them and their families. In the pit villages the miners usually lived in "stone-built terraces", almost always called "Rows". Their names often indicate a sad lack of imagination on the part of those who named them - Long Row, Short Row, North (South, East or West) Row, High Row, Low Row, etc. Other common names are such as Chapel Row, Office Row, Store Row, Deputies' Row and often in cases such as this one, "New Row". In Washington, where I live, the older Rows became "The Old Rows" as soon as the New Rows were built (c1880s), and although they themselves are long demolished and replaced by shops and a bus station some older people still refer to that district as "The New Rows". Sometimes, when a pit village was built from scratch close to an older non-mining settlement, it became known as "New", followed by the name of the older village. An example close to Willington is New Brancepeth, but there are also New Herrington, New Lambton and many others. The district around the New Rows in Washington became "New Washington" but when Washington became a New Town the Development Corporation decided that wouldn't do, so it was transmuted into "Concord". We should not forget, either, how long a name can stick. "New" does not have to mean "recently built"! It is well over 900 years since the old wooden castle on the River Tyne was replaced by a "New" stone one, yet that castle and the whole City which now surrounds it, is still called "Newcastle" (aka The Toon). Newbottle, near Houghton le Spring is probably an even older "New", older than many of the "Newton" villages. Geoff Nicholson