Heworth vs The Felling


Heworth has been around a long time, as has Wardley , both mentioned in Court records going back to the 13th Century and now at Durham University

You can tell a place goes back a long way by the variations in spelling. Heworth, for example, appears over the years as Heworthe, Heworths, Heworthes, Nethir Heworth.
Wardley variations include 
Wardlye, Wardelay, Wardeley, Wardly.
Mind you, if you've ever visited Felling Past and Present on Facebook you'll see from many of the entries that bad spelling is still alive and kicking in Felling and Textland

In 1843, the Town and Chapelry of Heworth, including High and Nether Heworth, also included the villages and hamlets of High and Low Felling, Felling Shore, Bill Quay, Wardley, Follingsby, Windy Nook and Carr Hill.
Come 1849 the name of Heworth was usurped by the name of The Felling with the formation of The Felling as a town under the administration of Felling Urban District Council (UDC). In 1902, the council moved to new administrative headquarters, The Felling Town Hall on Sunderland Road.

In 1870-72, some  20+ years after the creation of Felling UDC, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales incorrectly described Heworth as a town and Felling as a village, both in Jarrow parish

" HEWORTH, a town, a township, a chapelry, and a sub-district in Jarrow parish, and Gateshead district, Durham. The town stands adjacent to the river Tyne, and to the Darlington and Brandling railway, near Pelaw Junction station, 2½ miles ESE of Gateshead; and has a post office under Gateshead.-The township lies partly within Gateshead borough; includes the chapelries of St. Albans and Felling, constituted in 1843 and 1866; and comprises 2, 786 acres of land, and 67 of water. Real property, £27, 435; of which £9, 286 are in mines, £938 in quarries, and £700 in iron works. ...

Pop. in 1851, 8, 869, in 1861, 10, 315. Houses, 1, 570. The increase of pop. was caused by the extension of chemical works. Pop. of the part within Gateshead borough, 838. Houses, 132. Ship building is carried on in several yards; coal is extensively mined and exported; and paper, pottery, glass, and chemicals, are manufactured.—The chapelry was at one time couterminate with the township, but was curtailed and made ecclesiastically parochial in 1843. Rated property, £19, 902. Pop. in 1861, 7, 680. The property is subdivided. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Durham. Value, £234.* Patrons, Lady James and Thomas Drewett Brown, Esq. The church was rebuilt in 1822; is in the pointed style, with an embattled tower; and contains 668 sittings. A monumental column is in the churchyard, commemorative of the death of 91 persons, in 1812, by an explosion in Felling colliery. There are a national school and a mechanics' institution. -the sub-district is conterminate with the township.

FELLING, a large village and a chapelry in Jarrow parish, Durham. The village stands on the Northeastern railway, 1^ mile SE of Gateshead; increased recently from two hamlets to its present condition; is maintained by factories and by mining operations; connects with Felling-Shore, a coal-shipping place on the Tyne; and has a post-office* under Gateshead, a r. station, a church built in 1866, four dissenting chapels, and a Roman Catholic chapeL The chapelry was constituted in 1866. Pop., 5,105. The living is a vicarage. Value, £300. Patrons, Five Trustees. "

In 1868 The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland also has it wrong using 100 + words about Heworth, mentioning shipyards, copperas works, paper mills, collieries, potteries etc and under 25 words about Felling... calling it a hamlet