An Introduction

Bournmoor is a village in County Durham in the North East of England. It is situated a short distance from the towns of Chester-le-Street and Houghton-le-Spring and is approximately equidistant from the cities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sunderland and Durham. The village lies on the southern edge of the 1,400-acre Lambton Estate and contains the church of St Barnabas.

Geographically, the village lies 54 deg 51' north and 1 deg 31' west. Elevation at the church of St. Barnabas is 50 metres above sea level.

Historically, what we now know as Bournmoor village did not actually come into being until 1865 when the ecclesiastical Parish of Bournmoor was constituted out of Penshaw Parish by an order in council of Queen Victoria dated December 28th, 1865. Prior to this, the village was known as Wapping and the village name was changed at the time of the church parish being formed due to the bad reputation endured by the Wapping area of London. The whole Bournmoor area was once known as 'Biddick Fence', 'Biddick' meaning 'by the ditch' and 'fence' implying an enclosed area. The township of Bournmoor, formerly Biddick Fence, comprising the Lambton Estate, Wapping, New Lambton and Elba was separated from Biddick Fence before 1791.

Following another order in council dated May 17th 1867, the parish of Bournmoor was enlarged further to include a part of the new parish of Christ Church Lumley. A part of the Lambton Estate was also included which meant that the house of the Lambton family also became part of the parish. For further information, please refer to the 'Bournmoor - Beginnings' page of this site.

The stream which runs past the Floaters Mill public house and flows on into the river Wear at Chester-le-Street is known as the Lumley Park Burn as well as the Moor Burn, or Moor's Burn in these upper-reaches and it is believed that this led to the name B(o)urn Moor. The age-old debate continues as to whether the modern-day village should be called Burnmoor or Bournmoor. These variations - and others (eg. Bourn Moor, Bourne Moor, Burn Moor, etc.) - appear on the oldest of maps and documents, as you will see on this website, so there is no definitive answer to this questions, only opinions!