Morpeth

Morpeth, a market-town of Northumberland, on the winding Wansbeck, 16 miles N. of Newcastle. The parish church dates from the 14th century; the free grammar-school, founded by Edward VI. in 1552, has an endowment of nearly £500 a year, and in 1859 was rebuilt, after a chancery suit lasting 150 years. The town-hall (restored in 1870) was erected in 1714 by Sir John Vanbrugh, and the county-hall in 1818 at a cost of £80,000. Morpeth has flannel-factories, breweries, tanneries, iron-foundries, &c., with collieries and quarries in the neighbourhood. From 1553 till 1832 it returned two members to parliament, but now only one; the parliamentary borough was extended in 1868. Pop. (1851) 10,011; (1891) 40,133, of whom only 5219 were in the municipal borough.