Embleton, County Durham facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Embleton |
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 The ruined church in Embleton |
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| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority |
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| Ceremonial county | |
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| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| EU Parliament | North East England |
Embleton is a tiny village, also known as a hamlet, located in Durham, England. It used to be its own local area called a civil parish, but now it's part of the Sedgefield parish. Embleton is also the site of an old medieval village and a large estate known as a manor.
You can find Embleton about 3 miles (5 km) east of Sedgefield and 4 miles (6 km) west of Hartlepool. Back in 1961, only 80 people lived in this small area. The name "Embleton" might have come from "Elmdene," which means "elm valley." This suggests that many elm trees once grew in the nearby valley, called a dene. Today, there's just one farm building near the remains of a small church. This church was originally a "chapel of ease," a small church built for people who lived too far from the main church. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
From the 1200s to the mid-1500s, the Elmeden family owned the manor of Embleton. They even took their name from the village! Embleton was one of almost 1,500 medieval villages that were abandoned in the 1300s. This happened after a system of land management, where lords directly managed their land, started to fail. After the Elmeden family, the land passed to the Bulmer and Smythe families through marriage. In the 1700s, it became part of the Tempest family's lands at Wynyard. The Tempests were ancestors of the Marquesses of Londonderry.
What is a Civil Parish?
Embleton was once a "township," which was a small area within a larger parish, like Sedgefield. In 1866, Embleton became its own civil parish. A civil parish is a local government area that handles some community services. However, on April 1, 1983, Embleton's civil parish was officially ended and joined with the Sedgefield parish.
