Houghton-le-Spring

The Apostle of the North

Houghton-le-Spring was a substantial market town in its own right long before it joined Tyne and Wear. Its parish rectory was held in the 16th century by Bernard Gilpin, a reformer so devoted to preaching across the wild, poorly served parishes of the North that he became known as "the Apostle of the North"; he founded Kepier Grammar School here in 1574, one of the region's oldest schools. Long a self-governing urban district within County Durham, Houghton-le-Spring joined the newly enlarged City of Sunderland in the 1974 local government reorganisation that also created Tyne and Wear, bringing its own deep, independent history along with it.