Pittington is a village and civil parish in County Durham, in England. It is situated a few miles north-east of Durham. The population as taken at the 2011 census was 2,534. Pittington is made up of the neighbouring settlements of Low Pittington and High Pittington, which were developed for coal mining by Lambton Collieries from the 1820s. High Pittington, the larger of the two, now includes the old hamlet of Hallgarth. Hallgarth is a conservation area, designated in 1981. It is a small conservation area focussed on the Church of St Laurence, a Grade I listed building, and Hallgarth Manor Hotel . The civil parish of Pittington includes both villages and the neighbouring village of Littletown. Pittington Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Pittington Primary School is a school of approximately 180 pupils ranging from 3 to 11 years of age. The school logo is one hedgehog.
The Hallgarth murder
The water mill, about half a mile to the south west of Hallgarth, was the scene of the 1830 murder of Mary Ann Westrop, a 17-year old servant girl. At 6 o'clock in the evening of 14 August 1830, while the mill owners were at church, Thomas Clarke, a 19-year old servant, in a distressed state, alarmed residents of Sherburn with the information that six Irishmen had broken into the mill house at Hallgarth. He claimed that they had ransacked the house for money and then assaulted him with a poker before brutally murdering Westrop. Returning to the mill with the people he had informed, the girl's body was found in the kitchen with several brutal wounds including a cut to her throat from ear to ear. It was found that money had been stolen from the household and that a whitewashed tool had been used to break into the drawers containing the money. It was then discovered that Clarke's room had recently been whitewashed, and in that room was found a blunt piece of metal which fitted the tool used in the robbery. It was realised that Clarke bore no signs of an attack upon him. Huge crowds turned out for Clarke's trial at Durham on 14 February 1831, and despite Clarke's calm plea of innocence, he was found guilty. On 28 February he was hanged. His last words were; "Gentlemen I am innocent, I am going to suffer for another man's crime". A wall memorial to Westrop was erected in St Laurence's Church. The Hallgarth murder became the subject of a local broadside ballad; "Eighteen hundred three times ten, August the eighth that day, Let not that Sunday and that year, From memory pass away, At Hallgarth Mill near Pittington, Was done a murder foul, The female weak- the murderer strong, No pity for her soul. Her skull was broke, her throat was cut, Her struggle was soon o'er; And down she fell, and fetched a sigh, And weltered in her gore. Her fellow servant, Thomas Clarke, To Sherburn slowly sped, And told a tale that strangers six Had done the dreadful deed. Now, woe betide thee, Thomas Clarke! For this thy coward lie; A youth like thee for girl like her Would fight till he did die. "They've killed the lass," it was his tale," and nearly have killed me"; But when upon him folk did look, No bruises could they see."
