Mainly Land Tax assessments for Co. Durham, and North Durham and Craikeshire (for which there is some material until 1826). For a number of townships in the Easington Ward (these are North Bailey in Durham City, Bishopwearmouth, Bishopwearmouth Panns, Cassop, Coldhesledon, Easington, Hawthorn, East and Middle Herrington, Hetton le Hole, Houghton-le-Spring, Hutton Henry, Kelloe, Newbottle, Penshaw, Ryhope, Shadforth, Shotton, Silksworth, Sunderland) there is a little other material, mainly correspondence, and for Easington Ward as a whole there are 30 boxes of miscellaneous administrative documents, some of which relate to other taxation such as that on windows, male servants, carriages, horses and dogs.
Before 1780 the assessments give only a single list of names, with owners and occupiers undifferentiated, and amounts at which they are assessed. From 1780 onwards owners and occupiers appear in separate columns, but the property is not identified. The printed forms introduced in 1826 have an additional column for Description of property. This was variously interpreted in the assessments, but they usually give only the briefest indication of the nature of the property (e.g. land, tithes, house, coal mines, public house, sometimes a farm name) and not its location. The revised form introduced in 1899/1900 added a further column for Situation of property, including street and number within it. The twentieth century assessments are therefore considerably more informative, but only of course for the diminishing amount of unredeemed property.