Whitworth was a civil parish in County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, centred around Whitworth Hall

Whitworth Hall, County Durham

Whitworth Hall which stands in Whitworth Hall Country Park, near Spennymoor, County Durham England, is a country house, formerly the home of the Shafto family and now a hotel. It is a listed building....

. It was one of several parishes abolished in 1937 to create the parish of Spennymoor

Spennymoor

Spennymoor is a town in County Durham, England. It stands above the Wear Valley approximately seven miles south of Durham. The town was founded over 160 years ago...

. Whitworth Hall (now a hotel) is on the road between Spennymoor and Brancepeth

Brancepeth

Brancepeth is a village and civil parish in County Durham, in England. It is situated about from Durham on the A690 road between Durham and Weardale. Brancepeth Castle was until 1570 the fortress of the Neville Earls of Westmorland. The castle was extensively modified and rebuilt in the 19th century...

, and is close to Tudhoe

Tudhoe

Tudhoe is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated approximately south of the City of Durham. It lies just outside Spennymoor, a short distance to the west of the Great North Road. The village is now a quiet backwater, its green a cul-de-sac that runs down from the main road towards...

. The house was in former times the home of the Shafto family, whose most famous member (from the 18th century) was Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto

Robert Shafto was an 18th-century British Member of Parliament , who was the likeliest subject of a famous North East English folk song and nursery rhyme "Bobby Shafto's Gone to Sea".-Biography:...

, subject of a famous English nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...

.