The town was originally called South Wallerick. After the Danish invasion in AD 875 the town was re-named Neubegang or Newbegining, with several different spellings until we have the present Newbiggin. There is evidence of an ancient Saxon Chapelry here. This chapel of ease is supposed to have been built by the monks of Lindisfarne and used by them in their mission to Northumbria and also on their journeys to and from Tynemouth Priory and Whitby.
Present church has thirteenth century origins.
Once the 'daughter' church in the parish of Woodhorn with Newbiggin, St. Bartholomew's was made the 'mother' church of the parish when St. Mary's, Woodhorn was declared redundant in 1973. St. Bartholomew's is in a remarkably impressive situation away from the town, in a treeless churchyard very close to the sea. A large portion of it consists of an uninclosed tract called the Links, or Newbigging Moor, on which the proprietors of the other part of the chapelry have cattle stints in various proportions. An unsightly and profitless marsh, called the Carr, which is formed by the little brook which comes past Woodhorn, and a stream from the north overflowing it, runs along the south side of the Moor, and stands in great need of improvement. The crews of five boats belonging to this place, and Blyth, and Hartley, and consisting in all of nineteen men, perished in a violent storm at sea in 1808.