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Durham

County of northeast England (since April 1997 Darlington has been a separate unitary authority).

Area

2,232 sq km/862 sq mi

Towns and cities

Durham (administrative headquarters), Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee, Chester-le-Street

Physical

Pennine Hills; rivers Wear and Tees

Features

Beamish open-air industrial museum; site of one of Britain's richest coalfields (pits now closed); Bowes Museum; Barnard Castle; Durham Cathedral (1133); University of Durham (1832), partly housed in Durham Castle; dales in the west of the county

Agriculture

sheep; dairy produce; hill farming

Industries

clothing; chemicals; iron and steel processing; light engineering industries; quarrying; cement; pharmaceuticals; tourism

Population

(2001) 493,500

Famous people

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Anthony Eden

Topography County Durham extends from the North Sea west to the Pennines between the rivers Tyne and Tees. It is bounded on the north by Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear; on the west by Cumbria; and on the south North Yorkshire, Stockton-on-Tees, and Hartlepool. East of the River Wear, Durham occupies a low plateau (100-120 m/328-394 ft above sea-level) with a coast lined by cliffs. The rock here is magnesian limestone, which is covered by glacial deposits. Seams of coal, which are underneath the limestone in the east, form the surface rock in the centre of the county, covered only by deposits from post-glacial lakes. Coal seams are also found in the west of the county.

The county Palatinate Between 1071 and 1836, Durham was a Palatinate county, that is the Bishop of Durham exercised such jurisdiction over the territory as in other counties belonged to the sovereign. The county was made a Palatinate because of its strategic position on the then main route to Scotland and its distance from the English government in London. The bishops fortified an outcrop on a loop of the River Wear at Durham, and built an imposing cathedral there. From here they repelled, generally successfully, a series of Scottish incursions during the 12-14th centuries. Hartlepool was the bishops' port, Bishop Auckland their country residence, and the

‘forest’ of Weardale their hunting ground.

Industrial past Until the 18th century, lead and coal were worked on a very small scale. Long wagonways were built from the north of the county to the River Tyne in the late 18th century, facilitating exports. From 1825 coal was transported by railway from southwest Durham to the Tees. Both the coal from the west of the county, used to produce coke, and that from the north and centre of the county, used for steam engines, were in great demand. The number of mines grew, until even the coal concealed beneath the limestone in the east of the county was being mined by the late 19th century. From 1801 to 1921 the population rose tenfold as mining villages of 500-10,000 people spread across the county.

The largest firms were the Consett steelworks (closed in 1980) and the engineering and railway workshops at Darlington. By the 1920s the demand for coal was falling and the older pits in the west and centre of the county were becoming more expensive to work. In these areas post-war rationalization led to a rundown of coal production. Government regional policies encouraged light engineering, electrical, and clothing factories on industrial estates across the coalfield, especially in the centre and east of the county. Housing was improved, and new towns built at Peterlee (designated in 1948) and Newton Aycliffe (1947). Many people now work outside the county in the industrial areas on Tyneside and Teesside.

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