County Durham

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County Durham

Image:EnglandDurham.png
Geography
Status	Ceremonial and (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Origin	Historic
Region	North East England
Area - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 19th 2,676 km² Ranked 23rd 2,226 km²
Admin HQ	Durham
ISO 3166-2	GB-DUR
ONS code	20
NUTS 3	UKC14
Demographics
Population - Total (2005 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 23rd 875,700 321 / km² Ranked 26th 499,800
Ethnicity	98.6% White
Politics
Image:Arms-co-durham.jpg Durham County Council http://www.durham.gov.uk/
Executive	Labour
Members of Parliament	Hilary Armstrong Roberta Blackman-Woods Tony Blair Frank Cook John Cummings Helen Goodman Kevan Jones Alan Milburn Dari Taylor Iain Wright
Districts
Image:Durham Ceremonial Numbered.png City of Durham Easington Sedgefield Teesdale Wear Valley Derwentside Chester-le-Street Hartlepool (unitary) Darlington (unitary) Stockton-on-Tees (unitary)* * Only the part of the borough to the north of the River Tees is within the ceremonial County Durham.

County Durham is a county in north-east England. Its county town is Durham. It is a county of contrasts: the remote and sparsely populated dales and moors of the Pennines characterise the interior, while nearer the coast the county is highly urbanised, and was once dominated by the coal mining industry.

The form of the county name is unique in England. Many counties are named after their principal town, and the expected form here would be Durhamshire. The reason it is called County Durham instead is that the Bishops of Durham historically exercised power in regions outside the county as well, so the inner part was named County Durham as opposed to the rest of the estate of Durham^{[citation needed]}. The form County X is standard for Irish counties, with no such significance or relationship.

Durham County Council promotes the county for tourism purposes as "The Land of the Prince Bishops" in reference to the former palatine jurisdiction of the bishops.^[1]

According to a marketing campaign by the charity Plantlife, County Durham's county flower is the Spring Gentian.

Contents 1 Geographical extent 2 History 3 Settlements 4 Places of interest 5 External links 6 References

Geographical extent

See also: Districts of Durham and List of civil parishes in County Durham

County Durham's historic boundaries are the watershed of the Pennines in the west, the River Tees in the south, the North Sea in the east and the Rivers Tyne and Derwent in the north.

In the north, the boroughs of Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside, now form part of the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, whilst in the south, Hartlepool, Darlington, and Stockton-on-Tees form separate unitary authories within the ceremonial county of Durham (Stockton is also partly in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire). A part of the historic North Riding of Yorkshire, south of the River Tees, the former area of Startforth Rural District, is included in the Durham district of Teesdale.

The present Durham County Council administers the area of the ceremonial county, with the exception of Hartlepool, Darlington, and Stockton-on-Tees, which are unitary authorities.

There are seven local government districts. They are:

• The City of Durham
• Easington, including Seaham and the new town of Peterlee.
• Sedgefield, including Spennymoor and Newton Aycliffe.
• Teesdale, including Barnard Castle and the villages of Teesdale, including the former area of Startforth Rural District.
• Wear Valley, including Bishop Auckland, Crook, and Willington, and the villages along Weardale.
• Derwentside, including Consett and Stanley.
• Chester-le-Street, including Sacriston.

History

The County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge is a County Palatine by immemorial custom, with the Bishops of Durham being princes until 1836. Until 1971 there were a series of courts in the county, and the offices of Chancellor, Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, Steward and Clerk of Halmotes, Deputy Steward, and Registrar of Halmotes. The Court of Chancery of Durham existed from the 13th century to 1971. In 1836 the separate Court of Exchequer and the Court of Admiralty were abolished. The Durham Court of Pleas survived until 1873.

Several exclaves existed in the county's history, including Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire, Islandshire (incorporated into Northumberland in 1844), and Crayke, now in North Yorkshire.

Durham County Council was established along with all the other English county councils in 1888, taking over functions from the Quarter Sessions. Initially Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland were county boroughs outside of the administrative county of Durham - these were joined by West Hartlepool in 1902 and Darlington in 1915. Under a recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England, the borough of Stockton-on-Tees became part of the county borough of Teesside in 1968, which was associated with the North Riding of Yorkshire.

The Local Government Act 1972 abolished the county boroughs and the administrative county of Durham, creating a new non-metropolitan county of Durham on April 1, 1974. Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland formed the core of metropolitan boroughs in the new metropolitan county in Tyne and Wear, whilst Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees became part of the new non-metropolitan county of Cleveland. The former area of Startforth Rural District in the North Riding of Yorkshire, south of the River Tees, was added to Durham, becoming part of the Teesdale district.

Cleveland was abolished as part of the 1990s UK local government reform on April 1, 1996. The boroughs of Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees became unitary authorities, and part of the ceremonial county of Durham (the part of Stockton-on-Tees south of the Tees is part of the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire).

On 1 April 1997, the borough of Darlington with its population of 100,000 became a unitary authority and thus administratively separate from County Durham. It continues to share police and fire services with the areas under County Council control.

Settlements

For a complete list of settlements see list of places in County Durham.

This is a list of the main towns in County Durham. The area covered is the entire ceremonial county, hence the inclusion of towns which are no longer administered by Durham County Council.

• Barnard Castle, Billingham, Bishop Auckland
• Chester-le-Street, Consett
• Darlington
• Durham
• Easington
• Ferryhill
• Hartlepool
• Newton Aycliffe
• Peterlee
• Seaham
• Sedgefield
• Spennymoor
• Stanley
• Stockton-on-Tees
• Willington

Places of interest

• Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland Image:HH icon.png
• Barnard Castle Image:EH icon.png Image:HH icon.png
• Beamish Museum, in Stanley Image:UKAL icon.png Image:Museum icon (red).png Image:HR icon.png
• Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle Image:Museum icon (red).png Image:HH icon.png
• Causey Arch, near Stanley
• Durham Cathedral and Castle, a World Heritage Site
• Escomb Saxon Church, near Bishop Auckland
• Finchale Priory, near Durham city Image:EH icon.png
• Hamsterley Forest Image:FC icon.png
• Hardwick Hall Country Park Image:CP icon.png near Sedgefield
• High Force and Low Force waterfalls, on the River Tees Image:UKAL icon.png
• Locomotion railway museum, in Shildon Image:HR icon.png Image:Museum icon.png
• No Place, near Stanley
• Pity Me
• Raby Castle, near Staindrop
• Tanfield Railway, in Tanfield Image:HR icon.png

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