Originally considered part of Northumberland,by the early thirteenth century County Durham was considered a separate entity and governed as a county palatine by the bishop of Durham. During this period the county was often involved in conflicts between England and Scotland,most famously being the site of the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. During the nineteenth century the county became heavily industrialised,which led to innovations such as the Stockton and Darlington Railway,the first public railway to use steam locomotives. Coal mining became a major source of employment,with many collieries opening on the Durham coalfield;despite the closure of most pits during the last quarter of the twentieth century,the Durham Miners' Gala is still a major event.
The ceremonial boundaries of County Durham date from 1996,when Cleveland was abolished and the parts of that county north of the River Tees were returned to Durham,which they had been part of historically. This included the towns of Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool. For administrative purposes Durham is now made up of four unitary authorities;Darlington,Hartlepool,and Stockton-on-Tees cover the conurbation in the southeast of the county,and County Durham covers the remainder.[4] The county boundaries had previously been altered in 1974,when in addition to the creation of Cleveland much of the north-east of the county was transferred to the new county of Tyne and Wear,removing the settlements of Sunderland,Gateshead,and Washington. At the same time the county gained the Startforth Rural District from the North Riding of Yorkshire.
The historic county's boundaries stretched between the rivers Tyne and Tees. Historic borders were shared with four counties:Northumberland to the north,now along with the county of Tyne and Wear;North Riding of Yorkshire to the south,now North Yorkshire;Westmorland and Cumberland,latter two to the west and both now Cumbria.
The county has a mixture of mining,farming and heavy railway heritage,with the latter especially noteworthy in the southeast of the county,in Darlington,Shildon and Stockton.[5] In the centre of the city of Durham,Durham Castle and Cathedral are UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites.
The ceremonial county is officially named Durham,[4] but the county has long been commonly known as County Durham and is the only English county name prefixed with "County" in common usage (a practice common in Ireland). Its unusual naming (for an English shire) is explained to some extent by the relationship with the Bishops of Durham,who for centuries governed Durham as a county palatine (the County Palatine of Durham) outside the usual structure of county administration in England.
The situation regarding the formal name in modern local government is less clear:
The 2009 structural change legislation[6] created the present unitary council (that covers a large part –but not all –of the ceremonial county) refers to "the county of County Durham" and names the new unitary district "County Durham" too.
Later amendment to that legislation[7] refers to the "county of Durham" and the amendment allows for the unitary council to name itself "The Durham Council".
The council retains the name as Durham County Council. With either option,the name does not include County Durham.
Around AD 547,an Angle named Ida founded the kingdom of Bernicia after spotting the defensive potential of a large rock at Bamburgh,upon which many a fortification was thenceforth built.[8] Ida was able to forge,hold and consolidate the kingdom;although the native British tried to take back their land,the Angles triumphed and the kingdom endured.
In AD 604,Ida's grandson Æthelfrith forcibly merged Bernicia (ruled from Bamburgh) and Deira (ruled from York,which was known as Eforwic at the time) to create the Kingdom of Northumbria. In time,the realm was expanded,primarily through warfare and conquest;at its height,the kingdom stretched from the River Humber (from which the kingdom drew its name) to the Forth. Eventually,factional fighting and the rejuvenated strength of neighbouring kingdoms,most notably Mercia,led to Northumbria's decline.[8] The arrival of the Vikings hastened this decline,and the Scandinavian raiders eventually claimed the Deiran part of the kingdom in AD 867 (which became Jórvík). The land that would become County Durham now sat on the border with the Great Heathen Army,a border which today still (albeit with some adjustments over the years) forms the boundaries between Yorkshire and County Durham.
Despite their success south of the river Tees,the Vikings never fully conquered the Bernician part of Northumbria,despite the many raids they had carried out on the kingdom.[8] However,Viking control over the Danelaw,the central belt of Anglo-Saxon territory,resulted in Northumbria becoming isolated from the rest of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Scots invasions in the north pushed the kingdom's northern boundary back to the River Tweed,and the kingdom found itself reduced to a dependent earldom,its boundaries very close to those of modern-day Northumberland and County Durham. The kingdom was annexed into England in AD 954.
In AD 995,St Cuthbert's community,who had been transporting Cuthbert's remains around,partly in an attempt to avoid them falling into the hands of Viking raiders,settled at Dunholm (Durham) on a site that was defensively favourable due to the horseshoe-like path of the River Wear.[9] St Cuthbert's remains were placed in a shrine in the White Church,which was originally a wooden structure but was eventually fortified into a stone building.
Once the City of Durham had been founded,the Bishops of Durham gradually acquired the lands that would become County Durham. Bishop Aldhun began this process by procuring land in the Tees and Wear valleys,including Norton,Stockton,Escomb and Aucklandshire in 1018. In 1031,King Canute gave Staindrop to the Bishops. This territory continued to expand,and was eventually given the status of a liberty. Under the control of the Bishops of Durham,the land had various names:the "Liberty of Durham","Liberty of St Cuthbert's Land" "the lands of St Cuthbert between Tyne and Tees" or "the Liberty of Haliwerfolc" (holy Wear folk).[10]
The bishops' special jurisdiction rested on claims that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had granted a substantial territory to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684. In about 883 a cathedral housing the saint's remains was established at Chester-le-Street and Guthfrith,King of York granted the community of St Cuthbert the area between the Tyne and the Wear,before the community reached its final destination in 995,in Durham.
Following the Norman invasion,the administrative machinery of government extended only slowly into northern England. Northumberland's first recorded Sheriff was Gilebert from 1076 until 1080 and a 12th-century record records Durham regarded as within the shire.[11] However the bishops disputed the authority of the sheriff of Northumberland and his officials,despite the second sheriff for example being the reputed slayer of Malcolm Canmore,King of Scots. The crown regarded Durham as falling within Northumberland until the late thirteenth century.
Matters regarding the bishopric of Durham came to a head in 1293 when the bishop and his steward failed to attend proceedings of quo warranto held by the justices of Northumberland. The bishop's case went before parliament,where he stated that Durham lay outside the bounds of any English shire and that "from time immemorial it had been widely known that the sheriff of Northumberland was not sheriff of Durham nor entered within that liberty as sheriff. . . nor made there proclamations or attachments".[12] The arguments appear to have prevailed,as by the fourteenth century Durham was accepted as a liberty which received royal mandates direct. In effect it was a private shire,with the bishop appointing his own sheriff.[10] The area eventually became known as the "County Palatine of Durham".
Sadberge was a liberty,sometimes referred to as a county,within Northumberland. In 1189 it was purchased for the see but continued with a separate sheriff,coroner and court of pleas. In the 14th century Sadberge was included in Stockton ward and was itself divided into two wards. The division into the four wards of Chester-le-Street,Darlington,Easington and Stockton existed in the 13th century,each ward having its own coroner and a three-weekly court corresponding to the hundred court. The diocese was divided into the archdeaconries of Durham and Northumberland. The former is mentioned in 1072,and in 1291 included the deaneries of Chester-le-Street,Auckland,Lanchester and Darlington.
The term palatinus is applied to the bishop in 1293,and from the 13th century onwards the bishops frequently claimed the same rights in their lands as the king enjoyed in his kingdom.
Early administration
Overview
The historic boundaries of the county shown in John Speed's map of the county in his Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine,c. 1611. These boundaries remained in use for administrative purposes until the local government reforms starting in the 1960s. A depiction of the city of Durham is inset in the top right.
The historic boundaries of County Durham included a main body covering the catchment 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.[13][14] The county palatinate also had a number of liberties:the Bedlingtonshire,Islandshire[15] and Norhamshire[16]exclaves within Northumberland,and the Craikshire exclave within the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1831 the county covered an area of 679,530 acres (2,750.0km2)[17] and had a population of 253,910.[18] These exclaves were included as part of the county for parliamentary electoral purposes until 1832,and for judicial and local-government purposes until the coming into force of the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844,which merged most remaining exclaves with their surrounding county. The boundaries of the county proper remained in use for administrative and ceremonial purposes until the 1972 Local Government Act.
The Early English and Norman period
Following the Battle of Hastings,William the Conqueror appointed Copsig as Earl of Northumbria,thereby bringing what would become County Durham under Copsig's control. Copsig was,just a few weeks later,killed in Newburn.[19] Having already being previously offended by the appointment of a non-Northumbrian as Bishop of Durham in 1042,the people of the region became increasingly rebellious.[19] In response,in January 1069,William despatched a large Norman army,under the command of Robert de Comines,to Durham City. The army,believed to consist of 700 cavalry (about one-third of the number of Norman knights who had participated in the Battle of Hastings),[19] entered the city,whereupon they were attacked,and defeated,by a Northumbrian assault force. The Northumbrians wiped out the entire Norman army,including Comines,[19] all except for one survivor,who was allowed to take the news of this defeat back.
Following the Norman slaughter at the hands of the Northumbrians,resistance to Norman rule spread throughout Northern England,including a similar uprising in York.[19]William The Conqueror subsequently (and successfully) attempted to halt the northern rebellions by unleashing the notorious Harrying of the North (1069–1070).[20] Because William's main focus during the harrying was on Yorkshire,[19] County Durham was largely spared the Harrying.[21] The best remains of the Norman period include Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle,and several parish churches,such as St Laurence Church in Pittington. The Early English period has left the eastern portion of the cathedral,the churches of Darlington,Hartlepool,and St Andrew,Auckland,Sedgefield,and portions of a few other churches.
Palatinate
Until the 15th century,the most important administrative officer in the Palatinate was the steward. Other officers included the sheriff,the coroners,the Chamberlain and the chancellor. The palatine exchequer originated in the 12th century. The palatine assembly represented the whole county,and dealt chiefly with fiscal questions. The bishop's council,consisting of the clergy,the sheriff and the barons,regulated judicial affairs,and later produced the Chancery and the courts of Admiralty and Marshalsea.[citation needed]
The entrance to Durham Castle,the bishops' palace until 1832 when it moved to Auckland Castle
The prior of Durham ranked first among the bishop's barons. He had his own court,and almost exclusive jurisdiction over his men. A UNESCO site describes the role of the Prince-Bishops in Durham,the "buffer state between England and Scotland":[22]
From 1075,the Bishop of Durham became a Prince-Bishop,with the right to raise an army,mint his own coins,and levy taxes. As long as he remained loyal to the king of England,he could govern as a virtually autonomous ruler,reaping the revenue from his territory,but also remaining mindful of his role of protecting England’s northern frontier.
A report states that the Bishops also had the authority to appoint judges and barons and to offer pardons.[23]
Edward I's quo warranto proceedings of 1293 showed twelve lords enjoying more or less extensive franchises under the bishop. The repeated efforts of the Crown to check the powers of the palatinate bishops culminated in 1536 in the Act of Resumption,which deprived the bishop of the power to pardon offences against the law or to appoint judicial officers. Moreover,indictments and legal processes were in future to run in the name of the king,and offences to be described as against the peace of the king,rather than that of the bishop. In 1596 restrictions were imposed[by whom?] on the powers of the chancery,and in 1646 the palatinate was formally abolished. It was revived,however,after the Restoration,and continued with much the same power until 5 July 1836,when the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 provided that the palatine jurisdiction should in future be vested in the Crown.[24][25]
Wars
During the 15th-century Wars of the Roses,Henry VI passed through Durham. On the outbreak of the Great Rebellion in 1642 Durham inclined to support the cause of Parliament,and in 1640 the high sheriff of the palatinate guaranteed to supply the Scottish army with provisions during their stay in the county. In 1642 the Earl of Newcastle formed the western counties into an association for the King's service,but in 1644 the palatinate was again overrun by a Scottish army,and after the Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644) fell entirely into the hands of Parliament.
Parliamentary representation and secular powers
In 1614,a Bill was introduced in Parliament for securing representation to the county and city of Durham and the borough of Barnard Castle. The bishop strongly opposed the proposal as an infringement of his palatinate rights,and the county was first summoned to return members to Parliament in 1654. After the Restoration of 1660 the county and city returned two members each. In the wake of the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned two members for two divisions,and the boroughs of Gateshead,South Shields and Sunderland acquired representation. The bishops lost their secular powers in 1836.[26] The boroughs of Darlington,Stockton and Hartlepool returned one member each from 1868 until the Redistribution Act of 1885.
County Durham contains a small area of green belt in the north of the county, surrounding primarily the city of Durham, Chester-le-Street and other communities along the shared county border with Tyne and Wear, to afford protection from the Wearside conurbation. A smaller green belt separates Urpeth, Ouston, Pelton, and Perkinsville from Birtley in Tyne and Wear. A further small segment by the coast separates Seaham from the Sunderland settlements of Beckwith Green and Ryhope. It was first drawn up in the 1990s.[32]
The county contains a sizeable area of the North Pennines, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, primarily west of Tow Law and Barnard Castle. The highest point (county top) of historic County Durham is the trig point (not the summit) of Burnhope Seat, height 746 metres (2,448ft), between Weardale and Teesdale on the border with historic Cumberland in the far west of the county. The local government reorganisation of 1974 placed the higher Mickle Fell south of Teesdale (the county top of Yorkshire) within the administrative borders of Durham (where it remains within the ceremonial county). However, it is not generally recognised as the highest point in Durham.
The two main dales of County Durham (Teesdale and Weardale) and the surrounding fells, many of which exceed 2,000 feet (610m) in height, are excellent hillwalking country, although not nearly as popular as the nearby Yorkshire Dales and Lake District national parks. The scenery is rugged and remote, and the high fells have a landscape typical of the Pennines with extensive areas of tussock grass and blanket peat bog in the west, with heathermoorland on the lower slopes descending to the east. Hamsterley Forest near Crook is a popular recreational area for local residents.
Birds
A total of 152 species are recorded as breeding; however, not all are considered regular breeders.[33]
Urban areas
County Durham does not have many urban areas as it is mostly rural in character. Small urban areas form around the city of Durham and the towns of Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee, Shildon, Darlington and Bishop Auckland. Although the south east side of the county at Billingham, Hartlepool, Norton and Stockton-on-Tees form part of Teesside with Middlesbrough, Redcar, Yarm, Thornaby-on-Tees and Ingleby Barwick in North Yorkshire.[34][35] While the north part of the county at Chester-le-Street (which is on the border with Tyne and Wear) forms part of Wearside with Sunderland, Houghton-le-Spring, Hetton-le-Hole and Washington[36] (these four were historically part of County Durham).
County Durham, as considered a county for lieutenancy purposes by the Lieutenancies Act 1997, is administered as a part of the constituent country of England in the United Kingdom.[2] The area is appointed a lord lieutenant and a high sheriff.
The ceremonial county is divided into four administrative counties (see table below), one of which - Stockon-on-Tees - also extends into North Yorkshire. Technically, for administrative purposes, the County of Durham only consists of the area governed by Durham County Council.[37] The three other areas are counties in their own right.[38][39]
The county was aligned to other historic counties of England from 1836 until 1889; multiple acts were passed removing exclaves, splitting the county from the bishopric and reforming its structure.
1889 to 1974
The ceremonial county and administrative county were created under the Local Government Act 1888 in 1889. Darlington, Gateshead, West Hartlepool (later known as Hartlepool), South Shields and Sunderland became county boroughs during the administrative counties years of administrating; each remained in the ceremonial county while outside of the administrative county.
The ceremonial county remained under the same borders as the historic county until 1968 when the County Borough of Teesside formed. Ceremonial duties of the borough (which were made up of areas from two counties) were in the North Riding of Yorkshire ceremonial county.[41]
1974 to 1996
Banner of Durham County Council since 1974, based on the council's coat of arms. This was used as County Durham's unofficial flag until an official flag was adopted in 2013.Ceremonial county from 1974–1996
From the 1974 until 1996, the ceremonial county was split into eight districts:[42][43]
A non-metropolitan county replaced the administrative county. The boundaries only deviated from the ceremonial boundaries after 1995 when the Darlington Borough became a unitary authority.[43]
The non-metropolitan county was reconstituted on 1 April 2009: the strategic services-providing Durham County Council was re-organised into a single district of the same name, merging with the seven local facility-providing districts in the non-metropolitan county and became structured as a unitary authority. It has 126 councillors.[45] The three pre-existing unitary authorities were unaffected.
The county boundaries used for parliamentary constituencies are those used between 1974 and 1996, consisting of the County Durham district and the Darlington Borough. This area elects seven Members of Parliament. As of the 2019 General Election, four of these MPs are Conservatives and three MPs are Labour. The rest of the ceremonial county is included in the Cleveland parliamentary constituency area.
The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust cover North East England and are responsible for providing ambulance services for the NHS. Northumbria Ambulance Service and County Durham Ambulance Service (following historic county borders) merged on 1 April 1999 to become the North East service.[48] In 2005 the area was adapted to the modern North East England regional extent.
At the 2001 Census, Easington and Derwentside districts had the highest proportion (around 99%) in the county council area of resident population who were born in the UK.[56] 13.2% of the county council area's residents rate their health as not good, the highest proportion in England.[57]
96.6% of County Durham's residents are White British, with other white groups making up a further 1.6% of the population. Around 77% of the county's population are Christian whilst 22% have no religion, and around 1% come from other religious communities. These figures exclude around 6% of the population who did not wish to state their religion.
As at 2001, Chester-le-Street district has the lowest number of available jobs per working-age resident (0.38%).[58]
The proportion of the population working in agriculture fell from around 6% in 1851 to 1% in 1951; currently less than 1% of the population work in agriculture.[18] There were 15,202 people employed in coal mining in 1841, rising to a peak of 157,837 in 1921.[18]
Economy
Boosting tourism
An October 2019 article in The Guardian referred to town of Bishop Auckland as a "rundown town ... since the closure of the mines" but predicted that the re-opening of Auckland Castle would transform the community into a "leading tourist destination".[59] The castle re-opened on 2 November 2019 after renovations by the Auckland Project, operated by the Auckland Castle Trust, started by the owner of the castle, Jonathan Ruffer.[60][61][62]
The interior had been fully restored, including the bishops' "palatial" apartments. The Faith Museum of world religion and a huge glass greenhouse were under construction.[63]
Other attractions already operating include the Mining Art Gallery which opened in 2017,[64] an open-air theatre, Kynren, depicting "An Epic Tale of England", and the Bishop Trevor Gallery at the Castle; the latter started displaying the National Gallery's Masterpiece touring exhibit in October 2019. In a few years, other attractions were expected to open at or near the Castle: a display of Spanish art, the Faith Museum (already being built), a site that will feature the works of Francisco de Zurbarán, a boutique hotel and two restaurants, in addition to the Bishop's Kitchen café. According to The Guardian,[65]
The aim is to make the town – the heart of the abandoned Durham coalfields – a tourist destination that holds people for a day or two rather than just a couple of hours. The scheme will create hundreds of entry-level jobs in a county that suffers high unemployment and has some of the most deprived areas in northern Europe.
Economic output
The chart and table summarise unadjusted gross value added (GVA) in millions of pounds sterling for County Durham across 3 industries at current basic prices from 1995 to 2004.
John Wilson Carmichael A View of Murton Colliery near Seaham, County Durham, 1843
A substantial number of colliery villages were built throughout the county in the nineteenth century to house the growing workforce, which included large numbers of migrant workers from the rest of the UK.[66] Sometimes the migrants were brought in to augment the local workforce but, in other cases, they were brought in as strike breakers, or "blacklegs". Tens of thousands of people migrated to County Durham from Cornwall (partly due to their previous experience of tin mining) between 1815 and the outbreak of the First World War, so much so that the miners' cottages in east Durham called "Greenhill" were also known locally as "Cornwall", and Easington Colliery still has a Cornish Street.[67] Other migrants included people from Northumberland, Cumberland, South Wales, Scotland and Ireland.[68][69] Coal mining had a profound effect on trade unionism, public health and housing, as well as creating a related culture, language, folklore and sense of identity that still survives today.[70]
The migrants also were employed in the railway, ship building, iron, steel and roadworking industries, and the pattern of migration continued, to a lesser extent, up until the 1950s and 1960s. Gateshead was once home to the fourth-largest Irish settlement in England,[68] Consett's population was 22% Irish[71] and significant numbers of Irish people moved to Sunderland, resulting in the city hosting numerous events on St. Patrick's Day due to the Irish heritage.[72]
Durham Miners' Gala 2008
The culture of coal mining found expression in the Durham Miners' Gala, which was first held in 1871,[73] developed around the culture of trade unionism. Coal mining continued to decline and pits closed. The UK miners' strike of 1984/5 caused many miners across the county to strike. Today no deep-coal mines exist in the county and numbers attending the Miners' Gala decreased over the period between the end of the strike and the 21st century. However recent years have seen numbers significantly grow, and more banners return to the Gala each year as former colliery communities restore or replicate former banners to march at the Gala parade.[73][74]
Art
In 1930, the Spennymoor Settlement (otherwise known as the Pitman's Academy) opened. The settlement, initially funded by the Pilgrim Trust, aimed to encourage people to be neighbourly and participate in voluntary social service.[75] The settlement operated during the Great Depression, when unemployment was widespread and economic deprivation rife; Spennymoor was economically underprivileged. The settlement provided educational and social work, as well as hope; this included providing unemployed miners with on outlet for their creativity, a poor person's lawyer service, the town's first library and the Everyman Theatre. The output included paintings, sewing, socially-significant plays, woodwork and sculptures. Several members went on to win adult scholarships at Oxford University[75] when such a route would normally be closed to the underprivileged. Former members include artists Norman Cornish and Tom McGuinness, writer Sid Chaplin OBE and journalist Arnold Hadwin OBE. The Spennymoor Settlement at its home in the Everyman Theatre (Grade 2 listed) is still operating, administered by the current trustees, offering community events and activities, including Youth Theatre Group, an Art Group and various classes, as well as offering community accommodation facilities.
Several Durham miners have been able to turn their former mining careers into careers in art. For example, Tom Lamb, as well as the aforementioned Tom McGuinness and Norman Cornish. Their artworks depict scenes of life underground, from the streets in which they lived and of the people they loved; through them, we can see, understand and experience the mining culture of County Durham.
In 2017, The Mining Art Gallery opened in Bishop Auckland in a building that was once a bank.[76] Part of the Auckland Project, the gallery includes the work of artists from within County Durham and beyond, including such other North-Eastern mining artists as Robert Olley, as well as contributions from outside the region. It features three permanent areas and a temporary exhibition area; the gallery's Gemini Collection includes 420 pieces of mining art. [77] Much of the artwork was donated, by Dr Robert McManners and Gillian Wales, for example.[78]
In 2019, 100 years after his birth, a permanent tribute to the work of the artist Norman Stansfield Cornish MBE was opened within the Town Hall, and a Cornish Trail around the town was established to include areas of the town depicted in Cornish's artwork.
Music
As with neighbouring Northumberland, County Durham has a rich heritage of Northumbrian music, dating back from the Northumbrian Golden Age of the 7th and 8th centuries. Bede made references to harp-playing, and abundant archeological evidence has been found of wooden flutes, bone flutes, panpipes, wooden drums and lyres (a six-string form of harp).[8] North-East England has a distinctive folk music style that has drawn from many other regions, including southern Scotland, Ireland and the rest of northern England, that has endured stably since the 18th century.[79] Instruments played include, in common with most folk music styles, stringed instruments such as the guitar and fiddle, but also the Northumbrian smallpipe, which is played and promoted by people including the Northumbrian Pipers' Society throughout the North East, including County Durham, with the society having an active group in Sedgefield.[80] Contemporary folk musicians include Jez Lowe and Ged Foley.
In 2018, The Arts Council funded the Stories of Sanctuary project in the city of Durham. The project aims to assist people living in the city to share their stories about seeking sanctuary in the North East through photography, stories, poetry and music. The art is based on a history of sanctuary in Durham, from St Cuthbert's exile, through to the miners' strike of 1984, and to refugees escaping civil war in the Middle East. The music produced as part of the project includes contributions from singer-songwriter Sam Slatcher and viola player Raghad Haddad from the National Syrian Orchestra.[81]
County Durham has its own flag, registered with the Flag Institute on 21 November 2013.[82]
Katie, Holly and James Moffatt designed the flag and entered their design into a competition launched by campaigner Andy Strangeway, who spoke of the flag as "free, public symbol for all to use, especially on 20th March each year, which is not only County Durham Day but also St Cuthbert’s birthday.”[83] [sic - 20th March is actually the date of Cuthbert's death] [84]
The flag consists of St Cuthbert's cross counterchanged with the county's blue and gold colours.
Durham LEA has a comprehensive school system with 36 state secondary schools (not including sixth form colleges) and five independent schools (four in Durham and one in Barnard Castle). Easington district has the largest school population by year, and Teesdale the smallest with two schools. Only one school in Easington and Derwentside districts have sixth forms, with about half the schools in the other districts having sixth forms.
↑ The total estimated population of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees (195,700) less the populations of the electoral wards of Ingleby Barwick East, Ingleby Barwick West, Mandale and Victoria, Stainsby Hill, Village, and Yarm.
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References
Citations
↑ "No.62943" (62943). The London Gazette. 13 March 2020: 5161.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
1 2 UK General Acts 1997 c. 23. Lieutenancies Act 1997, Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022.
↑ Warren, W. L. (1984). "The Myth of Norman Administrative Efficiency: The Prothero Lecture". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 34: 113–132. doi:10.2307/3679128. JSTOR3679128. S2CID162793914.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Dodds (2005). Northumbria at War: War and Conflict in Northumberland and Durham (Battlefield Britain). Pen & Sword Military. ISBN978-0-11-702037-5.
↑ "Combined Fire Authority". Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Authority. 25 February 2009. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
Samuel Tymms (1837). "Durham". Northern Circuit. The Family Topographer: Being a Compendious Account of the ... Counties of England. Vol.6. London: J.B. Nichols and Son. OCLC2127940.
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listen ) DURR-əm),officially simply Durham, [2] is a ceremonial county and historic county in North East England. [3] The name is also used by a unitary authority within the ceremonial county. The boundaries of these three areas differs significantly. The county town is the city of Durham.
