About County Durham

County Durham
Country: England
Region: North East
Established: 1853
Largest town: Darlington, (92,363 pop.)

Area: 2,721 km2 (1,051 sq mi)
Population: 866,846

The name Durham comes from the Brythonic (celtic language) word dun, which means a hill fort and old Norse holme, which means island.

County Durham is a county in North East England, the prefix County is to distinguish it from the Cathedral City of Durham within County Durham.

. It is bordered by land on three sides. Northumberland and Tyne and Wear to the north, North Yorkshire to the south and Cumbria to the west. To the east is the North Sea, with over 14-kilometre (10 mi) stretch of coastline.

A predominantly rural county with a large section of the North Pennines to the left half of the county. With a section of the Yorkshire Dales below.

Durham is known for Durham Cathedral, Durham Castle and the resting place of St Cuthbert.

For centuries the Bishops of Durham governed Durham as a county palatine (the County Palatine of Durham) outside the usual structure of county administration in England.

The current county was created from the historic County Palatine of Durham in 1853.

History:
Anglian Kingdom of Bernicia
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 built. Ida was able to forge, hold and consolidate the kingdom. The native British tried to take back their land but the Angles won and the kingdom endured.

Kingdom of Northumbria
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. 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.

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. 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.

City of Durham founded
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. 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 claiming surrounding land in 1018. This territory continued to expand, and was eventually given the status of a liberty. Under the control of the Bishops of Durham.

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.

Northumberland's first recorded Sheriff was Gilebert from 1076 until 1080 and a 12th-century record records Durham regarded as within the shire. However the bishops disputed the authority of the sheriff of Northumberland and his officials. After many disputes and discussions with parliament, the bishops eventually lost their control over Durham in 1836.

Modern County Durham:
Durham at one time had one of the largest mining communities in all of Britain. In 1921, nearly 160,000 of the county’s 500,000 residents worked in the coal mining industry, with large numbers of others employed in adjacent industries, such as transport and shipping. Durham also maintained one of the largest 19th century ports in Britain at the Port of Sunderland.

Mining and shipping more or less tapered off in Durham in the late 20th century, making way for the county to become a centre of tourism. The county town, Durham, is particularly fascinating for visitors, who come to marvel at its Norman cathedral and 11th century castle, both of which were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the 1980s.

In the south central part of the county, Shildon was a transport centre and became a railway hub, transporting coal and other ores that were mined around Durham to other parts of England.

Shildon houses the National Railway Museum, which recounts the story of the train throughout British history. On display includes dozens of historic trains and engines.