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County Durham, or officially Durham, is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in North East England. Ceremonially the county consists of ten districts, three of which are unitary authority areas.

Though no Act of Parliament has ever named any entity "County Durham" (the term rising out of common usage), they have changed the boundaries over time. 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 is that Durham did not become a county until after the language of government was changed from Anglo-Saxon to Norman French in 1066. Previous to that it was a semi-independent Bishopric.

The county town is Durham.

History

The County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge was 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.

Historic county boundaries

The historic county boundary of Durham includes a main body covering 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. The county several had a number of exclaves: Bedlingtonshire, Islandshire and Norhamshire within Northumberland, and Craikshire within the North Riding of Yorkshire. The historic boundaries were used for parliamentary 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.

Administrative county

In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888 England and Wales was divided into administrative counties and county boroughs. Administrative counties, governed by an elected county council, were based on the historic boundaries, less larger towns which became self-governing as county boroughs.

In 1889 the administrative county of Durham consisted of the historic county less the county boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland. The boundary with the North Riding of Yorkshire was adjusted: that part of the town of Barnard Castle historically in Yorkshire was added to County Durham, while the portion of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in Durham was ceded to the North Riding. For all non-administrative purposes, such as lieutenancy, the County of Durham comprised the administrative county and associated county boroughs.

Over its existence, the administrative county lost territory, both to the existing county boroughs, and also due to the creation of county boroughs at West Hartlepool in 1902 and Darlington in 1915. In 1967 the borough of Hartlepool was removed from the administrative county when it merged with West Hartlepool to form a new county borough of Hartlepool, and in 1968 Billingham was included within the boundaries of the county borough of Teesside, associated with the North Riding.

The administrative county was abolished in 1974.

Non-metropolitan county

In 1974, with the implementation of the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county (and the Durham County Council that governed it) were abolished. The Act created three new non-metropolitan/metropolitan counties to act as government administration areas in its place: the non-metropolitan counties of Durham and Cleveland ( the latter containing the boroughs of Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees), and the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear (containing the boroughs of Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside.) The new non-metropolitan county of Durham also covered the former area of Startforth Rural District, a part of the historic North Riding of Yorkshire, and south of the historical boundary of the River Tees.

As established in 1974 the non-metropolitan county had a two-tier structure. A new Durham County Council, and eight districts (each governed by a district council) were formed. In 1997 the district of Darlington was removed from jurisdiction of the county council, becoming a Unitary Authority. There are currently seven local government districts in the county. They are:

• The City of Durham, including Durham city and the surrounding areas.
• 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.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has announced that the seven district councils and the County Council will be abolished and a new unitary authority for the whole of the existing County Council area will be created. The changes are planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009.. The successful Durham County Council bid referred to the new authority as County Durham Council.

Ceremonial county

In 1997 the non-metropolitan county (including unitary Darlington), together with that part of the former county of Cleveland north of the River Tees became a county for 'ceremonial purposes' (reflecting the southern historic and administrative county boundaries). The ceremonial county of Durham is the area to which lord-lieutenants and high sheriffs are appointed, and has no role in local government.

The term "County Durham" has no strict definition. It should be noted that no government Act has ever named any entity "County Durham": this has arisen out of common usage and despite this has been, and is, widely used even within government to refer to any one of the government administrion areas defined above.

Settlements

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
• Ferryhill
• Hartlepool
• Newton Aycliffe
• Peterlee
• Seaham
• Sedgefield
• Spennymoor
• Stanley
• Stockton-on-Tees
• Willington

Education

Durham LEA has a comprehensive school system with 36 state secondary schools (not including sixth form colleges) and 3 independent schools (two 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. In England, 45.8% of pupils gain 5 good GCSE grades including English and Maths; for Durham's 5800 pupils taking GCSE at 16 it is 40.4 - well under the average. There is variety across the county with schools in the former mining areas performing the lowest, and schools in Durham City performing the best, and one in Chester-le-Street. There are no good schools in the Easington district. The best state school at GCSE is St Leonard's RC School in Durham City, which is also as good as the Hurworth School in Darlington. The catholic schools do particularly well at GCSE. The worst school is Sunnydale Community College in Shildon. The schools in Darlington either perform very well or much worse. At A level, the county performs well under the England average, with even Hartlepool getting a better average result. The best school at A-level is Durham Johnston Comprehensive School, getting respectable results for a comprehensive (and higher than the independent schools), followed by Park View Community School in Chester-le-Street. Darlington gets much better results at A-level - well above the England average, thanks to the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College. In 2006 the highest GCSE grade A-C average was the City of Durham and the lowest was Easington. Only the City of Durham, Teesdale and Chester-le-Street districts had a percentage above the national average.

Places of interest

Key
	Abbey/Priory/Cathedral
	Accessible open space
	Amusement/Theme Park
	Castle
	Country Park
	English Heritage
	Forestry Commission
	Heritage railway
	Historic House
	Places of Worship
	Museum (free/not free)
	National Trust
	Theatre
	Zoo

• Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland
• Barnard Castle English Heritage
• Beamish Museum, in Stanley
• Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle
• Causey Arch, near Stanley
• Durham Cathedral and Castle, a World Heritage Site
• Escomb Saxon Church, near Bishop Auckland
• Finchale Priory, near Durham city English Heritage
• Hamsterley Forest
• Hardwick Hall Country Park near Sedgefield
• High Force and Low Force waterfalls, on the River Tees
• Killhope Wheel, part of the North of England Lead Mining Museum in Weardale
• Locomotion railway museum, in Shildon
• No Place, near Stanley
• Pity Me
• Raby Castle, near Staindrop
• Tanfield Railway, in Tanfield

External links

• Durham County Council
• One North East guides & brochures
• Guided Walks Programme from Durham County Council

References

1. ^ Boundary Commission for England (2007). Mapping for the Non-metropoltian Counties and Unitary Authorities; fifth periodical report. Boundary Commission for England. ISBN 0101703228.
2. ^ Bryne, T. (1994). Local Government in Britain. Penguin. ISBN 0140267395.
3. ^ Her Majesty's Stationary Office (1996). Aspects of Britain: Local Government. Stationery Office Books. ISBN 0117020370.
4. Hampton, W. (1991). Local Government and Urban Politics. ISBN 0582062047.
5. Young, F. (1991). Guide to Local Administrative Units of England: Northern England. Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0861931270.
6. Office for National Statistics (1999). Gazetteer of the old and new geographies of the United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics. ISBN 1-85774-298-2.
7. Local Government Act, 1972
8. Durham County Council - Local Government Review in County Durham
9. Communities and Local Government - Proposals for future unitary structures: Stakeholder consultation

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• County Durham