County Durham Day is celebrated each year on 20th March, the feast day of St Cuthbert. In celebration we present our Severn Wonders of County Durham.
County Durham’s history was forged by the troubles of the Middle Ages. The county was a county palatine under the rule of the Bishop of Durham from the Middle Ages until the palatine jurisdiction was merged with the Crown in 1836. The county is often still referred to as the County Palatine of Durham. The county is also popularly known as the Land of the Prince Bishops.
The county stretches from the North Sea coast up into the Pennines. The rivers Tyne and Derwent separate it from Northumberland. The border with Cumberland crosses the Pennine fells. The River Tees separates it from Westmorland and Yorkshire.
1. High Force waterfall
The Durham Dales occupy the west of the county, a landscape of high exposed moorlands, hills and mountains. Upper Weardale is famed for its beauty, surrounded by high fells climbing up to 2,447 feet at Burnhope Seat (eastern summit), the county top, with heather grouse moors. Upper Teesdale is a landscape of unrivalled drama. Barnard Castle, famous for its Norman castle, lies on the edge of the Durham Dales. Bowes Museum has a renowned art collection housed in a -century French-style chateau. 14th-century Raby Castle, near Staindrop, is famed for its size and art.
At High Force, need Middleton-in-Teesdale, the River Tees plunges 70 feet over a rock precipice in one of Britain’s greatest waterfalls. After heavy rainfall the river will also flow over the usually dry right-hand side channel, creating two falls.
2. Skerne Bridge
The southern part of County Durham lies within the broad open plain of the Tees Lowlands – much of it rural but with the industrial towns of Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham and the port of Hartlepool.
The Stockton and Darlington railway was the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives. The railway had to cross the Skerne River. Designed by Ignatius Bonomi and built by Francis Peacock of Yarm, Skerne Bridge carried the first train on the opening day, 27 September 1825. Today, it is the oldest railway bridge in continuous use in the world.
3. Durham Heritage Coast
The East Durham Plateau occupies the central part of the east of the county – falling from
a prominent western escarpment eastward to the sea – a landscape shaped by mining, quarrying and industry.
The coast between Sunderland and Hartlepool used to be called the “black coast” following decades of coal waste being dumped onto the beach. Following a lengthy clean-up operation, the coast has been reborn as the Durham Heritage Coast. The magnesian limestone that underlies this area has given rise to a spectacular landscape of cream-coloured cliffs intersected by denes.
4. Durham Cathedral
The River Wear flows across almost the entire breadth of the county through the county town
and reaching the sea at the port of Sunderland. Many ancient towns and historic sites lie along the Wear Valley including Crook, Bishop Auckland and Chester-le-Street.
The City of Durham itself rises magnificently on a hill surrounded by the River Wear, crowned by its huge Norman Cathedral. This site was chosen in troubled times as a defensible spot by the guardians of the bones of Saint Cuthbert, which now lie within the Cathedral. Their settlement here was the effective foundation of Durham and its status. Durham Castle is a Norman castle which was previously the residence of the Bishops of Durham.
5. St Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth
At the mouth of the Wear lies the city of Sunderland. Sunderland began as a fishing settlement before being granted a charter in 1179. Sunderland grew as a port, trading coal and salt. Ships began to be built on the river in the 14th century. Monkwearmouth, on the north side of the mouth of the Wear, was once the main centre of Wearside shipbuilding and coalmining in the town.
St Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth is the parish church of Monkwearmouth. Benedict Biscop founded St Peter’s monastery at Monkwearmouth in 674 on land given by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Of Benedict’s original church only the west wall and porch survive. The abbey was abandoned in the 9th centuries after Viking raids but re-founded as a cell of Durham Cathedral in the 14th century. Much of the current church dates from this later period. Following its dissolution, the remains of the monastic buildings at Monkwearmouth were incorporated into a private mansion which then burned down in 1790. Besides the church, no trace of the monastery survives above ground.
6. The Angel of the North
The north-east of the county is formed by the lowland plain south of the River Tyne and dominated by the towns which line the river’s southern bank including the former mining towns of Ryton and Blaydon on Tyne. Near to the former mining town of Stanley is the Causey Arch, the oldest surviving single-arch railway bridge in the world. Gateshead lies on the Tyne, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and joined to it by seven bridges, including the landmark Gateshead Millennium Bridge. The town’s economy is still based around the Team Valley trading estate, established in the 1930s.
Gateshead is known for its iconic architecture. In the 1990s Gateshead Council commissioned Antony Gormley to create the Angel of the North sculpture on a former colliery site near Lamelsey, overlooking the Tyne’s lowland plain. The sculpture stands 66ft tall with a wingspan of 177ft. In the 2021 edition of County Durham in the Buildings of England series, Martin Robert said: “Of all Gateshead Council’s great projects, the Angel perhaps posed the greatest risk, yet delivered the greatest reward.”
7. St Paul’s Church and Monastery, Jarrow
East of Gateshead lies Hebburn with its proud shipbuilding heritage. East of Hebburn is the former shipbuilding town of Jarrow, starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936. South Shields lies at the mouth of the Tyne, built on its docks and the industry that came with them. The town’s North Sea coast has extensive beaches as well as the dramatic magnesian limestone cliffs of The Leas.
Jarrow is also world famous for its association with the Venerable Bede who lived, worked and died at St Paul’s monastery here. The monastery was founded by Benedict Biscop in 682 and a companion to the St Peter’s monastery, Monkwearmouth. Bede composed the first book of English history here; the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The chancel of St Peter’s Church is the remains of a free-standing chapel of the original monastery, though the rest of the church is from much later date. Inside the church is the original stone slab recording the dedication of the church on 23 April 685. Ruins of the monastery, from a later period than the original church, stand beside the church.
That’s our selection of the seven wonders of County Durham. Some other honourable mentions include the Saxon church at Escomb, Washington Old Hall, Souter Lighthouse, Finchale Priory and Auckland Castle. What are your choices?