Durham County
(Historic)

Map Reference: (54.722475, -1.709992)

County Durham is a maritime county in the north-east of England. The county reaches from the North Sea up into the Pennines, separated from Northumberland by the rivers Tyne and Derwent and from Yorkshire by the Tees. The Durham Dales occupy the west of the county. The south lies within the broad plain of the Tees Lowlands – including the industrial towns of Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham and the port of Hartlepool. The River Wear flows across the entire breadth of the county - through the ancient towns of Bishop Auckland, Durham, Chester-le-Street - reaching the sea at Sunderland. The north-east of the county is dominated by the towns which line the Tyne’s southern bank: the former mining towns of Ryton and Blaydon on Tyne; Gateshead – famous for its architecture; the shipbuilding town of Hebburn; Jarrow - home of Bede; and the port of South Shields. County Durham has a long and complex history and a proud heritage which derives from that.