Other Industries.—The manufacturing industries are extensive, and all are founded upon the presence of coal, of which, moreover, large quantities are exported. The industrial and mining districts may be taken to lie almost wholly east of a line from Darlington through Bishop Auckland to Consett. Textile industries are not carried on to any great extent, but a large number of hands are employed in the manufacture of machines, appliances, conveyances, tools, &c. Of this manufacture the branch of shipbuilding stands first; the yards on the Tyne are second only to those on the Clyde, and the industry is prosecuted also at Sunderland, the Hartlepools and Stockton-on-Tees. The founding and conversion of metal stands next in importance; and other industries include the manufacture of paper, chemicals (chiefly on the Tyne), glass and bottles and earthenware (at Gateshead and Sunderland). The output of limestone is greater than that of any other county in the United Kingdom. As regards iron, the presence of the coal and the proximity of the Cleveland iron district of North Yorkshire enable the county to produce over one million tons of pig-iron annually, though the output of iron from within the county itself is inconsiderable. There is a large production of salt from brine. The sea fisheries of Sunderland and Hartlepool are valuable.
Communications.—Railway communication is provided entirely by the North Eastern company. The main line runs northward through Darlington, Durham and Gateshead, and there are a large number of branches through the mining and industrial districts, while the company also owns some of the docks. From Stockton to Darlington ran the railway engineered by George Stephenson and opened in 1825. The chief ports of Durham are Jarrow and South Shields on the Tyne, Sunderland at the mouth of the Wear, Seaham Harbour, Hartlepool East and West and Stockton-on-Tees.
Administration and Population.—Durham is one of the Counties Palatine, the others being Lancashire and Cheshire. The area of the ancient county is 649,352 acres, and that of the administrative county 649,244 acres. There were formerly three outlying portions of the county, known as North Durham (including Norhamshire and Islandshire), Bedlingtonshire and Crayke. These were attached to the county as having formed parcels of the ancient “patrimony of St Cuthbert,” of which the land between Tyne and Tees was the chief portion. The population in 1891 was 1,016,454 and in 1901 1,187,361. The birth-rate is much above, the death-rate also above, but the percentage of illegitimacy considerably below, the average. The county is divided into 4 wards. The following are municipal boroughs: Darlington (pop. 44,511), Durham, city (14,679), Gateshead, county borough (109,888), Hartlepool (22,723), Jarrow (34,295), South Shields, county borough (97,263), Stockton-on-Tees (51,478), Sunderland, county borough (146,077), West Hartlepool (62,627). The other urban districts may be distributed so as to indicate roughly the most populous and industrial districts:
1. In the Tyne district (where Gateshead, Jarrow and South Shields are the chief centres)—Blaydon (19,623), Felling (22,467), Hebburn (20,901), Ryton (8452), Whickham (12,852).
2. North-western district—Annfield Plain (12,481), Benfieldside (7457), Consett (9694), Leadgate (4657), Tanfield (8276), Stanley (13,554).
3. Durham and Bishop Auckland district (continuation south of the preceding)—Bishop Auckland (11,969), Brandon and Byshottles (15,573), Crook (11,471), Shildon and East Thickley (11,759), Spennymoor (16,665), Tow Law (4371), Willington (7887).
4. Durham and Sunderland district (N.E. of preceding)—Hetton (13,673), Houghton-le-Spring (7858), Seaham Harbour (10,163), Southwick-on-Wear (12,643). The township of Chester-le-Street (11,753) is also in this district.
The only other urban districts are Barnard Castle (4421) in Teesdale and Stanhope (1964) in Weardale. Durham is in the north-eastern circuit, and assizes are held at Durham. It has one court of quarter sessions and is divided into 16 petty sessional divisions. All the boroughs have separate commissions of the peace. The ancient county, which is in the diocese of Durham, excepting part of one parish in that of York, contains 243 ecclesiastical parishes wholly or in part. There are 288 civil parishes. The county is divided into eight parliamentary divisions, each returning one member—Jarrow, Chester-le-Street, Houghton-le-Spring, Mid, North-west, Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, South-east. It also includes the parliamentary borough of Sunderland, returning two members, and the boroughs of Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool, South Shields and Stockton-on-Tees, returning one member each. Among educational establishments there may be mentioned the university and the grammar school in the city of Durham, and the Roman Catholic college of Ushaw near Durham.
History.—After the death of Ida in the 6th century the kingdom of Northumbria was divided into the two states of Bernicia and Deira, separated from each other by the Tees, the latter including the district afterwards known as Durham. The post-conquest palatinate arose by a process of slow growth from the grant of land made by Egfrith to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684. On the transference of the see to Chester-le-Street in the 9th century, Guthred the Dane endowed it with the whole district between the Tyne and the Wear, stretching west as far as Watling Street, a grant confirmed by Alfred; and when in 995 the see was finally established at Durham, the endowment was again largely enriched by various donations. Durham continued, however, to form part of the earldom of Northumbria, and not until after the purchase of the earldom by Bishop Walcher in 1075 did the bishops begin to exercise regal rights in their territory. The term palatinus is applied to the bishop in 1293, and from the 13th century onwards the bishops frequently claim such rights in their lands as the king enjoys in his kingdom. At the time of the Conquest the bishop’s possessions included nearly all the district between the Tees and the Tyne, except Sadberge, and also the outlying districts of Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire, Islandshire and Crayke, together with Hexhamshire, the city of Carlisle, and part of Teviotdale. Henry I. deprived the bishopric of the last three, but in compensation made over to it the vills of Burdon, Aycliffe and Carlton, hitherto included in the earldom of Northumberland. The wapentake of Sadberge also formed part of the earldom of Northumberland; it was purchased for the see by Bishop Pudsey in 1189, but continued an independent franchise, 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.
Until the 15th century the most important administrative officer in the palatinate was the steward. Other officers were the sheriff, the coroners, the chamberlain and the chancellor. The palatine exchequer was organized 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 the judicial affairs, and later produced the Chancery and the courts of Admiralty and Marshalsea. The prior of Durham ranked first among the bishop’s barons. He had his own court, and almost exclusive jurisdiction over his men. The quo warranto proceedings of 1293 exhibit 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; 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, not against that of the bishop. In 1596 restrictions were imposed 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 the act of 1836, which provided that the palatine jurisdiction should in future be vested in the crown. There were ten palatinate barons in the 12th century, the most important being the Hiltons of Hilton Castle, the Bulmers of Brancepeth, the Conyers of Sockburne, the Hansards of Evenwood, and the Lumleys of Lumley Castle. The Nevilles owned large estates in the county; Raby Castle, their principal seat, was built by John de Neville in 1377. Owing to its isolated position the palatinate took little part or interest in any of the great rebellions of the Norman and Plantagenet period. During the Wars of the Roses Henry VI. passed through Durham, and the novelty of a royal visit procured him an enthusiastic reception. On the outbreak of the Great Rebellion Durham inclined to support the cause of the 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 the Scottish army, and after the battle of Marston Moor fell entirely into the hands of the parliament.