Bishop Auckland
Encyclopedia
Bishop Auckland is a market town
and civil parish in County Durham
in north east England
. It is located about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Darlington
and 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Durham
at the confluence
of the River Wear
with its tributary
the River Gaunless
. According to the 2001 census
, Bishop Auckland has a population of 24,392.
Much of the town's early history surrounds the Bishops of Durham and the establishment of a hunting lodge, which later became the main residence of the Bishops of Durham. This link with the Bishops of Durham is reflected in the first part of the town's name.
During the Industrial Revolution
, the town grew rapidly as coal mining took hold as an important industry. The subsequent decline of the coal mining industry in the late twentieth century has been blamed for a fall in the town's fortunes in other sectors. Today, the largest sector of employment in the town is manufacturing.
Since 1 April 2009, the town's local government has come from the Durham County Council Unitary Authority. The unitary authority replaced the previous Wear Valley District Council and Durham County Council. Bishop Auckland is located in the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency
. The town has a town-twinning with the French town of Ivry-sur-Seine
.
name for the river today known as the Gaunless
, which flows close to the town. Auckland is also used in the settlements of St Helen Auckland
, West Auckland
and St Andrew Auckland, an old name for South Church, all of which are along the path of the Gaunless. The name Gaunless itself is of later Norse
origin, meaning useless. It is believed that this derives from the river's inability to power a mill, sustain fish or create fertile floodplains.
A second suggestion is that Auckland derives from the Norse Aukland meaning additional land. This could refer to the area being extra land granted to the Bishop of Durham by King Canute in around 1020. A further suggestion is that Auckland derives from "Oakland", referring to the presence of forests.
had a look-out post where Auckland Castle
is sited today and a 10 acre (0.04 km²) fort
at nearby Binchester. There is also evidence of possible Iron Age
settlements around the town, together with finds of Bronze Age
, Neolithic
and Mesolithic
artefacts.
. Some of these settled in the area and established a collegiate church
. Around 1183 Bishop Pudsey established a manor house
in the town, with a great hall being completed in 1195 on the site occupied by St Peter's Chapel today. Bishop Bek
, who preferred the town as his main residence over Durham Castle
due to its proximity to hunting grounds, later converted the manor house into a castle. The grounds of the castle were noted as being large enough to contain 16000 men ahead of the Battle of Neville's Cross
in 1346.
Between 1283 and 1310, Bek was also responsible for ordering the replacement of the collegiate church established in 1183 with the Church of St Andrew that stands in South Church today, together with accommodation for the canons; the building known today as the East Deanery.
The collegiate church also appears to have supported a school. The collegiate church was re-organised under Bishop Langley
in 1428 and at some point in the same century moved to the castle grounds. The college and its school were finally dissolved in the 15th century.
The school was not revived until the reign of King James I
when in 1604 Anne Swifte petitioned the King to found a school and the Free Grammar School of King James, the direct descendant of today's King James I school, was established. Although, the school's early location is unknown, in 1638 Bishop Morton
granted the school space in an old chapel in the Market Place.
Also in 1604, James's son, the future King Charles I
made the first of three visits he would make to the town during his life. On this visit, his first to England, he was entertained by Bishop Matthew
. James himself stayed in Auckland Castle between 17 and 19 April 1617. Later, on 8 May, at Durham Castle
King James is reputed to have rebuked Bishop William James so badly that the Bishop returned to Auckland Castle and died three days later.
Charles's second visit to the town was on his way to Scotland on 31 May 1633, when he was entertained by Bishop Morton. His third visit on 4 February 1647 was in less lavish circumstances, as a prisoner. Morton had fled the town in 1640 and the castle was empty. Consequently, the king had to stay in a public house
off the Market Place owned by Christopher Dobson.
After the dis-establishment of the Church of England
, at the end of the first civil war
, Auckland Castle was sold to Sir Arthur Hazelrig
, who demolished much of the castle, including the chapel, and built a mansion. After the restoration
of the monarchy, the new Bishop of Durham, John Cosin
, in turn demolished Hazelrig's mansion and rebuilt the castle converting the banqueting hall into the chapel that stands today.
, it was limited by the lack of an easy way to transport coal away from the area. All this changed with the arrival railways in the early nineteenth century, which allowed large scale coal mining. The railways allowed coal to be mined, and then transported to the coast before being put onto ships to London and even abroad.
Around the same time, the Bishop, Shute Barrington
was a keen proponent of the use of education to improve the social and moral circumstances of the lower social classes. He used £70,000 received from lead mining royalties in Weardale to fund the establishment of a number of schools in the area. One of these schools was the Bishop Barrington School
, one of the town's three comprehensive schools today. The Bishop Barrington School opened on 26 May 1810, the Bishop's own birthday. The school even allowed girls to attend until the age of 11 years. Barrington's support of education for the poor was not without controversy. Some suggested education of the poor would lead people to question their position in society, others even blamed it for the French Revolution
.
Barrington's successor, William van Mildert
was involved in the creation of Durham University
. Durham Castle
was donated to the new university and Auckland Castle, usually the preferred residence by successive Bishops, became the Bishop of Durham's official residence in 1832. However, the influence of the Prince Bishops of Durham was on the wane and there was pressure for reform. Van Mildert would be the last Prince Bishop. Shortly after his death, in 1836, the position was stripped of its ancient powers and wealth.
By 1851 the population of the town had more than doubled to 5112. A great proportion of the population working in ironworks and collieries. By 1891, the population had doubled again. In the second half of the nineteenth century there were typically around 60 collieries in the area open at any one time. By the turn of the twentieth century 16,000 people were employed in the mining industry in the area.
The town also became an important centre for rail, with large amounts of minerals such as coal, limestone
and ironstone
mined in the surrounding area passing through the town on the way to the coast. In the neighbouring town of Shildon
large numbers were employed in the railways, were a railway engine works were established.
unemployment rose to 60% in 1932 before easing back to 36% in 1937. The Second World War
offered a temporary reprieve for the coal industry, however, after the war the decline continued. The last deep colliery in the area closed in 1968, although the much more mechanised, and less labour intensive, surface level opencast mining did continue.
Equally, the railways that had also supported the area were also scaled back, ultimately culminating in the closure of Shildon's Wagon works in 1984 which resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs.
in the thirteenth century is quoted as saying England had two kings; the king and the Bishop of Durham. The Bishops of Durham were not stripped of the last of their temporal powers until shortly after the death of Bishop William Van Mildert
in 1836.
At the end of the nineteenth century the Local Government Act 1894
created Bishop Auckland Urban District
council. From 1894 to 1974, the town was governed by the Urban District council within the administrative county
of Durham
. The district was enlarged to include a number of surrounding settlements in 1937 when Auckland Rural District
and Willington
Urban District were abolished. The Urban District was scrapped under the Local Government Act 1972
and replaced by a two tier district and county council system. Under the system Bishop Auckland was governed by Wear Valley
District Council at the district level and Durham County Council at the county level.
A third tier was added at the May 2007 local elections when a new town council was established. After the elections, the council elected Barbara Laurie as the town's first mayor.
Under proposals approved by the government on 25 July 2007, Durham County Council and Wear Valley District Council were replaced on 1 April 2009 by a single unitary authority
serving the whole of County Durham.
The town is a part of the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency
, and is currently represented at Westminster
by Helen Goodman
MP (Labour
). The town is in the North East England
European Parliament
constituency.
The town is located in the South Area of the Durham Constabulary
, and served by the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service
and North East Ambulance Service
.
Bishop Auckland is twinned with the French town of Ivry-sur-Seine
, whilst the wider Wear Valley district is twinned with Bad Oeynhausen
in Germany.
: ) on the Durham coalfield at the confluence of the River Wear
with its tributary
the River Gaunless. The town nestles in the rivers' valley about 100 metres (328.1 ft) above sea level
. Besides this the town is all but is surrounded on all sides by hills ranging in height from around 150 metres (492.1 ft) above sea level to over 220 metres (721.8 ft) above sea level.
Bishop Auckland is located about 12 miles (19.3 km) northwest of Darlington
and 12 miles (19.3 km) southwest of Durham
. The town is served by Bishop Auckland railway station
, which marks the point where the Tees Valley Line
becomes the Weardale Railway
. The town is not served directly by any motorways.
Notable wards include Cockton Hill, Woodhouse Close, and Henknowle. Additionally, once neighbouring villages such as South Church, Tindale Crescent
, St Helen Auckland
, and West Auckland
now more or less merge seamlessly into the town.
weather station to Bishop Auckland is located 8 miles (12.9 km) north-east of Bishop Auckland in Durham. The following local figures were gathered at this weather station between 1971 and 2000.
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Bishop Auckland has a temperate
climate. At 643.3 millimetres (25.3 in) the average annual rainfall is lower than the national average of 1125 millimetres (44.3 in). Equally there are only around 121.3 days where more than 1 millimetre (0.0393700787401575 in) of rain falls compared with a national average of 154.4 days. The area sees on average 1374.6 hours of sunshine per year, compared with a national average of 1125.0 hours. There is frost on 52 days compared with a national average of 55.6 days. Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures are 12.5 °C (54.5 °F) and 5.2 °C (41.4 °F) compared with a national averages of 12.1 °C (53.8 °F) and 5.1 °C (41.2 °F) respectively.
According to the 2001 census, Bishop Auckland has a population of 24,392, living in 10,336 dwellings. Of these dwellings, around 44% are terraced houses, 33% semi-detached houses, and 17% detached houses. As shown in the graph, the distribution of ages in Bishop Auckland was broadly in-line with that of County Durham and England and Wales, although there is a slightly smaller proportion of people between 20 and 24 years old.
Compared with the national average, the town's population performs poorly with regard to qualifications. At 31.9%, the proportion of the town's population with no qualifications is significantly higher than the national average of 23.2% and 29.1%. Similarly, only 13.8% have a degree level qualification (or higher) compared with the national average of 21.1%.
84.8% of the town's population identify themselves as Christian, compared with a national average of 71.7%. There are below averages numbers identifying themselves as belonging to other religion. The people of the town are also more likely to be religious than the national average with only 7.3% stating they had no religion compared with the national average of 14.8%.
At 1.5% of the population, the town has a below average population of foreign born individuals, compared with a national average of 8.9%.
of 1183. However, early coal mining was limited by the lack of an easy way to transport coal away from the area. The arrival of the railways transformed the town as it allowed coal to be mined, and then transported to the coast before being put onto ships to London and even abroad. At the start of the twentieth century 16,000 people were employed in the mining industry in the area. However, by 1915 the coal industry in the town had started to decline as coal reserves started to become exhausted. The last deep colliery in the area closed in 1968.
Today, with the decline of the Durham coalfield, manufacturing has been left as the largest sector of employment in the town, accounting for 24.6% of the town's employment.
The town also traditionally had a strong retail sector, as one of the county's main population centre's shoppers were attracted from smaller settlements on the Durham coalfield for miles around. However, the effect of the decline in the coal mining industry has been felt in the retail sector. Together with competition from local shopping malls such as the MetroCentre in Gateshead
, the decline in the mining industry has been blamed for a downturn in the fortunes of retailers, with commentators lamenting the number of down market stores and charity shop
s in the town centre. In response, numerous initiatives to regenerate the town centre have been proposed including the launch of the Bishop Auckland Town Centre Forum, and the 2006 regeneration master plan drawn up by Red Box Group, which was sponsored by Wear Valley District Council and the regional development agency One NorthEast
.
Notable employers in the town include Ebac
, which is headquartered in the town and employs 350 people.
The town has a number of Grade I listed buildings. The grounds of Auckland Castle
alone contain seven such structures. Additionally Escomb Saxon Church
, St Andrew's parish church, St Helen's church, St Helen Hall, West Auckland Manor House, the East Deanery and the 14th century Bishop Skirlaw bridge are all Grade I listed. Other notable buildings include the town hall, a Victorian railway viaduct and Binchester
Roman fort.
(often known locally as The Bishop's palace), has been the official residence of the Bishop of Durham since 1832. However, its history goes back much earlier, being established as a hunting lodge for the Prince Bishops of Durham
. The castle is surrounded by 800 acres (3.2 km²) of parkland, which was originally used by the Bishops for hunting and is today open to the public. The castle and its grounds contain seven Grade I listed structures.•
•
•
•
•
•
The castle's long dining room is home to 12 of the 13 17th century portraits of Jacob
and his 12 sons painted by Francisco de Zurbarán, which were saved by Bishop Trevor
in 1756. Trevor was unable to secure the 13th, Benjamin
, so commissioned Arthur Pond
to produce a copy, which hangs alongside the 12 other originals.
Auckland Castle
also provides the setting for Lewis Carroll
's story "A Legend of Scotland".
Dere Street
passes straight through the middle of the town on its way to the nearby Roman Fort at Binchester
. Binchester Roman
Fort, or Vinovia as it was known to the Romans, has one of the best preserved examples of a Roman military bath house
hypocaust
in the country. Bishop Auckland's main shopping street, Newgate Street, together with Cockton Hill Road and Watling Road faithfully follow the route of Dere Street. Note that Watling Road should not be confused with the Roman road Watling Street
, which is in the South of England.
Building overlooking the town's market place and is Grade II* listed. After being abandoned and then condemned for demolition in the 1980s, the town hall was fully restored in the early 1990s. It now houses the town's main public library
, a theatre
, an art gallery
, tourist information centre and a café-bar.
crossing the River Wear
. At 105 feet (32 m) high, the viaduct provides views of the surrounding countryside below as well as Auckland Castle, the Bishop's Park and the Town Hall on approaching the town from the Viaduct. It was originally built in 1857 to carry the Bishop Auckland to Durham City railway line across the River Wear and the Newton Cap Bank that leads down to the river. The railway closed in 1968 and the viaduct fell into a period of disuse and was at one point threatened with demolition. However in 1995, the viaduct was converted for vehicle use to take traffic on the A689
between Bishop Auckland and Crook, relieving the Grade I listed fourteenth century single lane Bishop Skirlaw
bridge which sits in the valley below it.
is home to a complete Anglo-Saxon church. It is believed the church was built between the years 670 and 690. Much of the stone used to construct the church came from the nearby Roman fort at Binchester, with some stones having Roman markings on them. The church is a Grade I listed structure.
.
The town has links with the birth of the railways, with the original 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway
passing through West Auckland
and Timothy Hackworth
, a well-known locomotive builder, built steam locomotives in the neighbouring town of Shildon
.
Today, Bishop Auckland railway station
still provides passenger services being located at the end of the Tees Valley Line
. Since May 2010 it has been re-connected with the Weardale Railway
which provides passenger services up the valley to Stanhope
. The town centre had a large railway goods yard until the 1972. Freight traffic ceased to use the line between completely in 1993 when Blue Circle cement stopped using the line to transport cement from its works in Eastgate
.
The nearest airport to the town is Durham Tees Valley Airport
at around 19 miles (30.6 km) drive South-East of Bishop Auckland. The nearest motorway junction is Junction 60 of the A1(M), which is around 8 miles (12.9 km) away.
The town has a bus station with a number of bus-routes serving the town. Following the withdrawal of the Go-Ahead Group
from the town on 8 April 2006, most of these services are provided by Arriva
. However, a number of smaller firms such as Weardale buses also serve the town.
The town itself has three secondary school
s — St John's RC Comprehensive School
, The Bishop Barrington School
and King James I Community College. The town also has a college, Bishop Auckland College
serving the Further Education
and Higher Education
fields. Both Bishop Barrington and King James schools have long histories being founded in 1810 by Bishop
Barrington
and in 1604 on the orders of King James I
respectively.
Perhaps despite their long histories, under current proposals put forward as the "preferred option" by the local education authority, both King James I and Barrington Schools will close in September 2014. The two schools will be replaced by a single new school. Durham County Council argues that the closures are necessary as the existing school buildings are dated and that pupil numbers are falling. The proposal has been supported by the head teachers of both schools.
In terms of performance, as illustrated in the graph, only St John's RC Comprehensive School has consistently exceeded both the national average and Durham
LEA
average for the proportion of students achieving five or more GCSEs (including Maths and English) at grades A* to C.
In the government's Level 2 CVA
(Contextual Value Added) statistic, which attempts to measure how much a school improves students between the end of National Curriculum Key Stage 2
and the end of Key Stage 4
, compared with how much other schools in the country improve students with similar circumstances, both King James and Barrington with 1054.8 points and 1053.5 points respectively, perform better St John's (1008.7 points).
At A-Level in 2009, none of the towns sixth form centres average points scores reached the national average of 739.1 A-Level points per student or the LEA average of 664.1 points. Amongst sixth form centres in the town, St John's performed best with an average score of 661.5 points per student. In comparison, King James had an average A-Level score of 557 points and Bishop Auckland College with 459.3 points taking last position in the LEA in terms of A-Level point score, a position occupied by King James in the previous year. The Bishop Barrington School no longer has its own sixth form
, with the school being a feeder for Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
in Darlington
. The average A-Level points score at Queen Elizabeth being 871.8. In terms of "Level 3 CVA" all 3 sixth form centres in the town fall short of the base-line score of 1000, with St John's scoring 990.2, Bishop Auckland College 976 and King James 977.6. In comparison, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College has a Level 3 CVA score of 1000.2.
The needs of those with special educational needs are served by Evergreen Primary.
Schools in the town serving primary
age education are detailed in the table below.
As is the case with the rest of the UK, the population of the town are served by the National Health Service
(NHS). The town has its own NHS hospital, Bishop Auckland General Hospital
. The current Bishop Auckland General Hospital has 286 beds and since opening in 2002 has become a centre specialising in routine surgery. Although Bishop Auckland General was built with an Accident and Emergency department, it is expected that this was replaced with an "Urgent Care Centre" in 2009, when the local NHS trust concentrated acute
health care services at Durham and Darlington, and moved more routine surgery to Bishop Auckland General.
The new hospital was a PFI
project and was announced by the Labour
government in the summer of 1997. It replaced the old Bishop Auckland General Hospital which had been housed in the town's workhouse
buildings and temporary huts constructed during World War II
.
Other local hospitals include Darlington Memorial Hospital
and University Hospital of North Durham
, which has replaced Durham Dryburn and was announced on the same day as the new Bishop Auckland General. All three of these hospitals are run by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which provides secondary health care services in the area. The local ambulance service is North East Ambulance Service
.
via the Wear Valley water treatment works at Wearhead
. The present treatment works replaced old works on the site of the present one and another one closer to the town at Tunstall Reservoir
. Contrary to popular belief the town does not receive water from Kielder Reservoir. Although water from Kielder can be pumped into the River Wear
, via the Tyne–Tees tunnel, upstream at Frosterley
, this water is not abstracted from the river until it reaches Chester-le-Street
. Equally, although water can be pumped from the tunnel into Waskerley Reservoir
, which in turn supplies Tunstall Reservoir, Tunstall water treatment works was closed in 2004, when the new Wear Valley works was brought into service.
The electricity distribution network operator
for the area is the CE Electric
-owned NEDL
(Northern Electric Distribution Limited). There are no power stations in the town.
. Another Grade I listed church, the Saxon church at Escomb is also close to the town.
Additionally, the town has 3 grade II listed churches, Bishop Auckland Methodist Church on Cockton Hill Road,
St Anne's church next to the town hall in the Market Place, and St Peter's Church on Princes Street.
The town is in the located within the Auckland Deanery
and Archdeaconry of the Anglican Diocese of Durham
. The Diocese has its administrative offices at Auckland Castle in the town. In the Roman Catholic faith the town is located in the St William Deanery of the Cleveland and South Durham Episcopal Area of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocese
.
Other denominations are also represented in the town. For example the Baptist Church is next door to the hospital. Bishop Auckland Baptist Church is part of the family of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. and is part of the Northern Association of Baptist churches
, which won the FA Amateur Cup
10 times in the Trophy's 80 year history, having appeared in the Final on 18 occasions.
Bishop Auckland Football Club also helped out Manchester United after the Munich Air Crash in 1958 by donating three of their players, Derek Lewin, Bob Hardisty and Warren Bradley
. In return in 1996, Manchester United played a friendly against Bishop Auckland to help raise money when the club was threatened with bankruptcy after a member of a rival team sued over an injury. In 2007 Manchester United donated floodlights to Bishop Auckland Football Club, which the club has added to their new ground.
The adjacent village of West Auckland
is notable for having been home to the team to win one of the first international footballing competitions, the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy
, sometimes referred to as The First World Cup. Its team of local coal miners won the cup in the Easter of 1909 and again in 1911, defeating the mighty Juventus in the final. This story was portrayed in the 1982 television movie
"The World Cup - A Captain's Tale" made by Tyne Tees Television
and starring Denis Waterman. The cup itself was stolen from West Auckland Town F.C.
in 1994 and a replica now resides in West Auckland working men's club
.
In terms of sports facilities, Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, a council run leisure centre, has a 25 metres (82 ft) by 10 metres (32.8 ft) swimming pool and a 10 metres (32.8 ft) by 5 metres (16.4 ft) "learner" pool , as well as a gym, sauna, steam room and spa pool. Additionally, football pitches, tennis courts and bowling greens
are provided at the Town Recreation Ground and Cockton Hill Recreation Ground. Henknowle Recreation Ground has a 5 a side pitch and a basketball court.
Stan Laurel
of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy
lived in the town during his childhood attending the town's Grammar School
, King James 1st. His parents owned the now demolished Eden Theatre, which was located at the junction of Newgate Street and South Church Road. In 2007, a Wetherspoons
pub opened in the town named after Stan, and in August 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled on the site that his parent's theatre once occupied.
One of the UK's most prolific serial killers, Mary Ann Cotton
, lived in the nearby village of West Auckland
. She was hanged
at Durham Jail
in 1873 for the murder of her stepson. However, it is believed that she could have been responsible for the deaths of at least 18 others.
Roland Boys Bradford
, who during World War I
was awarded the Victoria Cross
for bravery on 1 October 1916, and became Brigadier General
, on 10 November 1917 at the age of 25 making him the youngest General in the British Army, was born in the nearby village of Witton Park
.
Politician, Sir Anthony Eden
, who was Prime Minister
of the UK between 1955 and 1957, was born in Bishop Auckland. As was, Sir Peter Soulsby
, the current MP
for Leicester South, and Mansfield
MP Alan Meale
.
Jeremiah Dixon
, Astronomer and Surveyor of the Mason–Dixon Line, footballer Charlie Wayman
who played for Newcastle United, Middlesbrough FC, and Southampton FC, Actor Christopher Hancock
, who played Charlie Cotton
in EastEnders
, Chelsea F.C.
goalkeeper Ross Turnbull
, Town planner Thomas Wilfred Sharp
, architect William Atkinson
, scientific instrument maker John Bird
, botanist Robert Kaye Greville
and Craig Raine
, the poet and critic were also all born in Bishop Auckland. Actor John Reed
, was born and spent his childhood in the nearby village of Close House.
In addition to Stan Laurel, the theologian and catholic priest Frederick William Faber, nineteenth century industrialist William George Armstrong
, linguist Harold Orton
, seventeenth century politician James Craggs the Elder
and astronomer Thomas Wright
were all educated at the town's grammar school
.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
and civil parish in County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
in north east England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is located about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
at the confluence
Confluence (geography)
In geography, a confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where two streams flow together, merging into a single stream...
of the River Wear
River Wear
The River Wear is located in North East England, rising in the Pennines and flowing eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea at Sunderland.-Geology and history:...
with its tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
the River Gaunless
River Gaunless
The River Gaunless is a river of County Durham in England.Formed just south of the village of Copley, by the confluence of Arn Gill and Hindon Beck , the Gaunless wends its way east, passing the settlements of Butterknowle, Cockfield and Evenwood and through...
. According to the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
, Bishop Auckland has a population of 24,392.
Much of the town's early history surrounds the Bishops of Durham and the establishment of a hunting lodge, which later became the main residence of the Bishops of Durham. This link with the Bishops of Durham is reflected in the first part of the town's name.
During the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, the town grew rapidly as coal mining took hold as an important industry. The subsequent decline of the coal mining industry in the late twentieth century has been blamed for a fall in the town's fortunes in other sectors. Today, the largest sector of employment in the town is manufacturing.
Since 1 April 2009, the town's local government has come from the Durham County Council Unitary Authority. The unitary authority replaced the previous Wear Valley District Council and Durham County Council. Bishop Auckland is located in the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency
Bishop Auckland (UK Parliament constituency)
Bishop Auckland is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. Since 1935 it has elected Labour MPs.-Boundaries:...
. The town has a town-twinning with the French town of Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris....
.
Toponymy
The first part of the name, "Bishop", refers to the land being owned by and the town being the residence of the Bishop of Durham. However, the derivation of "Auckland" is less clear. One suggestion is that it is derived from "Alclit", "Alcluith" or "Alcleat". This is similar to Alclut or Alclyde, an early name for Dumbarton, which means "rock on the Clyde" or "cliff on the Clyde". It is believed that Clyde may have been an earlier CelticCeltic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
name for the river today known as the Gaunless
River Gaunless
The River Gaunless is a river of County Durham in England.Formed just south of the village of Copley, by the confluence of Arn Gill and Hindon Beck , the Gaunless wends its way east, passing the settlements of Butterknowle, Cockfield and Evenwood and through...
, which flows close to the town. Auckland is also used in the settlements of St Helen Auckland
St Helen Auckland
St Helen Auckland is a village in County Durham, in England. It is south-west of Bishop Auckland. It is named after St. Helen in distinction from Bishop Auckland as the church is dedicated to her.-External links:*...
, West Auckland
West Auckland
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century...
and St Andrew Auckland, an old name for South Church, all of which are along the path of the Gaunless. The name Gaunless itself is of later Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
origin, meaning useless. It is believed that this derives from the river's inability to power a mill, sustain fish or create fertile floodplains.
A second suggestion is that Auckland derives from the Norse Aukland meaning additional land. This could refer to the area being extra land granted to the Bishop of Durham by King Canute in around 1020. A further suggestion is that Auckland derives from "Oakland", referring to the presence of forests.
Earliest history
The earliest known reference to Bishop Auckland itself is around 1000AD as land given to the Duke of Northumberland for defending the church against the Scots. It is also mentioned in 1020 as a gift given to the Bishop of Durham by King Canute. However, a village almost certainly existed on the town's present site long before this, with there being evidence of church on the site of St Andrew's Church in South Church as early as the seventh century. Furthermore, the RomansRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
had a look-out post where Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle is a castle in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England....
is sited today and a 10 acre (0.04 km²) fort
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...
at nearby Binchester. There is also evidence of possible Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
settlements around the town, together with finds of Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
and Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
artefacts.
The Bishops of Durham
Much of the town's history surrounds its links with the Bishops of Durham. In 1083, Bishop William de St-Calais expelled a number of canons from DurhamDurham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. Some of these settled in the area and established a collegiate church
Collegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...
. Around 1183 Bishop Pudsey established a manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
in the town, with a great hall being completed in 1195 on the site occupied by St Peter's Chapel today. Bishop Bek
Antony Bek
Antony Bek was a medieval Prince Bishop of Durham.-Early life:Bek and his elder brother Thomas Bek were members of a family of knights. Their father was Walter Bek, who held lands at Ersby in Lincolnshire. Another brother was John Beke, who held the family lands in Ersby...
, who preferred the town as his main residence over Durham Castle
Durham Castle
Durham Castle is a Norman castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been wholly occupied since 1840 by University College, Durham. It is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is in use as a working building and is home to over 100 students...
due to its proximity to hunting grounds, later converted the manor house into a castle. The grounds of the castle were noted as being large enough to contain 16000 men ahead of the Battle of Neville's Cross
Battle of Neville's Cross
The Battle of Neville's Cross took place to the west of Durham, England on 17 October 1346.-Background:In 1346, England was embroiled in the Hundred Years' War with France. In order to divert his enemy Philip VI of France appealed to David II of Scotland to attack the English from the north in...
in 1346.
Between 1283 and 1310, Bek was also responsible for ordering the replacement of the collegiate church established in 1183 with the Church of St Andrew that stands in South Church today, together with accommodation for the canons; the building known today as the East Deanery.
The collegiate church also appears to have supported a school. The collegiate church was re-organised under Bishop Langley
Thomas Langley
Thomas Langley was an English prelate who held high ecclesiastical and political offices in the early to mid 1400s. He was Dean of York, Bishop of Durham, twice Lord Chancellor of England to three kings, and a Pseudocardinal. In turn Keeper of the King's signet and Keeper of the Privy Seal before...
in 1428 and at some point in the same century moved to the castle grounds. The college and its school were finally dissolved in the 15th century.
The school was not revived until the reign of King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
when in 1604 Anne Swifte petitioned the King to found a school and the Free Grammar School of King James, the direct descendant of today's King James I school, was established. Although, the school's early location is unknown, in 1638 Bishop Morton
Thomas Morton (bishop)
Thomas Morton was an English churchman, bishop of several dioceses.-Early life:Morton was born in York on 20 March 1564. He was brought up and grammar school educated in the city and nearby Halifax. In 1582 he became a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge from which he graduated with a BA in...
granted the school space in an old chapel in the Market Place.
Also in 1604, James's son, the future King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
made the first of three visits he would make to the town during his life. On this visit, his first to England, he was entertained by Bishop Matthew
Tobias Matthew
Tobias Matthew was Archbishop of York.-Life:He was the son of Sir John Matthew of Ross in Herefordshire, England, and of his wife Eleanor Crofton of Ludlow. He was born at Bristol and was educated at Wells, Somerset, and then in succession at University College and Christ Church, Oxford...
. James himself stayed in Auckland Castle between 17 and 19 April 1617. Later, on 8 May, at Durham Castle
Durham Castle
Durham Castle is a Norman castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been wholly occupied since 1840 by University College, Durham. It is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is in use as a working building and is home to over 100 students...
King James is reputed to have rebuked Bishop William James so badly that the Bishop returned to Auckland Castle and died three days later.
Charles's second visit to the town was on his way to Scotland on 31 May 1633, when he was entertained by Bishop Morton. His third visit on 4 February 1647 was in less lavish circumstances, as a prisoner. Morton had fled the town in 1640 and the castle was empty. Consequently, the king had to stay in a public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
off the Market Place owned by Christopher Dobson.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, at the end of the first civil war
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
, Auckland Castle was sold to Sir Arthur Hazelrig
Arthur Haselrig
Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1659. He was one of the five members of Parliament whom King Charles I tried to arrest in 1642, an event which led to the start of the English Civil War...
, who demolished much of the castle, including the chapel, and built a mansion. After the restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
of the monarchy, the new Bishop of Durham, John Cosin
John Cosin
John Cosin was an English churchman.-Life:He was born at Norwich, and was educated at Norwich grammar school and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was scholar and afterwards fellow. On taking orders he was appointed secretary to Bishop Overall of Lichfield, and then domestic chaplain to...
, in turn demolished Hazelrig's mansion and rebuilt the castle converting the banqueting hall into the chapel that stands today.
Industrial Revolution
By 1801, the town had a population of 1861. At the end of the eighteenth century the town had no notable roads other than the Roman road and little trade beyond weaving. Although, coal mining existed on a small-scale had existed as early as 1183 when it is mentioned in the Boldon BookBoldon Book
The Boldon Book contains the results of a survey of the bishopric of Durham that was completed on the orders of Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham, in 1183, designed to assist the administration of the vast diocesan estates...
, it was limited by the lack of an easy way to transport coal away from the area. All this changed with the arrival railways in the early nineteenth century, which allowed large scale coal mining. The railways allowed coal to be mined, and then transported to the coast before being put onto ships to London and even abroad.
Shute Barrington
Shute Barrington was an English churchman, Bishop of Llandaff in Wales, as well as Bishop of Salisbury and Bishop of Durham in England.-Life:...
was a keen proponent of the use of education to improve the social and moral circumstances of the lower social classes. He used £70,000 received from lead mining royalties in Weardale to fund the establishment of a number of schools in the area. One of these schools was the Bishop Barrington School
Bishop Barrington School
Bishop Barrington School is a co-educational comprehensive school in the town of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, England. The school has around 700 students and is a specialist Sports College and Mathematics and Computing College. It was established in 1810 in the town's market place and named after,...
, one of the town's three comprehensive schools today. The Bishop Barrington School opened on 26 May 1810, the Bishop's own birthday. The school even allowed girls to attend until the age of 11 years. Barrington's support of education for the poor was not without controversy. Some suggested education of the poor would lead people to question their position in society, others even blamed it for the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Barrington's successor, William van Mildert
William Van Mildert
William Van Mildert was the last palatine Bishop of Durham , and one of the founders of the University of Durham...
was involved in the creation of Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
. Durham Castle
Durham Castle
Durham Castle is a Norman castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been wholly occupied since 1840 by University College, Durham. It is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is in use as a working building and is home to over 100 students...
was donated to the new university and Auckland Castle, usually the preferred residence by successive Bishops, became the Bishop of Durham's official residence in 1832. However, the influence of the Prince Bishops of Durham was on the wane and there was pressure for reform. Van Mildert would be the last Prince Bishop. Shortly after his death, in 1836, the position was stripped of its ancient powers and wealth.
By 1851 the population of the town had more than doubled to 5112. A great proportion of the population working in ironworks and collieries. By 1891, the population had doubled again. In the second half of the nineteenth century there were typically around 60 collieries in the area open at any one time. By the turn of the twentieth century 16,000 people were employed in the mining industry in the area.
The town also became an important centre for rail, with large amounts of minerals such as coal, limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and ironstone
Ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
mined in the surrounding area passing through the town on the way to the coast. In the neighbouring town of Shildon
Shildon
Shildon is a town in County Durham, in England. It is situated 2 miles to the south east of Bishop Auckland and 11 miles north of Darlington. It is 13 miles away from Durham, 23 miles from Sunderland and 23 miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne...
large numbers were employed in the railways, were a railway engine works were established.
Industrial decline
By the early years of the twentieth century coal mining started to go into decline as coal reserves started to become exhausted. By the end of the 1920s unemployment had hit 27% and the population too had started to decline, as colliery employment had halved compared with ten years previously. With the onset of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
unemployment rose to 60% in 1932 before easing back to 36% in 1937. The Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
offered a temporary reprieve for the coal industry, however, after the war the decline continued. The last deep colliery in the area closed in 1968, although the much more mechanised, and less labour intensive, surface level opencast mining did continue.
Equally, the railways that had also supported the area were also scaled back, ultimately culminating in the closure of Shildon's Wagon works in 1984 which resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs.
Governance
For a large part of the county's history, the powers held by the Bishop of Durham meant that the county virtually operated as an independent state from the rest of England. A steward of Bishop Antony BekAntony Bek
Antony Bek was a medieval Prince Bishop of Durham.-Early life:Bek and his elder brother Thomas Bek were members of a family of knights. Their father was Walter Bek, who held lands at Ersby in Lincolnshire. Another brother was John Beke, who held the family lands in Ersby...
in the thirteenth century is quoted as saying England had two kings; the king and the Bishop of Durham. The Bishops of Durham were not stripped of the last of their temporal powers until shortly after the death of Bishop William Van Mildert
William Van Mildert
William Van Mildert was the last palatine Bishop of Durham , and one of the founders of the University of Durham...
in 1836.
At the end of the nineteenth century the Local Government Act 1894
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
created Bishop Auckland Urban District
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
council. From 1894 to 1974, the town was governed by the Urban District council within the administrative county
Administrative county
An administrative county was an administrative division in England and Wales and Ireland used for the purposes of local government. They are now abolished, although in Northern Ireland their former areas are used as the basis for lieutenancy....
of Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
. The district was enlarged to include a number of surrounding settlements in 1937 when Auckland Rural District
Rural district
Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the administrative counties.-England and Wales:In England...
and Willington
Willington, County Durham
Willington is a former-pit town in County Durham, England. It is in the foothills of the Pennines and near the River Wear close to Crook and Bishop Auckland. Like many communities in the area, Willington's economy was largely based on coal mining. The closure of the colliery in 1967 therefore hit...
Urban District were abolished. The Urban District was scrapped under the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
and replaced by a two tier district and county council system. Under the system Bishop Auckland was governed by Wear Valley
Wear Valley
Wear Valley was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in County Durham, England. Its council was based in Crook.The district covered much of the Weardale area. In the west it was parished and rural, whereas in the east it was more urban...
District Council at the district level and Durham County Council at the county level.
A third tier was added at the May 2007 local elections when a new town council was established. After the elections, the council elected Barbara Laurie as the town's first mayor.
Under proposals approved by the government on 25 July 2007, Durham County Council and Wear Valley District Council were replaced on 1 April 2009 by a single unitary authority
Unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...
serving the whole of County Durham.
The town is a part of the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency
Bishop Auckland (UK Parliament constituency)
Bishop Auckland is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. Since 1935 it has elected Labour MPs.-Boundaries:...
, and is currently represented at Westminster
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
by Helen Goodman
Helen Goodman
Helen Catherine Goodman is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland since 2005, and was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for in the Department for Work and Pensions until 2010 with responsibility for Child Poverty and childcare.-Early...
MP (Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
). The town is in the North East England
North East England (European Parliament constituency)
North East England is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 3 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :...
European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
constituency.
The town is located in the South Area of the Durham Constabulary
Durham Constabulary
Durham Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of County Durham and the unitary authority of Darlington. The force covers the 2,232 km² of the county which has a resident population of 595,308. It is one of the smaller forces of the...
, and served by the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service
County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service
County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service covering an area of , for the unitary authority areas of County Durham and Darlington...
and North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service
The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in North East England, covering the counties of County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear and the boroughs of Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and...
.
Bishop Auckland is twinned with the French town of Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris....
, whilst the wider Wear Valley district is twinned with Bad Oeynhausen
Bad Oeynhausen
Bad Oeynhausen is a spa town in the Minden-Lübbecke district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.- Geography :Bad Oeynhausen is located on the banks of the Weser river, which runs along the eastern edges of the town. Bad Oeynhausen has the world's highest carbonated, thermal saltwater fountain,...
in Germany.
Geography
Bishop Auckland is located at 54°39′36"N 1°40′48"W (British national grid reference systemBritish national grid reference system
The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using latitude and longitude....
: ) on the Durham coalfield at the confluence of the River Wear
River Wear
The River Wear is located in North East England, rising in the Pennines and flowing eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea at Sunderland.-Geology and history:...
with its tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
the River Gaunless. The town nestles in the rivers' valley about 100 metres (328.1 ft) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
. Besides this the town is all but is surrounded on all sides by hills ranging in height from around 150 metres (492.1 ft) above sea level to over 220 metres (721.8 ft) above sea level.
Bishop Auckland is located about 12 miles (19.3 km) northwest of Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and 12 miles (19.3 km) southwest of Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. The town is served by Bishop Auckland railway station
Bishop Auckland railway station
Bishop Auckland railway station serves the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. The station is the terminus of the Tees Valley Line north of .The station is operated by Northern Rail, which provides Network Rail passenger services...
, which marks the point where the Tees Valley Line
Tees Valley Line
The Tees Valley Line is a name for the railway route between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn via Darlington and Middlesbrough. Also operated on the line are services from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Middlesbrough and Saltburn via Darlington....
becomes the Weardale Railway
Weardale Railway
The Weardale Railway is a British single-track branch line railway providing regular daily passenger service between Bishop Auckland , Wolsingham, Frosterley and Stanhope. Services began on 23 May 2010 after a lapse of almost sixty years. The railway originally ran from Bishop Auckland to...
. The town is not served directly by any motorways.
Notable wards include Cockton Hill, Woodhouse Close, and Henknowle. Additionally, once neighbouring villages such as South Church, Tindale Crescent
Tindale Crescent
Tindale Crescent is a place in County Durham, in England. It is situated immediately to the south-west of Bishop Auckland....
, St Helen Auckland
St Helen Auckland
St Helen Auckland is a village in County Durham, in England. It is south-west of Bishop Auckland. It is named after St. Helen in distinction from Bishop Auckland as the church is dedicated to her.-External links:*...
, and West Auckland
West Auckland
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century...
now more or less merge seamlessly into the town.
Climate
The nearest Met OfficeMet Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
weather station to Bishop Auckland is located 8 miles (12.9 km) north-east of Bishop Auckland in Durham. The following local figures were gathered at this weather station between 1971 and 2000.
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Bishop Auckland has a temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
climate. At 643.3 millimetres (25.3 in) the average annual rainfall is lower than the national average of 1125 millimetres (44.3 in). Equally there are only around 121.3 days where more than 1 millimetre (0.0393700787401575 in) of rain falls compared with a national average of 154.4 days. The area sees on average 1374.6 hours of sunshine per year, compared with a national average of 1125.0 hours. There is frost on 52 days compared with a national average of 55.6 days. Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures are 12.5 °C (54.5 °F) and 5.2 °C (41.4 °F) compared with a national averages of 12.1 °C (53.8 °F) and 5.1 °C (41.2 °F) respectively.
Demography
| Bishop Auckland Compared | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| UK Census 2001 United Kingdom Census 2001 A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194.... |
Bishop Auckland | County Durham County Durham County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington... |
England and Wales |
| Total population | 24,392 | 493,484 | 52,041,916 |
| Foreign born | 1.5% | 2.0% | 8.9% |
| Buddhist | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.3% |
| Christian | 84.8% | 83.5% | 71.7% |
| Hindu | 0.2% | 0.1% | 1.1% |
| Muslim | 0.2% | 0.2% | 3.0% |
| No religion | 7.3% | 9.3% | 14.8% |
| Over 65 years old | 17.2% | 16.7% | 15.46% |
| Unemployed | 5.0% | 4.8% | 4.3% |
According to the 2001 census, Bishop Auckland has a population of 24,392, living in 10,336 dwellings. Of these dwellings, around 44% are terraced houses, 33% semi-detached houses, and 17% detached houses. As shown in the graph, the distribution of ages in Bishop Auckland was broadly in-line with that of County Durham and England and Wales, although there is a slightly smaller proportion of people between 20 and 24 years old.
Compared with the national average, the town's population performs poorly with regard to qualifications. At 31.9%, the proportion of the town's population with no qualifications is significantly higher than the national average of 23.2% and 29.1%. Similarly, only 13.8% have a degree level qualification (or higher) compared with the national average of 21.1%.
84.8% of the town's population identify themselves as Christian, compared with a national average of 71.7%. There are below averages numbers identifying themselves as belonging to other religion. The people of the town are also more likely to be religious than the national average with only 7.3% stating they had no religion compared with the national average of 14.8%.
At 1.5% of the population, the town has a below average population of foreign born individuals, compared with a national average of 8.9%.
Economy
At the end of the eighteenth century the town is noted as having little trade beyond weaving. The first mention of coal mining in the area is in the Boldon BookBoldon Book
The Boldon Book contains the results of a survey of the bishopric of Durham that was completed on the orders of Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham, in 1183, designed to assist the administration of the vast diocesan estates...
of 1183. However, early coal mining was limited by the lack of an easy way to transport coal away from the area. The arrival of the railways transformed the town as it allowed coal to be mined, and then transported to the coast before being put onto ships to London and even abroad. At the start of the twentieth century 16,000 people were employed in the mining industry in the area. However, by 1915 the coal industry in the town had started to decline as coal reserves started to become exhausted. The last deep colliery in the area closed in 1968.
Today, with the decline of the Durham coalfield, manufacturing has been left as the largest sector of employment in the town, accounting for 24.6% of the town's employment.
The town also traditionally had a strong retail sector, as one of the county's main population centre's shoppers were attracted from smaller settlements on the Durham coalfield for miles around. However, the effect of the decline in the coal mining industry has been felt in the retail sector. Together with competition from local shopping malls such as the MetroCentre in Gateshead
Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead
The Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. It is named after its largest town, Gateshead, but also spans the towns of Rowlands Gill, Whickham, Blaydon and Ryton; suburban areas include Felling, Pelaw, Dunston and Low Fell.It is bordered...
, the decline in the mining industry has been blamed for a downturn in the fortunes of retailers, with commentators lamenting the number of down market stores and charity shop
Charity shop
A charity shop, thrift shop, thrift store, hospice shop , resale shop or op shop is a retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money.Charity shops are a type of social enterprise...
s in the town centre. In response, numerous initiatives to regenerate the town centre have been proposed including the launch of the Bishop Auckland Town Centre Forum, and the 2006 regeneration master plan drawn up by Red Box Group, which was sponsored by Wear Valley District Council and the regional development agency One NorthEast
One NorthEast
One North East is the regional development agency for the North East England region.-History:It was established in April 1999. The North East receives a lot of government aid for regeneration....
.
Notable employers in the town include Ebac
Ebac
Ebac Group Ltd is a privately owned group of UK companies mainly focused on the design and manufacture of dehumidifiers, water coolers and heat pumps...
, which is headquartered in the town and employs 350 people.
Landmarks
Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle is a castle in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England....
alone contain seven such structures. Additionally Escomb Saxon Church
Escomb Church
Escomb Saxon Church is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon churches in England, located in Escomb, approximately 2.5 km to the west of Bishop Auckland, County Durham.-History:...
, St Andrew's parish church, St Helen's church, St Helen Hall, West Auckland Manor House, the East Deanery and the 14th century Bishop Skirlaw bridge are all Grade I listed. Other notable buildings include the town hall, a Victorian railway viaduct and Binchester
Binchester
Binchester is a small village in County Durham, England. It has a population of 271. It is situated between Bishop Auckland, which is to the south, and a short distance to the west of Spennymoor. It has a community centre, swing park and football field and is surrounded by countryside.Nearby is...
Roman fort.
Auckland Castle
Auckland CastleAuckland Castle
Auckland Castle is a castle in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England....
(often known locally as The Bishop's palace), has been the official residence of the Bishop of Durham since 1832. However, its history goes back much earlier, being established as a hunting lodge for the Prince Bishops of Durham
Diocese of Durham
The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the historic County Durham . It was created in AD 1000 to replace the Diocese of Lindisfarne...
. The castle is surrounded by 800 acres (3.2 km²) of parkland, which was originally used by the Bishops for hunting and is today open to the public. The castle and its grounds contain seven Grade I listed structures.•
•
•
•
•
•
The castle's long dining room is home to 12 of the 13 17th century portraits of Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
and his 12 sons painted by Francisco de Zurbarán, which were saved by Bishop Trevor
Richard Trevor (bishop)
Richard Trevor was an English prelate, Bishop of St David's from 1744 to 1752 and Bishop of Durham from 1752 until his death.-Life:...
in 1756. Trevor was unable to secure the 13th, Benjamin
Benjamin
Benjamin was the last-born of Jacob's twelve sons, and the second and last son of Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. In the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan. He died in Egypt on...
, so commissioned Arthur Pond
Arthur Pond
Arthur Pond was an English painter and engraver.-Life:Born about 1705, was educated in London, and stayed for a time in Rome studying art, in company with the sculptor Roubiliac. He became a successful portrait-painter....
to produce a copy, which hangs alongside the 12 other originals.
Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle is a castle in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England....
also provides the setting for Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's story "A Legend of Scotland".
Binchester Roman Fort
The route of the Roman roadRoman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
Dere Street
Dere Street
Dere Street or Deere Street, was a Roman road between Eboracum and Veluniate, in what is now Scotland. It still exists in the form of the route of many major roads, including the A1 and A68 just north of Corbridge.Its name corresponds with the post Roman Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira, through...
passes straight through the middle of the town on its way to the nearby Roman Fort at Binchester
Binchester
Binchester is a small village in County Durham, England. It has a population of 271. It is situated between Bishop Auckland, which is to the south, and a short distance to the west of Spennymoor. It has a community centre, swing park and football field and is surrounded by countryside.Nearby is...
. Binchester Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
Fort, or Vinovia as it was known to the Romans, has one of the best preserved examples of a Roman military bath house
Public bathing
Public baths originated from a communal need for cleanliness. The term public may confuse some people, as some types of public baths are restricted depending on membership, gender, religious affiliation, or other reasons. As societies have changed, public baths have been replaced as private bathing...
hypocaust
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt"...
in the country. Bishop Auckland's main shopping street, Newgate Street, together with Cockton Hill Road and Watling Road faithfully follow the route of Dere Street. Note that Watling Road should not be confused with the Roman road Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
, which is in the South of England.
Town Hall
The Town Hall is a "Gothic style" VictorianVictorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
Building overlooking the town's market place and is Grade II* listed. After being abandoned and then condemned for demolition in the 1980s, the town hall was fully restored in the early 1990s. It now houses the town's main public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
, a theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, an art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
, tourist information centre and a café-bar.
Newton Cap viaduct
The town also has a Grade II listed Victorian railway viaductViaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
crossing the River Wear
River Wear
The River Wear is located in North East England, rising in the Pennines and flowing eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea at Sunderland.-Geology and history:...
. At 105 feet (32 m) high, the viaduct provides views of the surrounding countryside below as well as Auckland Castle, the Bishop's Park and the Town Hall on approaching the town from the Viaduct. It was originally built in 1857 to carry the Bishop Auckland to Durham City railway line across the River Wear and the Newton Cap Bank that leads down to the river. The railway closed in 1968 and the viaduct fell into a period of disuse and was at one point threatened with demolition. However in 1995, the viaduct was converted for vehicle use to take traffic on the A689
A689 road
The A689 is a road in northern England, that runs east from Junction 44 of the M6 motorway, north of the centre of Carlisle in Cumbria, to Hartlepool, in the North East....
between Bishop Auckland and Crook, relieving the Grade I listed fourteenth century single lane Bishop Skirlaw
Walter Skirlaw
Walter Skirlaw was an English bishop and diplomat. He was Bishop of Durham from 1388 to 1406...
bridge which sits in the valley below it.
Escomb Saxon church
The nearby village of EscombEscomb
Escomb is a village on the River Wear about west of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. Escomb was a civil parish until 1960, when it and a number of other civil parishes in the area were dissolved.-Parish church:...
is home to a complete Anglo-Saxon church. It is believed the church was built between the years 670 and 690. Much of the stone used to construct the church came from the nearby Roman fort at Binchester, with some stones having Roman markings on them. The church is a Grade I listed structure.
St Andrew's Church
St Andrew's church located in the adjoining village of South Church is the largest church in County Durham and a Grade I listed building. The church was built in the thirteenth century and acted as a collegiate churchCollegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...
.
Transport
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
passing through West Auckland
West Auckland
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century...
and Timothy Hackworth
Timothy Hackworth
Timothy Hackworth was a steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.- Youth and early work :...
, a well-known locomotive builder, built steam locomotives in the neighbouring town of Shildon
Shildon
Shildon is a town in County Durham, in England. It is situated 2 miles to the south east of Bishop Auckland and 11 miles north of Darlington. It is 13 miles away from Durham, 23 miles from Sunderland and 23 miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne...
.
Today, Bishop Auckland railway station
Bishop Auckland railway station
Bishop Auckland railway station serves the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. The station is the terminus of the Tees Valley Line north of .The station is operated by Northern Rail, which provides Network Rail passenger services...
still provides passenger services being located at the end of the Tees Valley Line
Tees Valley Line
The Tees Valley Line is a name for the railway route between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn via Darlington and Middlesbrough. Also operated on the line are services from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Middlesbrough and Saltburn via Darlington....
. Since May 2010 it has been re-connected with the Weardale Railway
Weardale Railway
The Weardale Railway is a British single-track branch line railway providing regular daily passenger service between Bishop Auckland , Wolsingham, Frosterley and Stanhope. Services began on 23 May 2010 after a lapse of almost sixty years. The railway originally ran from Bishop Auckland to...
which provides passenger services up the valley to Stanhope
Stanhope, County Durham
Stanhope is a small market town in County Durham, in England. It is situated on the River Wear between Eastgate and Frosterley on the north side of Weardale. The A689 trans-Pennine road meets the B6278 road from Barnard Castle to Shotley Bridge here....
. The town centre had a large railway goods yard until the 1972. Freight traffic ceased to use the line between completely in 1993 when Blue Circle cement stopped using the line to transport cement from its works in Eastgate
Eastgate, County Durham
Eastgate is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated in Weardale, a few miles west of Stanhope.Eastgate originally marked the eastern border of the private hunting park of the Prince Bishops of Durham. This was second in extent only to the royal hunting park of the New Forest in Hampshire...
.
The nearest airport to the town is Durham Tees Valley Airport
Durham Tees Valley Airport
Durham Tees Valley Airport is an international airport in north east England, located southeast of Darlington, about southwest of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. The airport serves County Durham and parts of North Yorkshire, and is in Middleton St George in the borough of Darlington...
at around 19 miles (30.6 km) drive South-East of Bishop Auckland. The nearest motorway junction is Junction 60 of the A1(M), which is around 8 miles (12.9 km) away.
The town has a bus station with a number of bus-routes serving the town. Following the withdrawal of the Go-Ahead Group
Go-Ahead Group
The Go-Ahead Group plc is a rail and bus operating company that was created following the privatisation of the UK's train and bus industries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-Early history:...
from the town on 8 April 2006, most of these services are provided by Arriva
Arriva
Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...
. However, a number of smaller firms such as Weardale buses also serve the town.
Education
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s — St John's RC Comprehensive School
St John's RC Comprehensive School
St John's RC Comprehensive School is a voluntary aided Roman Catholic Comprehensive school in the town of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. The school is a specialist technology college. The school currently has around 1300 pupils between the ages of 11 and 19, making it the town's largest...
, The Bishop Barrington School
Bishop Barrington School
Bishop Barrington School is a co-educational comprehensive school in the town of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, England. The school has around 700 students and is a specialist Sports College and Mathematics and Computing College. It was established in 1810 in the town's market place and named after,...
and King James I Community College. The town also has a college, Bishop Auckland College
Bishop Auckland College
Bishop Auckland College is a further education college located in the town of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England...
serving the Further Education
Further education
Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
and Higher Education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
fields. Both Bishop Barrington and King James schools have long histories being founded in 1810 by Bishop
Prince-Bishop
A Prince-Bishop is a bishop who is a territorial Prince of the Church on account of one or more secular principalities, usually pre-existent titles of nobility held concurrently with their inherent clerical office...
Barrington
Shute Barrington
Shute Barrington was an English churchman, Bishop of Llandaff in Wales, as well as Bishop of Salisbury and Bishop of Durham in England.-Life:...
and in 1604 on the orders of King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
respectively.
Perhaps despite their long histories, under current proposals put forward as the "preferred option" by the local education authority, both King James I and Barrington Schools will close in September 2014. The two schools will be replaced by a single new school. Durham County Council argues that the closures are necessary as the existing school buildings are dated and that pupil numbers are falling. The proposal has been supported by the head teachers of both schools.
In terms of performance, as illustrated in the graph, only St John's RC Comprehensive School has consistently exceeded both the national average and Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
LEA
Local Education Authority
A local education authority is a local authority in England and Wales that has responsibility for education within its jurisdiction...
average for the proportion of students achieving five or more GCSEs (including Maths and English) at grades A* to C.
In the government's Level 2 CVA
Contextual value added
Contextual value added is a statistic used by the government of the United Kingdom to assess the performance of schools.The statistic is intended to show the progress children have made whilst attending a particular school...
(Contextual Value Added) statistic, which attempts to measure how much a school improves students between the end of National Curriculum Key Stage 2
Key Stage 2
Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when pupils are aged between 7 and 11. The term is applied differently in Northern Ireland where it refers to pupils in Year 5, Year 6 and...
and the end of Key Stage 4
Key Stage 4
Key Stage 4 is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other exams, in maintained schools in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland—normally known as Year 10 and Year 11 in England and Wales, and Year 11 and Year 12 in Northern Ireland, when pupils are...
, compared with how much other schools in the country improve students with similar circumstances, both King James and Barrington with 1054.8 points and 1053.5 points respectively, perform better St John's (1008.7 points).
At A-Level in 2009, none of the towns sixth form centres average points scores reached the national average of 739.1 A-Level points per student or the LEA average of 664.1 points. Amongst sixth form centres in the town, St John's performed best with an average score of 661.5 points per student. In comparison, King James had an average A-Level score of 557 points and Bishop Auckland College with 459.3 points taking last position in the LEA in terms of A-Level point score, a position occupied by King James in the previous year. The Bishop Barrington School no longer has its own sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
, with the school being a feeder for Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, or QE, is a sixth form college on Vane Terrace in Darlington, County Durham, England.-History:It was established in 1970 on the site of the old Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, designed by George Gordon Hoskins...
in Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
. The average A-Level points score at Queen Elizabeth being 871.8. In terms of "Level 3 CVA" all 3 sixth form centres in the town fall short of the base-line score of 1000, with St John's scoring 990.2, Bishop Auckland College 976 and King James 977.6. In comparison, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College has a Level 3 CVA score of 1000.2.
The needs of those with special educational needs are served by Evergreen Primary.
Schools in the town serving primary
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
age education are detailed in the table below.
| School | Results | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Cockton Hill Infant | Ofsted | http://www.cocktonhill-inf.durham.sch.uk/ |
| Cockton Hill Junior | Ofsted | http://www.cocktonhilljuniors.co.uk/ |
| Copeland Road Primary | Ofsted | http://www.copelandroad.durham.sch.uk/ |
| Etherley Lane Primary | Ofsted | http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/elane.durham/ |
| Oakley Cross Primary | Ofsted | http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/oakleyx.durham/ |
| St Andrew's Primary | Ofsted | http://st-andrews-pri.itss-durham.org.uk/ |
| St Anne's CofE Primary | Ofsted | http://www.st-annes-pri.durham.sch.uk/ |
| St Helen Auckland Community Primary | Ofsted | - |
| St Wilfrid's RC Primary | Ofsted | http://www.st-wilfrids.durham.sch.uk/ |
| Woodhouse Community Primary | Ofsted | http://www.woodhousecommunity.durham.sch.uk/ |
| Evergreen Primary School | Ofsted | http://www.evergreenschool.co.uk/ |
Healthcare
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
(NHS). The town has its own NHS hospital, Bishop Auckland General Hospital
Bishop Auckland General Hospital
Bishop Auckland Hospital is a small NHS district general hospital serving the western part of County Durham, with a primarily rural catchment area centred on the Wear Valley. It was opened in 2002 and then had around 286 beds, but this number has since been cut substantially. There has been much...
. The current Bishop Auckland General Hospital has 286 beds and since opening in 2002 has become a centre specialising in routine surgery. Although Bishop Auckland General was built with an Accident and Emergency department, it is expected that this was replaced with an "Urgent Care Centre" in 2009, when the local NHS trust concentrated acute
Acute (medicine)
In medicine, an acute disease is a disease with either or both of:# a rapid onset, as in acute infection# a short course ....
health care services at Durham and Darlington, and moved more routine surgery to Bishop Auckland General.
The new hospital was a PFI
Private Finance Initiative
The private finance initiative is a way of creating "public–private partnerships" by funding public infrastructure projects with private capital...
project and was announced by the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government in the summer of 1997. It replaced the old Bishop Auckland General Hospital which had been housed in the town's workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
buildings and temporary huts constructed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Other local hospitals include Darlington Memorial Hospital
Darlington Memorial Hospital
Darlington Memorial Hospital provides acute hospital services for the area around Darlington, South Durham and parts of North Yorkshire. Its quality of services and use of resources were rated 'excellent' by the HealthCare Commission Ratings....
and University Hospital of North Durham
University Hospital of North Durham
The University Hospital of North Durham , provides acute services for the north of County Durham, north east England; including Durham, Chester-le-Street and the former district of Derwentside. The hospital is operated by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. The Chief Executive is...
, which has replaced Durham Dryburn and was announced on the same day as the new Bishop Auckland General. All three of these hospitals are run by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which provides secondary health care services in the area. The local ambulance service is North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service
The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in North East England, covering the counties of County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear and the boroughs of Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and...
.
Utilities
Bishop Auckland's water and sewerage is managed by Northumbrian Water. Water supply comes from Burnhope ReservoirBurnhope Reservoir
Burnhope Reservoir is a reservoir above the village of Wearhead, County Durham.The reservoir was created by the construction of an earth embankment dam across the valley of Burnhope Burn, a tributary of the River Wear, 1 km above Wearhead...
via the Wear Valley water treatment works at Wearhead
Wearhead
Wearhead is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated at the top of Weardale between Cowshill and Ireshopeburn. It is named after the nearby source of the River Wear which runs eastwards for approx 40 miles to Sunderland....
. The present treatment works replaced old works on the site of the present one and another one closer to the town at Tunstall Reservoir
Tunstall Reservoir
Tunstall Reservoir lies 3.5 km north of the village of Wolsingham, in Weardale, County Durham.The reservoir was constructed on behalf of the Weardale and Shildon District Waterworks Company between 1887 and 1879. It was created by erecting an earth embankment dam across the valley of Waskerley...
. Contrary to popular belief the town does not receive water from Kielder Reservoir. Although water from Kielder can be pumped into the River Wear
River Wear
The River Wear is located in North East England, rising in the Pennines and flowing eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea at Sunderland.-Geology and history:...
, via the Tyne–Tees tunnel, upstream at Frosterley
Frosterley
Frosterley is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated in Weardale, on the River Wear close to its confluence with Bollihope Burn; between Wolsingham and Stanhope; 18 miles west of Durham City and 26 miles southwest of Newcastle-upon-Tyne....
, this water is not abstracted from the river until it reaches Chester-le-Street
Chester-le-Street
Chester-le-Street is a town in County Durham, England. It has a history going back to Roman times when it was called Concangis. The town is located south of Newcastle upon Tyne and west of Sunderland on the River Wear...
. Equally, although water can be pumped from the tunnel into Waskerley Reservoir
Waskerley Reservoir
Waskerley Reservoir is the largest of a group of three reservoirs located on Muggleswick Common, County Durham, the others being Smiddy Shaw and Hisehope Reservoirs....
, which in turn supplies Tunstall Reservoir, Tunstall water treatment works was closed in 2004, when the new Wear Valley works was brought into service.
The electricity distribution network operator
Distribution Network Operator
Distribution network operators are companies licensed to distribute electricity in Great Britain by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets....
for the area is the CE Electric
CE Electric UK
Northern Powergrid Holdings Company is an electrical distribution company based in Newcastle Upon Tyne in England...
-owned NEDL
Northern Electric
Northern Electric was an electricity supply and distribution company serving north east England.-History:It had its origins as the North Eastern Electricity Board, formed as part of the nationalisation of the electricity industry by the Electricity Act 1947....
(Northern Electric Distribution Limited). There are no power stations in the town.
Religion
The town has 3 Grade I listed churches, the Church of St Helen, the Church of St Andrew, and St Peter's chapel at Auckland CastleAuckland Castle
Auckland Castle is a castle in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England....
. Another Grade I listed church, the Saxon church at Escomb is also close to the town.
Additionally, the town has 3 grade II listed churches, Bishop Auckland Methodist Church on Cockton Hill Road,
St Anne's church next to the town hall in the Market Place, and St Peter's Church on Princes Street.
The town is in the located within the Auckland Deanery
Deanery
A Deanery is an ecclesiastical entity in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a Dean.- Catholic usage :...
and Archdeaconry of the Anglican Diocese of Durham
Diocese of Durham
The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the historic County Durham . It was created in AD 1000 to replace the Diocese of Lindisfarne...
. The Diocese has its administrative offices at Auckland Castle in the town. In the Roman Catholic faith the town is located in the St William Deanery of the Cleveland and South Durham Episcopal Area of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocese
Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle is a Roman Catholic diocese of the Latin Rite centred around St Mary's Cathedral in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in England...
.
Other denominations are also represented in the town. For example the Baptist Church is next door to the hospital. Bishop Auckland Baptist Church is part of the family of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. and is part of the Northern Association of Baptist churches
Sports
Bishop Auckland is famous for its amateur football team, Bishop Auckland AFCBishop Auckland F.C.
Bishop Auckland Football Club are an English football team based in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. They are one of the most successful amateur sides, having won the old FA Amateur Cup on 10 occasions , and losing finalists on a further 8. They currently play in the Northern League Division One. ...
, which won the FA Amateur Cup
FA Amateur Cup
The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when The Football Association abolished official amateur status.-History:...
10 times in the Trophy's 80 year history, having appeared in the Final on 18 occasions.
Bishop Auckland Football Club also helped out Manchester United after the Munich Air Crash in 1958 by donating three of their players, Derek Lewin, Bob Hardisty and Warren Bradley
Warren Bradley (footballer)
Warren Bradley was an English footballer, who played for Manchester United and England.Bradley was born in Hyde, Greater Manchester and educated at Hyde Grammar School, where he played for Bolton Wanderers youth and B teams for eight years...
. In return in 1996, Manchester United played a friendly against Bishop Auckland to help raise money when the club was threatened with bankruptcy after a member of a rival team sued over an injury. In 2007 Manchester United donated floodlights to Bishop Auckland Football Club, which the club has added to their new ground.
The adjacent village of West Auckland
West Auckland
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century...
is notable for having been home to the team to win one of the first international footballing competitions, the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy
Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy
The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy was an association football competition that took place twice, in Turin, Italy, in 1909 and 1911. It is sometimes referred to as The First World Cup. However it is predated by the Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva, which was hosted in 1908 also in Turin, as the...
, sometimes referred to as The First World Cup. Its team of local coal miners won the cup in the Easter of 1909 and again in 1911, defeating the mighty Juventus in the final. This story was portrayed in the 1982 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
"The World Cup - A Captain's Tale" made by Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
and starring Denis Waterman. The cup itself was stolen from West Auckland Town F.C.
West Auckland Town F.C.
West Auckland Town F.C. are a football club from West Auckland, County Durham, England, competing in the Northern League, in the ninth tier of the English football league system...
in 1994 and a replica now resides in West Auckland working men's club
Working men's club
Working men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...
.
In terms of sports facilities, Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, a council run leisure centre, has a 25 metres (82 ft) by 10 metres (32.8 ft) swimming pool and a 10 metres (32.8 ft) by 5 metres (16.4 ft) "learner" pool , as well as a gym, sauna, steam room and spa pool. Additionally, football pitches, tennis courts and bowling greens
Bowls
Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...
are provided at the Town Recreation Ground and Cockton Hill Recreation Ground. Henknowle Recreation Ground has a 5 a side pitch and a basketball court.
Notable people
Stan Laurel
Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
lived in the town during his childhood attending the town's Grammar School
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, King James 1st. His parents owned the now demolished Eden Theatre, which was located at the junction of Newgate Street and South Church Road. In 2007, a Wetherspoons
Wetherspoons
J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...
pub opened in the town named after Stan, and in August 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled on the site that his parent's theatre once occupied.
One of the UK's most prolific serial killers, Mary Ann Cotton
Mary Ann Cotton
Mary Ann Cotton was an English woman convicted of murdering her children and believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning.-Early life:...
, lived in the nearby village of West Auckland
West Auckland
West Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.It is not known exactly when West Auckland was first inhabited, but there is evidence of Auckland West in the history of St. Cuthbert in the 11th century...
. She was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
at Durham Jail
Durham (HM Prison)
HM Prison Durham is a local Category B men's prison, located in the Elvet area of Durham in County Durham, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
in 1873 for the murder of her stepson. However, it is believed that she could have been responsible for the deaths of at least 18 others.
Roland Boys Bradford
Roland Boys Bradford
Brigadier General Roland Boys Bradford VC MC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
, who during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
was awarded the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
for bravery on 1 October 1916, and became Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
, on 10 November 1917 at the age of 25 making him the youngest General in the British Army, was born in the nearby village of Witton Park
Witton Park
Witton Park is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland.- Famous people born in Witton Park :* Brigadier General Roland Boys Bradford VC -- youngest ever Brigadier General in the British Army at 25 * Hebrew scholar Dr...
.
Politician, Sir Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
, who was Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
of the UK between 1955 and 1957, was born in Bishop Auckland. As was, Sir Peter Soulsby
Peter Soulsby
Sir Peter Alfred Soulsby is a British Labour Party politician and the current Mayor of Leicester. He was the Member of Parliament for Leicester South from 2005 until he resigned in order to contest the new post of mayor in April 2011...
, the current MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Leicester South, and Mansfield
Mansfield (UK Parliament constituency)
Mansfield is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundary review:...
MP Alan Meale
Alan Meale
Sir Joseph Alan Meale is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Mansfield since 1987.-Early life:...
.
Jeremiah Dixon
Jeremiah Dixon
Jeremiah Dixon was an English surveyor and astronomer who is perhaps best known for his work with Charles Mason, from 1763 to 1767, in determining what was later called the Mason-Dixon line....
, Astronomer and Surveyor of the Mason–Dixon Line, footballer Charlie Wayman
Charlie Wayman
Charles Wayman was an English footballer.Wayman, who was born in Chilton, Bishop Auckland, was a prolific centre-forward in the first decade after the Second World War. Newcastle United signed him from Spennymoor United in September 1941, while he was working as a miner at Chilton Colliery...
who played for Newcastle United, Middlesbrough FC, and Southampton FC, Actor Christopher Hancock
Christopher Hancock
Christopher Hancock was a British television and theatre actor. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. His brother is actor Stephen Hancock. He and his brother trained at the Old Vic theatre school...
, who played Charlie Cotton
Charlie Cotton
Charles "Charlie" Cotton is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Christopher Hancock. Charlie was a semi-regular character, introduced in March 1986 as the estranged husband of Dot Cotton. He appeared in stints until producers made the decision to kill the character...
in EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
goalkeeper Ross Turnbull
Ross Turnbull
Ross Turnbull is an English footballer who is currently playing his club football for Chelsea as a goalkeeper in the Barclays Premier League.-Early life:...
, Town planner Thomas Wilfred Sharp
Thomas Wilfred Sharp
Thomas Wilfred Sharp was an English urban planner and writer. He was born in Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. He attended the local grammar school and then spent four years working for the borough surveyor...
, architect William Atkinson
William Atkinson (architect)
William Atkinson was an English architect best known for his designs for country houses in the Gothic style. He undertook almost fifty commissions, broadly distributed in the north of England and the Scottish lowlands, London and the surrounding counties, with occasional excursions to...
, scientific instrument maker John Bird
John Bird (astronomer)
John Bird , the great mathematical instrument maker, was born at Bishop Auckland. He worked in London for Jeremiah Sisson, and by 1745 he had his own business in the Strand. Bird was commissioned to make a brass quadrant 8 feet across for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where it is still...
, botanist Robert Kaye Greville
Robert Kaye Greville
Robert Kaye Greville was a Scottish mycologist, bryologist, and botanist. He was an accomplished artist and illustrator of natural history. In addition to science he was interested in political causes like abolitionism, capital punishment, keeping Sunday special and the temperance movement...
and Craig Raine
Craig Raine
Craig Raine is an English poet and critic born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. Along with Christopher Reid, he is the best-known exponent of Martian poetry.-Life:...
, the poet and critic were also all born in Bishop Auckland. Actor John Reed
John Reed (actor)
John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
, was born and spent his childhood in the nearby village of Close House.
In addition to Stan Laurel, the theologian and catholic priest Frederick William Faber, nineteenth century industrialist William George Armstrong
William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong
William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong CB, FRS was an effective Tyneside industrialist who founded the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing empire.-Early life:...
, linguist Harold Orton
Harold Orton
Harold Orton was an English university lecturer and dialectologist, best remembered as co-founder of the Survey of English Dialects . Orton developed the questionnaire for the survey together with Eugen Dieth...
, seventeenth century politician James Craggs the Elder
James Craggs the Elder
James Craggs the Elder was an English politician and the father of James Craggs the Younger.A son of Anthony Craggs of Holbeck, Durham, he was baptized on 10 June 1657...
and astronomer Thomas Wright
Thomas Wright (astronomer)
Thomas Wright was an English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way and speculate that faint nebulae were distant galaxies....
were all educated at the town's grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
.