Durham (GB)
Durham & some of its Sub-Offices
Durham, also known as the City of Durham, is a cathedral city and civil parish in the district and county of Durham, England.
The city is on the banks of the River Wear.he settlement was founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert. Durham Cathedral was a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. Durham Castle has been the home of Durham University since 1832. Both 11th-century buildings, the castle and cathedral were designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. It is the historic County Palatine of Durham's centre of governance.
HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre and was built in 1816. The name "Durham" comes from the Brythonic element dun, signifying a hill fort and related to -ton, and the Old Norse holme, which translates to island. The Lord Bishop of Durham takes a Latin variation of the city's name in his official signature, which is signed "N. Dunelm". Some attribute the city's name to the legend of the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who in legend guided the monks of Lindisfarne carrying the body of Saint Cuthbert to the site of the present city in 995 AD. Dun Cow Lane is said to be one of the first streets in Durham, being directly to the east of Durham Cathedral and taking its name from a depiction of the city's founding etched in masonry on the south side of the cathedral.
The city has been known by a number of names throughout history. The original Nordic Dun Holm was changed to Duresme by the Normans and was known in Latin as Dunelm. The modern form Durham came into use later in the city's history. The north-eastern historian Robert Surtees chronicled the name changes in his History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham but states that it is an "impossibility" to tell when the city's modern name came into being.
Owing to the divine providence evidenced in the city's legendary founding, the Bishop of Durham has always enjoyed the title "Bishop by Divine Providence" as opposed to other bishops, who are "Bishop by Divine Permission". However, as the north-east of England lay so far from Westminster, the bishops of Durham enjoyed extraordinary powers such as the ability to hold their own parliament, raise their own armies, appoint their own sheriffs and Justices, administer their own laws, levy taxes and customs duties, create fairs and markets, issue charters, salvage shipwrecks, collect revenue from mines, administer the forests and mint their own coins. So far-reaching were the bishop's powers that the steward of Bishop Antony Bek commented in 1299 AD: "There are two kings in England, namely the Lord King of England, wearing a crown in sign of his regality and the Lord Bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown, in sign of his regality in the diocese of Durham". All this activity was administered from the castle and buildings surrounding the Palace Green. Many of the original buildings associated with these functions of the county palatine survive on the peninsula that constitutes the ancient city.
Durham was issued with the 267 numeral by the Post Office in 1844
Contents
Durham City
Sub-Offices
Annfield Plain
Annfield Plain Station Office
Annfield Plain railway station was in County Durham in Northern England, on the original south section of the industrial Stanhope and Tyne Railway, which diverged from the East Coast Main Line south of Newcastle.
The station was opened by the North Eastern Railway, and it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The station was closed by British Railways on 23 May 1955.
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New Kyo
Catchgate
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Catchgate is a former mining village in County Durham, England. It has a population of approximately 3,000 people.
Its nearest town is Stanley, also a former coal mining community. The town of Consett, once famous for its steel works, is 5 miles (8.0 km) away.
It is bordered by the villages of Greencroft to the west, Annfield Plain to the south, Harelaw to the north, and West Kyo (also known as Old Kyo) to the east. Also once to the west of Catchgate was Pontop village, now no more than a few bungalows, dominated by the enormous Pontop Pike television and radio transmitter.
Howden-le-Wear
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Howden-le-Wear is a village in County Durham, in England. Howden-le-Wear is approximately 1 mile south of the large market town of Crook.
It was issued with the K10 Post Office numeral in 1887.
Willington
Willington is a former mining village in County Durham, England, in the foothills of the Pennines and near the River Wear close to Crook, Bishop Auckland and Durham City.
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Like many communities in the area Willington's economy was largely based on coal mining. The closure of the colliery in 1967 therefore affected the local economy. Although a handful of job opportunities remain, work for many residents is now located outside the village, and Willington functions largely as a satellite village for Bishop Auckland and Durham.
It was issued with the C71 Post Office numeral in 1887
Willington Station Office
The station opened on 1 April 1857 by the North Eastern Railway. It was situated on the south side of Commercial Road. Along with Hunwick and Brancepeth, this was one of the first stations to open on the line.
Nearby were the Willington and Sunnybrow Collieries. The station was closed to passengers on 4 May 1964, although it reopened for Miners Gala in July 1964. The station was closed to goods traffic on 10 August 1964.
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