In transcribing the following paragraphs from the Internet Archive online version of the Gazetteer’s entry on Durham, I have expanded the abbreviations for easier reading and added paragraphing, subtitles, and links to relevant material on this site, including Victorian images and modern photographs. The illustration is in the original. The Gazetteer has 1856 on the title-page for this volume, but the statements in this essay date it to 1851 — George P. Landow]
DURHAM, a northern maritime county in England, consisting chiefly of a long contiguous tract forming the co. properly so called, and of three detached portions. Of these the largest is in the north of Northumberland, where it forms an irregular triangle, with its base on the German Ocean, and has annexed to it, at a short distance from the coast, Holy Island, and the small group of the Fern Islands; the second is on the southeast part of the coast of the same county; the third, forming the parish of Craike, is wholly enclosed by Yorkshire, and is situated about 10 miles north of the town of York. The county proper is in the form of an irregular triangle, the vertex of which, somewhat flattened, is on the west, where it is contiguous both with Cumberland and Westmorland. The coast line on the east forms its base. The north side is bounded by Northumberland, from which it is partly separated by the Tyne; the south side by Yorkshire, from which it is separated throughout by the Tees; greatest length west to east, 55 miles; greatest breadth, 35 miles; area, 1097 square miles or 702,080 acres.
The surface is greatly diversified. In the west it becomes mountainous, being covered by portions of what has been called the north Penine range, one of whose summits, that of Kill op Law, here attains the height of 2196 feet. To the east of this range a bleak elevated tract extends, and is continued by a series of branches, some of which stretch as far as the sea, and form a number of rocky headlands. The finest part of the county lies in the valleys, which separate those branches, and form the channels of numerous streams, of which the most important, in addition to the Tyne and Tees, already mentioned, is the Weir, which traverses the county centrally, first in an east and the northeast direction. All these rivers are navigable to a considerable distance from their mouths.
The geological formations of the county are well defined. The strata lowest in the series but most elevated in position belong to the mountain limestone, of which both the mountains in the west and the elevated plateau to the east of it are composed. Immediately above this, continuing east, appear first the millstone grit, then a part of the valuable coal field to which Newcastle has given its name, then the magnesian limestone, and finally the new red sandstone. The continuity of the strata is frequently broken by veins of basalt or greenstone. The west part of the county, both from its elevated position and the bleak moors which cover its surface, is altogether unfitted for agriculture, and, scarcely admitting of improvement, is allowed to remain in a state of nature. A number of small hardy sheep, much esteemed for the delicacy of their flesh, roam over it, and manage to pick up a scanty subsistence, and on some parts, especially where limestone forms the immediate subsoil, some tracts of good sound pasture are employed in the rearing of young stock; but the average annual value of the whole moorlands is supposed not to exceed 1s. per acre.
To the E. of the moorlands, though much of the soil continues to be of a thin clayey and intractable nature, a very decided improvement takes place, and good crops of all the ordinary cereals are raised. Friable loams admirably adapted for root crops, especially turnips, are not unfrequent, and along the N. bank of the Tees, particularly near its estuary, are considerable tracts of rich alluvial soil, partly under the plough, but more frequently kept in permanent pasture, on which many of the finest cattle of the kingdom are grazed. Indeed in this branch of agricultural industry the farmers of Durham are not surpassed, and their famous short horns or Teeswater breed of cattle, are universally admitted to combine the most valuable properties of the race in their highest perfection. The best wooded part of the county is the vale of Derwent, where much fine hardwood timber, particularly oak, is grown.
It is not, however, from the soil that Durham derives the principal source of its wealth. Its richest treasures lie deeply buried in its bowels. Reference has alreadv been made to its coal field, one of the most valuable which England possesses, and in the W., where the surface is almost without value, the limestone beneath it abounds in rich veins of lead, which are worked to a great extent, and yield a profit only inferior to that of the coal. The value of the minerals is much increased by the facilities of transport. Besides three navigable rivers, each with an important town and tolerably good harbour at its mouth, where, at least in spring tides, large vessels can load, the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway, forming one of the main trunks by which the communication between the metropolis and Scotland is maintained, traverses the county in a north direction for about 45 miles , and is joined by numerous branches passing through the heart of the mineral fields, and conveying their produce either to the trunks or to the coast, where, in addition to the harbour already mentioned, that of Hartlepool furnishes an important outlet. For administrative purposes, Durham is divided into the four wards of Chester, Darlington, Easington, and Stockton. Ecclesiastically it is in the diocese of its own name and the province of York, and contains 60 parishes. Many of the livings are the most valuable of the kingdom, and much of the land belongs properly to the church. It consists politically of two divisions a north and a S. each of which sends two members to parliament. Durham city is the capital, where the assizes and the quarter sessions are held. Pop. (1841), 324,284; (1851), 390,997.
([Information for this entry provided by a] Local Correspondent.) [III, 887]
Bibliography
Blackie, Walker Graham. The Imperial Gazetteer: A General Dictionary of Geography, Physical, Political, Statistical and Descriptive. 4 vol South London: Blackie & Son, 1856. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web.9 November 2018.
Last modified 28 January 2019