Durham

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This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

County Durham is bounded by the Rivers Tyne and Tees to the north and south, by the North Sea to the east and by the Pennine watershed in the west. To the cartographer Richard Blome, writing in 1673 – doubtless from well south of the Trent – the county seemed ‘far engaged northwards and of a sharp and piercing air’. R. Blome, Britannia (1673), 92. Early-Stuart Durham’s principal distinguishing feature was its unique status as ‘the last principality’ – a county palatine presided over by the bishop of Durham.

In urging the Rump to establish a university at Durham, the county’s inhabitants extolled the virtues of its intended site: ‘the said city of Durham is pleasant, in a wholesome air, upon a sweet river [the Wear] that doth near surround the whole city … it is within seven miles of Sunderland – a navigable port at the mouth of the said river – within 12 miles of Newcastle [upon Tyne]… provisions of all sorts are plentiful and fire-fuel [coal] in abundance’. The Humble Desires of the Gentlemen, Free-holders, and Inhabitants of the County and City of Durham…for Founding a Colledge at Du