75-644: The King Edward VII Bridge is a railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead , in North East England . It is a Grade II listed structure. The King Edward VII bridge has been described as “Britain’s last great railway bridge”. The bridge was designed and engineered by Charles A. Harrison, the Chief Civil Engineer of the North Eastern Railway , and built by
150-519: A branch of Barclays bank. During the period, George Gordon Hoskins was responsible for much of the town's architecture, designing buildings such as The King's Head Hotel. Darlington Free Library, a Grade II listed building in Crown Street, was built for £10,000 by Edward Pease . His daughter, Lady Lymington, opened the building on 23 October 1885 and presented it to the town council who agreed to operate it in perpetuity. As of 2022 , it contains
225-642: A library and "centre for local studies". In 1870, The Northern Echo newspaper launched. Its most famous editor, William Thomas Stead , died on the Titanic . Facing the present Northern Echo building on Priestgate is the William Stead public house named for him. In 1939, Darlington had the most cinema seats per capita in the United Kingdom. On the night of 13 January 1945, a Lancaster bomber piloted by Pilot Officer William Stuart McMullen of Canada
300-472: A major symbol in the regional identity of the North East of England, the river plays host to a plethora of different species, the number of which is growing year on year in line with the rivers improving health. The trail looks to capture the imagination of residents and tourists visiting the area – providing them with the ultimate 'fact finding' design experience, which celebrates the salmon's migratory journey in
375-475: A relatively high proportion of ethnic minority residents (39.2% of the population in that area, compared to a town average of 6.3%). Constituted as a charity under UK law in 1982, the mosque offers worship facilities, as well as Islamic education, and has its own telecommunications mast for calls to prayer. Teesside International Airport is located 5 mi (8 km) east of Darlington town centre; it serves County Durham and North Yorkshire . The airport
450-522: A towering spire and a grade I listed status. Other churches include Methodist , Baptist , Roman Catholic and Jehovah Witness places of worship, as well as Holy Trinity Church and the grade II listed St John the Evangelist Church which closed for worship in 2023. The Jamia Mosque and Islamic Society of Darlington is located in the North Lodge Terrace area of the town, an area with
525-677: A warehouse facility, which opened in early 2020, employing 1,300 full-time staff, one of the town's biggest employers. EE is the largest private sector employer in the town, with 2,500 staff. The company took over its operations from one of its predecessors, Orange Mobile. The Morton Park area of Darlington is currently undergoing a partial redevelopment, with areas of unused waste land being redeveloped into modern industrial and office space. Other commercial spaces in Darlington include North Road Industrial Estate, Cleveland Trading Estate and Faverdale Industrial Estate. The council depot on Central Park
600-670: Is a river in North East England . Its length (excluding tributaries) is 73 miles (118 km). It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'. The Tyne Rivers Trust measure the whole Tyne catchment as 2,936 km (1,134 square miles), containing 4,399 km (2,733 miles) of waterways. The Ordnance Survey records 'the source of
675-454: Is a community-based organisation that works to improve habitat , promote better understanding of the Tyne catchment area and build the reputation of the Tyne catchment as a place of environmental excellence. With its proximity to surrounding coalfields , the Tyne was a major route for the export of coal from the 13th century until the decline of the coal mining industry in North East England in
750-453: Is also to be redeveloped into commercial space. Darlington has a rich engineering heritage and several notable engineering firms established locally. Bridge building was particularly important in the town. Bridges built in Darlington span the River Nile and Amazon . Local engineering firms include: As an historic market town, a weekly outdoor market was held on the market square, which
825-526: Is an international fine artist who gained credit for his early work dedicated to the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] The Forum Music Centre, opened in 2004, hosts regular live music events, from Ska and Punk to Indie and Classic Rock. It also runs a comedy club. As well as live music, the facility houses a state of the art recording studio and several rehearsal rooms. The Carmel Rhythm Club, at Carmel College in
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#1732851208386900-430: Is based at Darlington Town Hall on Feethams in the centre of Darlington. Darlington was an ancient parish . It was historically divided into four townships : Archdeacon Newton , Blackwell , Cockerton , and a Darlington township covering the town itself and adjoining areas. Such townships also became civil parishes in 1866. A body of improvement commissioners was established in 1823 to provide infrastructure to
975-425: Is on Hollyhurst Road, in the corridor between Woodland Road and The Denes. The private Woodlands Hospital is at Morton Park. The former Civic Theatre, now The Hippodrome , is a popular arts venue in the town, hosting a mix of musicals, dramas, plays and pantomimes. In 2016, Darlington Civic Theatre closed to mark the start of a £12.3 million renovation project that included a £4.5 million lottery grant from
1050-467: Is one of the biggest in the country. An indoor market is located underneath the town clock on Prebend Row. Retailers in the area include: In November 2012, a deal was signed between Darlington Borough Council and developer Terrace Hill for a £30 million re-development of the site of the former Feethams bus depot. The proposal had an expected completion date of late 2014, though this did overrun with completion early 2016. Darlington Memorial Hospital
1125-540: Is the main administrative centre of the unitary authority Borough of Darlington . The borough is a constituent member of the devolved Tees Valley area. The River Skerne , a tributary of the River Tees , flows through the town. It is sited near to the Yorkshire Dales National Park , being 11 miles (18 km) from the park boundary near the town of Richmond . Darlington had a population of 107,800 in
1200-581: The 2021 Census , which classes it as a "large town". In the 19th century, establishment of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (the world's first permanent steam locomotive -powered passenger railway) led to the town having an industrial and manufacturing economy. Darlington started as an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon Dearthington , which seemingly meant 'the settlement of Deornoth's people' but, by Norman times,
1275-553: The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company in Darlington . The bridge consists of four lattice steel spans resting on concrete piers. The total length of the bridge is 1,150 ft (350 m) and 112 ft (34 m) above high water mark. The total cost was over £500,000. The bridge was opened by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on 10 July 1906, despite being still unfinished at this time. General traffic began using
1350-527: The East Coast Main Line route switched to accessing Newcastle Station via the new crossing, while trains bound for Sunderland and Middlesbrough continued to use the High Level Bridge . During March 1907, a freight line to Dunston was opened to the east of the main line. During 1908, Harrison himself reportedly commented of the bridge that "... there was nothing very striking in the design of
1425-402: The High Level Bridge , an elaborate twin-deck railway and road bridge built near the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne to allow traffic to cross the River Tyne , was officially opened by Queen Victoria . Once the bridge was completed, trains could reach the recently-built Newcastle railway station . However, this arrangement was not ideal in practice as, in order to depart the station back across
1500-715: The North Tyne river' at grid reference NY 605974 at Deadwater, a few tens of metres short of the Scottish border. It flows southeast through the village of Kielder before entering first Bakethin Reservoir and then Kielder Water , both set within Kielder Forest . It then passes by the village of Bellingham before the River Rede enters as a left-bank tributary at Redesmouth . It passes Hadrian's Wall near Chollerford before joining
1575-622: The Office for National Statistics , with figures in £ millions. Finance and manufacturing are now the main elements of its economy. A major employer in the area is the English division of the Student Loans Company , Student Finance England, which is based at Lingfield Point and employs over 1,000 people. Other large service sector companies with offices in the town include Darlington Building Society . Darlington Borough Council announced that
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#17328512083861650-609: The River Tees and River Skerne pass through the borough, the Skerne later joining the Tees which then flows east and into the North Sea . Due to river bifurcation at the Baydale Beck and Cocker Beck, which later flow into the Tees and Skerne respectively, much of the western side of Darlington forms a river island . In the north are Harrowgate , Coatham Mundeville and Beaumont Hill and to
1725-423: The 19th century, Darlington Quaker families such as those of Pease and Backhouse emerged as major employers and philanthropists. Industrialist Joseph Pease gave Darlington its landmark clock tower in 1864. The clock face was crafted by T. Cooke & Sons of York , and bells cast by John Warner & Sons of nearby Norton-on-Tees . The bells are sisters to Big Ben . Darlington Mechanics Institute
1800-521: The Heritage Lottery Fund and revamped as The Hippodrome and connects to the children's theatre Hullabaloo . The Friends' Meeting House in Skinnergate is a Grade II* listed building. The Friends (Quakers) have met on this site since 1678, having previously met in private homes. The present building dates mainly from 1846. Upstairs of The Quaker meeting house is home to Artist Lucas Roy. Lucas
1875-545: The High Level Bridge, trains had to reverse out of the station, a relatively tedious process. During the following 50 years, Britain's railway network and the number of passengers had expanded greatly. By the 1890s, the sheer amount of traffic crossing the High Level Bridge, roughly 800 train and light engine movements every day, had become a major concern of the NER, who operated services across it. It had become clear to many that
1950-620: The Hummersknott end of town, was another music venue. It opened the same year as the Forum. Darlington Dog Show was a championship event from 1969. It was usually held in September on the showground in South Park ; but it has now moved to Ripon. Darlington has a wide array of churches scattered around the town including the iconic and notable parish church of St Cuthbert's in the centre of town, with
2025-597: The Mouth of the Tyne in the summer 2008 before starting their long journey back to their birthplace. For three days, from 18 to 20 July 2008, a temporary bamboo artwork was installed over the Tyne close to the Gateshead Millennium Bridge . The Bambuco Bridge was created as part of that year's 'SummerTyne' festival. Darlington Darlington is a market and industrial town in County Durham , England. It
2100-470: The NER. Harrison was the nephew of Thomas Elliot Harrison who, together with the pioneering railway engineer Robert Stephenson , had previously produced plans for the existing High Level Bridge. The early design of the bridge called for the river to be crossed by two spans, supported by girder lattices, that would join up with several land approach arches; however, it had to be redesigned when the presence of abandoned coal workings were discovered at both ends of
2175-537: The Newcastle end. The foundations under the three large river piers were laid by divers working in caissons (large, watertight chambers) underwater in compressed air . This was known to be dangerous work even for the time; as such, no one under the age of 40 could be employed in this capacity and each man spent just four hours per shift in the caissons. Nevertheless, one man is recorded as having died, and another as having become seriously ill, that had been attributed to
2250-601: The Northeast of England. FINS, REFLECTION and JOURNEY were the first three cubes to be launched in December 2007 from a family of ten. Each cube is inspired by the textures, changing colours, movement and journey of the salmon. With each offering a 'modern day keepsake' to take away, in the form of a designed Bluetooth message. The other cubes will be moving along the River Tyne over one year visiting different locations from Kielder to
2325-676: The River Wear once followed the current route of the lower River Team and merged with the Tyne at Dunston . Ice diverted the course of the Wear to its current location, flowing east the course of the Tyne) and joining the North Sea at Sunderland . The River Tyne is estimated to be around 30 million years old. The conservation of the Tyne has been handled by various bodies over the past 500 years. Conservation bodies have included: Newcastle Trinity House , and
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2400-620: The River Wear. Ptolemy's Tína could be a "misplaced reference" to either this river or the Tyne in East Lothian. There is a theory that * tīn was a word that meant "river" in the local Celtic language or in a language spoken in England before the Celts came: compare Tardebigge . A supposed pre-Celtic root *tei , meaning 'to melt, to flow' has also been proposed as an etymological explanation of
2475-575: The South Tyne near Warden to the northwest of Hexham. The South Tyne rises at Tyne Head on Alston Moor , Cumbria close to the sources of the Tees and the Wear . Initially it flows north through the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), enters Northumberland downstream of Alston and turns to the east as it approaches the town of Haltwhistle . Paralleling Hadrian's Wall which lies to
2550-691: The Tyne Improvement Commission. The Tyne Improvement Commission conservation lasted from 1850 until 1968. The 1850–1950 era was the worst period for pollution of the river. The Tyne Improvement Commission laid the foundations for what has become the modern day Port of Tyne. Under the management of the Tyne Improvement Commissioners, over a period of the first 70 years the Tyne was deepened from 1.83 to 9.14 m (6 feet 0 inches to 30 feet 0 inches) and had 150 million tonnes dredged from it. Inside these 70 years,
2625-474: The Tyne and similarly named rivers, as has a Brittonic derivative of Indo-European *teihx , meaning 'to be dirty' ( Welsh tail , 'manure'). LJ Ross ' thriller Seven Bridges from the DCI Ryan series evolves around the Tyne bridges. The river is represented, and personified, in a sculpture unveiled in 1968 as part of the new Civic Centre (seat of Newcastle City Council ). Sculpted by David Wynne ,
2700-409: The author Daniel Defoe visited the town during the 18th century, he noted that it was eminent for "good bleaching of linen, so that I have known cloth brought from Scotland to be bleached here". However, he also disparaged the town, writing that it had "nothing remarkable but dirt"; roads would have typically been unpaved in the 18th century. The so-called Durham Ox came from Darlington; born in
2775-458: The boundary between Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank and the Borough of Gateshead on the south bank for 13 miles (21 km), in the course of which it flows under ten bridges. To the east of Gateshead and Newcastle, the Tyne divides Hebburn and Jarrow on the south bank from Walker and Wallsend on the north bank. The Tyne Tunnel runs under the river to link Jarrow and Wallsend. Finally
2850-473: The bridge except that it was rather larger in span and width and greater in height above the river than most bridges that had been erected in the last few years". He did, however, think that the caissons of the structure were the largest that had been sunk since those used for the Forth Bridge . During 1959, the locomotive shed at Greenesfield, Gateshead was closed; this closure allowed for the simplification of
2925-493: The bridge on 1 October 1906. Prior to its completion, to reach Newcastle railway station , trains used the older High Level Bridge and had to leave the station in the same direction they entered by reversing. The construction of the King Edward VII Bridge provided four more railway tracks and a direct line through the station, enabling trains to arrive or depart from either side, greatly easing congestion. During 1849,
3000-467: The bridge). It was decided to name the structure after the reigning monarch, hence its name of the King Edward VII Bridge. According to the Evening Chronicle , the bridge was the first to carry four main tracks, albeit the spaces between the tracks have occasionally proved to be too narrow for some modern, high-speed trains. On 27 September 1906, the effectiveness of the structure was demonstrated via
3075-446: The caissons were filled with roughly 28,450 tonnes of concrete and piers constructed on top of them. Each pier, composed of sandstone and granite masonry , was built in a triple-shaft arrangement, being 6.6 by 9.3 m (22 by 31 ft) for the side-shafts and 4.1 by 9.3 m (13 by 31 ft) for the central shaft. Once the piers were finished, the spans were assembled in situ on timber trestles . Those spans that were above
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3150-563: The completion of the bridge, the cableway was dismantled and the cable was transported to the Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson shipyard in Wallsend , where it was reused in the launch of the ocean liner RMS Mauretania . Although the structure was not even fully completed, on 10 July 1906, the bridge was officially opened by King Edward VII from a temporary platform at the Gateshead end of
3225-448: The construction of a second railway bridge over the Tyne was now desperately needed to take the pressure off the High Level Bridge. Options considered included the building of a new bridge between Dunston and Elswick , or between Heaton and Pelaw , as well as the widening of the existing High Level Bridge to carrying six tracks instead of four. By 1898, the company had settled on its preferred option of building an additional bridge on
3300-403: The contract for the bridge's construction was awarded to the Darlington -based Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company ; the programme was internally financed entirely by the NER. Excluding land purchases, it cost roughly £500,000 to construct, which has been estimated as being around £55 million in 2016 prices. On 29 July 1902, work on digging out the foundations for the structure commenced at
3375-573: The council has been a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority along with Hartlepool , Middlesbrough , Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees . Unlike Darlington, the other four districts in the combined authority had all been part of the short-lived county of Cleveland between 1974 and 1996. As of 2024 , the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Darlington constituency is Labour 's Lola McEvoy . Former members of parliament for
3450-531: The early 19th century, this steer became renowned for its excellent proportions which came to inform the standard for Shorthorn cattle. During the early 19th century, Darlington remained a small market town. The Stockton and Darlington Railway ran steam locomotives designed for passengers and goods, built to a standard gauge, on a permanent main line with branches. On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson 's engine, Locomotion No. 1 , travelled between Shildon and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, an event that
3525-404: The effects of working in the compressed air conditions. Other workers became ill as a result of breathing in sulphuretted hydrogen , which seeped from the coal seams that the foundations were dug into. Rock was excavated from inside the caissons by blasting; the workers took refuge in an air-locked chamber in the access shaft while charges were being detonated. Once excavation work was finished,
3600-474: The first to be constructed since the 1960s. It was intended to be the 50th member of the long withdrawn LNER Peppercorn Class A1 engine, called Tornado and numbered 60163, from scratch in the 1853 former Stockton and Darlington Railway Carriage Works at Hopetown. Many of the original fleet had been built at Darlington locomotive works in the late 1940s. Tornado was completed in January 2008. To commemorate
3675-424: The intended bridge. The revised design remained a lattice girder bridge that carried four railway tracks, but featured a total of four spans over the River Tyne. These spans were supported by five sandstone piers, which were decorated with pairs of cutaway arches, three of which are in the river itself. The northern approach featured a total of ten arches, which were used to house workshops . On 13 February 1902,
3750-416: The massive bronze figure River God Tyne incorporates flowing water into its design. The Environment Agency is currently working with architects and cultural consultancy xsite, in collaboration with Commissions North, to create a travelling sculpture trail along the River Tyne. The Tyne Salmon Trail will serve as a celebration of the river, its heritage and its increasingly diverse ecosystem. Historically
3825-473: The more built-up parts of the Darlington township. The commissioners were superseded in 1850 when the whole Darlington township was made a local board district , governed by an elected local board. The local board was in turn replaced when Darlington was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867. The borough boundaries were enlarged on several occasions, notably absorbing the Harrowgate Hill area from
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#17328512083863900-416: The more notable facilities used in the construction of the bridge was an elevated cableway which ran across the river. At the time, it was the largest cableway in the world, having a length of 463.5 m (1,521 ft) and being suspended 61 m (200 ft) above the Tyne at high water. A 7.6 cm (3.0 in) diameter steel cable was used to convey in excess of 23,000 tonnes of material. Following
3975-492: The name had changed to Derlinton. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the town was usually known by the name of Darnton . Darlington has a historic market area in the town centre. St Cuthbert's Church , built in 1183, is one of the most important early English churches in the north of England and is Grade I listed. The oldest church in Darlington is St Andrew's Church , built around 1100 in Haughton-le-Skerne . When
4050-575: The north, the river continues past Redburn and Haydon Bridge to join the North Tyne at Warden. This low level east-west corridor through the Pennines is referred to as the Tyne Gap. From the confluence of the North and South Tyne at Warden, the river flows east through Northumberland by Hexham, Corbridge and Prudhoe and enters the county of Tyne and Wear to the east of Wylam . The river subsequently forms
4125-521: The north-east are Whinfield and Haughton Le Skerne. To the east is the suburb of Eastbourne and Red Hall with Firthmoor and Skerne Park to the south. Situated in the west end are Hummersknott , Mowden and Blackwell . Finally, to the north-west are Branksome , Cockerton , Faverdale , The Denes , West Park , High Grange and Pierremont which is associated with the notable Henry Pease (MP) . The trend of regional gross value added of Darlington at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by
4200-407: The parish of Haughton-le-Skerne in 1872, Cockerton in 1915, Haughton-le-Skerne in 1930 and Blackwell in 1967. In 1915 the borough was elevated to become a county borough , taking over county-level functions from Durham County Council . The borough was substantially enlarged in 1974 to take in most of the surrounding Darlington Rural District, such that the modern borough of Darlington covers both
4275-530: The present site; during that year, plans for the proposed bridge were revealed to the public in the Evening Chronicle . On 9 August 1899, the updated North Eastern Railway Act 1899 ( 62 & 63 Vict. c. ccxxx), which included the construction of another railway bridge over the Tyne among its provisions, received royal assent . In its original proposed form, the new bridge followed a functional design developed by Charles Augustus Harrison, chief engineer of
4350-400: The river flows between South Shields and Tynemouth into the North Sea . Thomas John Taylor (1810–1861) theorised that the main course of the river anciently flowed through what is now Team Valley , its outlet into the tidal river being by a waterfall at Bill Point (in the area of Bill Quay ). His theory was not far from the truth, as there is evidence that prior to the last ice age ,
4425-444: The river were erected one at a time; during this process, half of the river's width would be closed to traffic for safety reasons. The bridge deck consists of steel lattice girders of the double Warren truss type, being 8.2 m (27 ft) deep overall at 3.35 m (11.0 ft) spacing. The deck itself is 15.2 m (50 ft) wide, while the total weight of the steel work is estimated to be around 5,820 tonnes. Perhaps one of
4500-429: The running of ten locomotives, weighing around 100 tons each, coupled together in two sets of five, over the bridge at a leisurely speed of 6–8 mph (10–13 km/h). These locomotives were intentionally running side-by-side in order to exert the maximum possible strain upon each of the bridge's girders. On 1 October 1906, the King Edward VII Bridge was opened to general traffic. Shortly thereafter, those trains using
4575-565: The second half of the 19th century, with islands (including Kings Meadow , the largest) removed and meanders in the river straightened. Nothing definite is known of the origin of the designation Tyne , nor is the river known by that name until the Saxon period: Tynemouth is recorded in Anglo-Saxon as Tinanmuðe (probably dative case ). The Vedra on the Roman map of Britain may be the Tyne, or may be
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#17328512083864650-660: The second half of the 20th century. The largest coal staithes (a structure for loading coal onto ships) were located at Dunston in Gateshead, Hebburn and Tyne Dock, South Shields. The wooden staithes at Dunston, built in 1890, have been preserved, although they were partially destroyed by fire in 2006 and then a further fire in May 2020 means that the Staithes is becoming more vulnerable to vandalism and would need extensive financing to preserve it and make it secure. In 2016, Tyne Dock, South Shields
4725-569: The site for the DL1 complex, previously a car park for Darlington Town Hall , was also to be redeveloped to house riverside office space for the Department for Education to replace its previous office on the edge of the town in Mowden, in an effort to safeguard Darlington jobs. This was officially opened on 19 March 2015. The Disclosure and Barring Service has a national office in the town. Amazon UK operates
4800-430: The town and a surrounding rural hinterland. The enlarged borough was also reconstituted as a non-metropolitan district as part of the 1974 reforms, with Durham County Council once more providing county-level services to the town. The borough was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1997, regaining its independence from the county council. The borough remains part of County Durham for ceremonial purposes . Since 2016,
4875-496: The town include Peter Gibson , Jenny Chapman , Alan Milburn (the former Secretary of State for Health under Tony Blair 's Labour government) and Michael Fallon (who was Secretary of State for Defence under David Cameron 's coalition government and Theresa May 's Conservative government). Darlington is located in the south of County Durham close to the River Tees, which acts as the border between Durham and Yorkshire. Both
4950-535: The town's contribution to the railways, David Mach 's 1997 work Train is located alongside the A66, close to the original Stockton–Darlington railway. It is a life-size brick sculpture of a steaming locomotive emerging from a tunnel, made from 185,000 Accrington Nori bricks . The work had a budget of £760,000. In 2001, Darlington became the first place in England to allow same-sex civil ceremonies and as of 2022 , it hosts an annual Gay Pride Festival at venues across
5025-402: The town. A 2005 Darlington Borough Council project to pedestrianise areas of the town centre, this included some Victorian features along High Row. In August 2008, a fire, in which nobody was killed, caused damage and weeks of closure until the damage fixed for several shops (including Woolworths ). The King's Head Hotel was also affected with damage to the roof and 100 bedrooms, the hotel
5100-503: The track layout across the bridge; most notable among this work was the reduction from four lines to three across the south-western approach to the bridge. Between 1976 and 1991, British Rail electrified most of the East Coast Main Line. As part of this programme, the bridge was equipped with overhead wiring gantries. In 1994, the bridge was Grade II listed . River Tyne The River Tyne / ˈ t aɪ n /
5175-543: The two Tyne piers were built; Northumbrian, Tyne and Albert Docks were built, as well as the staithes at Whitehill and Dunston. This infrastructure enabled millions of tonnes of cargo to be handled by the Port by 1910. The tidal river has been managed by the Port of Tyne Authority since 1968. The River Tyne has a charity dedicated to protecting and enhancing its waters and surrounding areas. The Tyne Rivers Trust, established in 2004,
5250-511: Was able to reopen in 2012. There is one main tier of local government covering Darlington, at unitary authority level, being Darlington Borough Council . The council is a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority , led by the directly elected Mayor of Tees Valley . Most of the built-up area of Darlington is an unparished area , although some outer parts of the urban area now extend into neighbouring parishes. The council
5325-427: Was known as Durham Tees Valley Airport from 2004 until mid-2019. It has flights to a few domestic locations across the UK and international flights to some locations in Europe. Many private or general aviation flights use the airport. The airport has a Fire Training Centre. The nearest large airports are Newcastle (42 mi (68 km)) and Leeds Bradford (62 mi (100 km)). Darlington railway station
5400-500: Was on a training exercise when one of its engines caught fire and it crashed on farmland near Lingfield Lane. McMullen heroically stayed at the controls while his crew parachuted to safety and directed the stricken aircraft away from the houses below. He was killed on impact. His heroism was honoured by renaming Lingfield Lane "McMullen Road" and erecting a memorial monument. Starting in 1993, rail enthusiast group A1 Steam Locomotive Trust worked on building an all-new steam locomotive,
5475-546: Was opened in 1854 by Elizabeth Pease Nichol , who had donated towards its cost. In 1853, South Park was laid out, over 91 acres (37 ha), with financial support from the Backhouse family. Architect Alfred Waterhouse , famous for work including London's Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall , designed Darlington's Grade II listed Old Town Hall and Market Hall, Darlington in 1860. Four years later he contributed Backhouse's Bank building that is, as of 2022 ,
5550-586: Was seen as ushering in the modern railway age. Later in the 19th century, the town became an important centre for railway manufacturing. An early railway works was the Hopetown Carriage Works (est. 1853), which supplied carriages and locomotives to the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The engineering firm of William and Alfred Kitching also manufactured locomotives there around this time. The town eventually developed three significant railway works: During
5625-490: Was still involved with coal, importing 2 million tonnes of shipments a year. The lower reaches of the Tyne were, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the world's most important centres of shipbuilding , and there are still shipyards in South Shields and Hebburn to the south of the river. To support the shipbuilding and export industries of Tyneside, the lower reaches of the river were extensively remodelled during
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