North-East England is one of the nine official
regions of England and comprises the combined area of
Northumberland,
County Durham,
Tyne and Wear, and
Tees Valley. The historic name for North-East England is
Northumbria and whilst a few regional bodies still use this name, it is rarely used in everyday conversation. The significant cities and towns in the region are:
Newcastle Upon Tyne,
Sunderland,
Durham,
Middlesbrough,
Stockton-on-tees,
Hartlepool and
Darlington.
Generally the region is hilly and sparsely populated in the North and West, and urban and arable in the East and South. The highest point in the region is
Cheviot, in the Cheviot Hills, at .
As well as its urban centres of
Tyneside,
Wearside and
Teesside the region is also noted for the richness of its natural beauty.
Northumberland National Park, the region's coastline, its section of the
Pennines including
Teesdale and
Weardale provides evidence for this. It also has great historic importance, the evidence of which is seen in Northumberland's Castles, and the two
World Heritage Sites of
Durham Cathedral and
Durham Castle and of
Hadrian's Wall.
St. Peter's church in
Monkwearmouth, Sunderland along with St.Pauls in
Jarrow also hold significant historical value. They have a joint bid to become a World Heritage Site.
The shipbuilding industry that once dominated both Sunderland (once the largest shipbuilding town in the world) and Tyneside suffered a terrible decline during the second half of the twentieth century. Tyneside is now re-inventing itself as an international centre of art and culture and, through The Centre For Life, scientific research (especially in
stem cell technology) and popular nightlife, in areas such as the Quayside or The Gate. After suffering economic decline during the last century, Sunderland is becoming an important area for
quaternary industry, science and
high technology. The economy of
Teesside is largely based on its
petrochemical industry. Northumberland and County Durham, both being largely
rural, base much of its economy on farming and tourism.
In May 2005, the 'Passionate people. Passionate places.' regional image campaign was launched to promote North East England as a great place in which to work, study, visit and invest.
Local government
The official
region consists of the following subdivisions:
Key:
metropolitan county = *
History
The region was created in 1994 and was originally defined as
Northumberland,
Tyne and Wear,
County Durham and
Cleveland. As part of a reform of local government, Cleveland has since been abolished and several unitary districts created. The North East has been considered to be very religious especially Northumberland (home of the
Lindisfarne Gospels), some of the scenery in the outlying villages is of considerable quality.
The region is now considered to consist of four distinct 'sub-regions':
A
referendum in 2004 as to whether a directly-elected regional assembly should be set up for North East England resulted in a decisive "no" vote.
In November 2004 people in the North East voted "no" in a referendum on whether to set up an elected regional assembly. The total number of people voting against the plans was 696,519 (78%), while 197,310 (22%) voted in favour.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott admitted his plans for regional devolution had suffered an "emphatic defeat".
Conservative spokesman for the regions Bernard Jenkin said the vote would mean the end of plans for a north-east assembly. He told the BBC: "The whole idea of regional government has been blown out of the water by this vote".
Biodiversity
The region has a rich natural heritage, its diverse landscape includes maritime cliffs and extensive
moorland containing a number of
rare species of
flora and
fauna. Of particular importance are the saltmarshes of
Lindisfarne, the
Tees Estuary, the
heaths,
bogs and traditional upland hay meadows of the
North Pennines, the distinctive Arctic-alpine flora of Upper Teesdale, the
Farne Islands (which contain rare
seabirds such as the
Roseate Tern) and the
magnesian limestone grasslands of East Durham - a habitat found nowhere else in the world. The North East also features woodland such as
Kielder Forest, the largest man-made forest in Europe. This is located within
Northumberland National Park and contains an important habitat for the
endangered red squirrel. The region is the English stronghold of black grouse and contains 80-90% of the UK population of yellow marsh
saxifrage.
A recently created site for bird watching is
Rainton Meadows.
Demographics
Although the North-East region has the lowest rate of HIV infection in the UK, it has the highest rate of heart attacks for men, and for lung cancer for women in England (just below Scotland), and the highest lung cancer rate for men in the UK. It has the joint highest birth rate for women under 20 in the UK (with Wales). It also has the highest youth unemployment (ages 16–24) in the UK, and the second highest trade union membership for men (after Northern Ireland). For English students in higher education, those for the North East are most likely (72%) to pick a university in their home region; Scotland is the highest with 95% staying in their home country. The North East also has the highest proportion of Christians in the UK.
By region, the North East has the highest rate of
teenage pregnancy in England. Inside the region, the top-tier authority with the highest rate is Hartlepool, with
Easington the council district with the highest rate. The top-tier authority with the lowest rate is Northumberland and the council district with the lowest rate is
Tynedale in Northumberland.
Transport
The
East Coast Main Line cuts through the region with stops at
Newcastle,
Durham and
Darlington, providing fast connections to London and Edinburgh. The region is also served by the
Durham Coast Line which connects
Sunderland,
Hartlepool and
Middlesbrough with the main line. The two main arterial carriageways, the
A1 and the
A19, mirror the railway trajectory. However, north of
Morpeth, the A1 is single carriageway. There is a ferry terminal at
North Shields.
DFDS operate two ferries a day to
Amsterdam and, until 1 September 2008, one a day on the
Stavanger -
Haugesund -
Bergen route. The two main airports are
Newcastle Airport located north of the city near
Ponteland and
Durham Tees Valley Airport located east of
Darlington.
The
Tyne and Wear Metro is a light rail network which serves the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, with stations in both Newcastle and Sunderland city centres, other towns and suburbs in the county, as well as at
Newcastle Airport and other attractions such as the
St James' Park,
Stadium of Light, and
Gateshead International StadiumTransport policy
As part of the national transport planning system, the
Regional Assembly is required to produce a
Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the
Highways Agency and
Network Rail.
Within the region the local transport authorities plan for the future by producing
Local Transport Plans (LTP) which outline their strategies, policies and implementation programmes.
The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006-11. In the North East region the following transport authorities have published their LTP online:
Darlington,
Durham,
Hartlepool,
Middlesbrough,
Northumberland,
Redcar and Cleveland,
Stockton-on-Tees and
Tyne and Wear.
Economy
The North-East region has the
lowest GDP/capita in
England, and second lowest in the
United Kingdom only behind
Wales. The economy was for several decades unusually highly focused on two industries,
ship building and
coal mining; hence the phrase
taking coals to Newcastle. Land use in County Durham and Northumberland is agricultural in the majority.
The former
regional electricity company Northern Electric is now managed by
CE Electric UK.
Teesside
ICI was next to
Wilton on a huge site between
Eston and
Redcar.
Petroplus refine oil at the
Port Clarence (former Teesside)
Refinery.
Teesport is the second busiest port in the country. Hartlepool has a
nuclear power station, and there is a
gas turbine power station and a
CHP power station on the ICI Wilton site.
Huntsman Tioxide has a large plant at
Greatham that makes
titanium dioxide, and its European headquarters are in Billingham.
Aldous Huxley's visit to the former ICI plant in Billingham inspired him to write
Brave New World.
Corus Group makes steel on Teesside and makes pipes in Hartlepool.
Tyne & Wear
Swan Hunter until 2006 made ships in
Wallsend, but still designs ships.
Scottish & Newcastle was the largest UK-owned brewery until April 2008 when it was bought by Heineken and Carlsberg, and has the Newcastle Federation Brewery in
Dunston, producing
Newcastle Brown Ale. The government's
Child benefit office is in
Washington.
Northern Rock, which became a bank in 1997, is based in
Gosforth and there is the
Newcastle Building Society.
Findus UK is based in
Longbenton.
Nestlé have a chocolate factory in
Fawdon. The
MetroCentre, the largest shopping centre in Europe, is in
Dunston. The previous Government
National Insurance offices (demolished and replaced in 2000) in Longbenton had a long corridor.
Siemens make
steam turbines at the
CA Parsons Works in
South Heaton, Newcastle.
Barratt Developments is in
Benwell, Newcastle, and
Bellway plc is in
Seaton Burn in
North Tyneside.
Evans Halshaw, the
car dealership, is based in Sunderland.
The Sage Group, who make
accounting software are based in Newcastle.
Arriva, the large international transport company is based in Sunderland. Also in Sunderland, between
North Hylton and
Washington on an
old airfield, is a car factory owned by
Nissan UK and the outdoor clothing company,
Berghaus, in
Castletown.
Northumberland
Ashington has the
Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter with the
Lynemouth Power Station next door.
Durham
GlaxoSmithKline has a site at
Barnard Castle that makes
pharmaceuticals.
KP Snacks (owned by
United Biscuits) make
Phileas Fogg snacks in
Consett.
Black & Decker used to have a large factory at
Spennymoor but production was moved to the
Czech Republic in 2002.
Electrolux closed its cookers factory there in 2008, with production moving to
Poland.
Sunderland is well known for its call centres and this industry is rapidly expanding in the area.
Darlington
Darlington stayed relatively unindustrialised throughout the 20th century with finance and manufacturing being the main elements of its economy. Today Darlington is recognised for its railways more than anything as the first railway in the World was constructed through the town. Cleveland Bridge company which is responsible for the
Sydney Harbour Bridge and
Tyne Bridge is still based in Darlington. The Orange mobile network provider also has a large site in Darlington. Argos and Aldi have major national depots in Darlington.
Cummins, an American engineering company, also has a large site in Darlington. The town centre continues to develop into a successful retail hub for the region with a large new £110m shopping centre, 'The Oval', on the way in the next few years. The national safeguarding authority has set up its national office here, which vets people on jobs for vulnerable people. the student loans company has recently set up in Lingfield Point. Darlington's economy is one of the most improving in the country.
Education
Secondary education
The North East education system consists of largely
comprehensive schools but with a number of private and independent schools found in Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Darlington, Stockton and Northumberland in particular. At
GCSE level, the region performs similar to other largely urban areas although generally results are below the national average. Middlesbrough performs the worst with average results significantly below the national average for England. Newcastle and Sunderland improved significantly in 2007 from the previous year. Only North Tyneside performed above average, with Northumberland and Darlington not far off.
St Thomas More RC High School in
North Shields (a voluntary funded Roman Catholic specialist technology college) and
Emmanuel City Technology College (a selective independent state school) and
Lord Lawson of Beamish Community School (A public state school, recently re-built) are two of the three performing schools in Gateshead. Other well performing schools in the region include the
Macmillan Academy in Middlesbrough, the
Carmel RC Technology College,
Hurworth School and
Hummersknott School, all in Darlington.
At A-level, local education authorities in the north east are improving, but produce results substantially below other areas of the England. Sunderland performs the best, followed by Darlington which are both some way above the England average.
Darlington is particularly noted for
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, which is one of the most highly rated colleges in England. Sunderland and its catholic schools all do reasonably well at A level, as most other catholic schools in the area. Close to the England average are also Redcar and Cleveland and Northumberland. South Tyneside is consistently the worst performing
LEAs at A-level in the region. Middlesbrough performs much better at A level than GCSE, and conversely North Tyneside performs relatively worse at A level for an LEA that performs so well at GCSE. All Northumberland have a sixth-form along with a
three-tier system of education. Many schools in the area, especially Teesside do not have a sixth form.
The independent and private schools in the area perform highly.
Central Newcastle High School and
Royal Grammar School, Newcastle were both named in the top 100 independent schools nationally in 2006;
Durham School is one of the oldest in England. The private schools out-perform the state schools in the urban areas.
Tertiary education
At the
higher education level the North East contains a number of internationally acclaimed
universities. These include
Durham University, the third oldest university in England and often ranked among the ten leading UK universities;
Newcastle University, a member of the
Russell Group, and the newer universities of
Northumbria University,
University of Sunderland and
Teesside University.
Local media
Local media include:
- New media company Great North News Services (Newcastle upon Tyne).
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