Northumberland

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

Northumberland is a ceremonial county in North East England, on the border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumbria to the west, and the Scottish Borders council area to the north. The town of Blyth is the largest settlement. Northumberland is the northernmost county in England.

The county has an area of 5013 km2 and had an estimated population of in , making it the least-densely populated county in England. The south-east contains the largest towns: Blyth, Cramlington, Ashington, Bedlington, and Morpeth, the last of which is the administrative centre. The remainder of the county is rural, the largest towns being Berwick-upon-Tweed in the far north and Hexham in the south-west. For local government purposes Northumberland is a unitary authority area. The county historically included the parts of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne.

The west of Northumberland contains part of the Cheviot Hills and North Pennines, while to the east the land becomes flatter before reaching the coast. The Cheviot (815 m), after which the range of hills is named, is the county's highest point. The county contains the source of the River North Tyne and much of the South Tyne; near Hexham they combine to form the Tyne, which exits into Tyne and Wear shortly downstream. The other major rivers in Northumberland are, from south to north, the Blyth, Wansbeck, Coquet, Aln and Tweed, the last of which forms part of the Scottish border. The county contains Northumberland National Park and two national landscapes: the Northumberland Coast and part of the North Pennines.

Much of the county's history has been defined by its position on a border. In the Roman era most of the county lay north of Hadrian's Wall, and the region was contested between England and Scotland into the Early Modern era, leading to the construction of many castles, peel towers and bastle houses, and the early modern fortifications at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Northumberland is also associated with Celtic Christianity, particularly the tidal island of Lindisfarne. During the Industrial Revolution the area had significant coal mining, shipbuilding, and armaments industries.

History

Name origin

The name of Northumberland is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as norð hẏmbra land, meaning "the land north of the Humber". The name of the kingdom of Northumbria derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to Southumbria, south of the Humber Estuary.

Before the county

The land has long been an English frontier zone, and it is now bordered to the north by Scotland. Northumberland has a rich prehistory with many instances of rock art, hillforts such as Yeavering Bell, and stone circles such as the Goatstones and Duddo Five Stones. Most of the area was occupied by the Brythonic-Celtic Votadini people, with another large tribe, the Brigantes, to the south.

During the Roman occupation of Britain, most of the present county lay north of Hadrian's Wall. It was controlled by Rome only for the brief period of its extension of power north to the Antonine Wall. The Roman road Dere Street crosses the county from Corbridge over high moorland west of the Cheviot Hills to Melrose, Scottish Borders (Trimontium). As evidence of its border position through medieval times, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England, including prominent ones at Alnwick, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh, Newcastle, and Warkworth.

Nearly 2,000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vindolanda Trust experts, led by Andrew Birley. Being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, those found at Vindolanda look like leather bands dating back to 120AD. It is suggested that, based on their difference from gladiator gloves, the gloves were not used in mortal combat, but rather in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum.

Present-day Northumberland formed the core of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia from about 547. It was united with Deira (south of the River Tees) to form the kingdom of Northumbria in the 7th century. The boundaries of Northumbria under King Edwin (reigned 616–633) stretched from the Humber in the south to the Forth in the north. Northumberland is often called the "cradle of Christianity" in England because Christianity flourished on Lindisfarne—a tidal island north of Bamburgh, also called Holy Island—after King Oswald of Northumbria (r. 634–642) invited monks from Iona to come to convert the English. The monastery at Lindisfarne was the centre of production of the Lindisfarne Gospels (around 700). It became the home of St Cuthbert (634–687, abbot from 665), who is buried in Durham Cathedral.

The Kingdom of Northumbria fragmented into a series of successor states following the Viking invasion. In the south, Viking settlers established the Kingdom of York between the Humber and Tees. However, Viking influence petered out at the Tees, with the river serving as the northern boundary of the Danelaw. Between the Tyne and Tees rivers, the Community of St. Cuthbert emerged as the successors to the Bishops of Lindisfarne; north of the Tyne, the earls of Bamburgh, who traced their lineage back to the Kings of Northumbria, continued to exercise authority and governance over this northern expanse. York was eventually integrated as a shire into the unified Kingdom of England by the House of Wessex. However, the West Saxon governmental structures were not extended beyond Tees, leaving the Earldom of Bamburgh and the Community of St. Cuthbert as contested buffer states with the emerging Kingdom of Scotland.

After the battle of Nechtansmere, Northumbrian influence north of the Tweed began to decline as the Picts gradually reclaimed the land previously invaded by the Anglian kingdom. In 1018, its northern part, the region between the Tweed and the Forth (including Lothian, which includes present-day Edinburgh), was ceded to the Kingdom of Scotland.

As a county

The Earldom of Northumberland was briefly held by the Scottish royal family by marriage, between 1139–1157 and 1215–1217. Scotland relinquished all claims to the region as part of the Treaty of York (1237). The earls of Northumberland once wielded significant power in English affairs because, as powerful and militaristic lords in the Scottish Marches, they had the task of protecting England from Scottish retaliation for English invasions.

Northumberland has a history of revolt and rebellion against the government, as seen in the Rising of the North (1569–1570) against Elizabeth I. These revolts were usually led by the earls of Northumberland, the Percy family. Shakespeare makes one of the Percys, the dashing Harry Hotspur (1364–1403), the hero of his Henry IV, Part 1. The Percys were often aided in conflict by other powerful Northern families, such as the Nevilles and the Patchetts. The latter were stripped of all power and titles by the victorious Parliamentarians after the English Civil War of 1642–1651.

After the Restoration in 1660, the county was a centre for Roman Catholicism in England, as well as a focus of Jacobite support. Northumberland was long a wild county, where outlaws and Border Reivers hid from the law. However, the frequent cross-border skirmishes and accompanying local lawlessness largely subsided after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under King James I and VI in 1603.

Northumberland played a key role in the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century on. Many coal mines operated in Northumberland until the widespread closures in the 1970s and 1980s. Collieries operated at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth, Choppington, Netherton, Ellington, and Pegswood. The region's coalfields fuelled industrial expansion in other areas of Britain, and the need to transport the coal from the collieries to the Tyne led to the development of the first railways. Shipbuilding and armaments manufacture were other important industries before the deindustrialisation of the 1980s.

The historic county town was Alnwick; assizes were mainly held in Newcastle, with the county gaol in Morpeth. From the county council's formation in 1889 until 1981 Newcastle was the county town, being briefly the county town of two counties when the city became a part of the Tyne and Wear metropolitan county in 1974.

Northumberland remains largely rural, and is the least densely populated county in England. In recent years, the county has had considerable growth in tourism. Visitors are attracted both to its scenic beauty and to its historical sites.

Geography

Northumberland has a diverse physical geography. It is low and flat near the North Sea coast and increasingly mountainous towards the northwest. Being in the far north of England, above 55° latitude, and having many areas of high land, Northumberland is one of the coldest areas of the country. But as the county lies on the east coast, it has relatively low rainfall, with the highest amounts falling on the high land in the west.

About a quarter of the county forms the Northumberland National Park, an area of outstanding landscape that has largely been protected from development and agriculture. The park stretches south from the Scottish border and includes Hadrian's Wall. Most of the park is over 240 m above sea level. The Northumberland Coast is also a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). A small part of the North Pennines AONB is also in the county.

There is a variety of nature reserves in Northumberland including Holy Island National Nature Reserve and Farne Islands National Nature Reserve. Moreover, 50% of England's red squirrel population lives in the Kielder Water and Forest Park.

Natural England recognises the following natural regions, called national character areas, that lie wholly or partially within Northumberland:

North Northumberland Coastal Plain

South East Northumberland Coastal Plain

Cheviot Fringe

Cheviot Hills

Northumberland Sandstone Hills

Mid Northumberland

Tyne Gap and Hadrian's Wall

Border Moors and Forests

Tyne and Wear Lowlands

Geology

The Cheviot Hills, in the northwest of the county, consist mainly of resistant Devonian granite and andesite lava. A second area of igneous rock underlies the Whin Sill (on which Hadrian's Wall runs), an intrusion of Carboniferous dolerite. Both ridges support a rather bare moorland landscape. Either side of the Whin Sill the county lies on Carboniferous Limestone, giving some areas of karst landscape. Lying off the coast of Northumberland are the Farne Islands, another dolerite outcrop, famous for their bird life.

The Northumberland Coalfield extends across the southeast corner of the county, from the River Tyne as far north as Shilbottle. There were smaller-scale workings for coal within the Tyne Limestone Formation as far north as Scremerston. The term 'sea coal' likely originated from chunks of coal, found washed up on beaches, that wave action had broken from coastal outcroppings.

Green belt

Northumberland's green belt is in the south of the county, surrounding Cramlington and other communities along the county border, to afford a protection from the Tyneside conurbation. The belt continues west along the border, past Darras Hall, and on to Hexham, stopping before Haydon Bridge. Its border there is shared with the North Pennines AONB. There are also some separated belt areas, for example to the east of Morpeth. The green belt was first drawn up in the 1950s.

Governance

Local government

Since 2009, Northumberland has been a unitary authority area governed by Northumberland County Council. The council undertakes all local government functions, having the powers and responsibilities of a non-metropolitan county council and non-metropolitan district council. It meets at County Hall, Morpeth and consists of 69 county councillors. It has been under no overall control since 2021, a position maintained at the 2025 Northumberland County Council election, with the Conservative Party forming a minority administration.

History

The Local Government Act 1888, which established county councils, constituted Northumberland as an administrative county. Although the act considered Newcastle-upon-Tyne to be situated within Northumberland, it was designated a county borough and so maintained its independent local government. Nevertheless, Northumberland County Council met at the Moot Hall within the city and the building and its precincts were within the administrative county. Tynemouth also became a county borough, in 1904.

On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Northumberland was re-constituted as a non-metropolitan county with six districts: Blyth Valley, Wansbeck, Castle Morpeth, Tynedale, Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed. The provision of local government services was divided between the county council and the six district councils. At the same time, the new county of Tyne and Wear was created from north-east County Durham and south-east Northumberland, including Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Tynemouth. The new Northumberland County Council continued to meet in Newcastle until 1981, when it moved to new premises at County Hall, Morpeth.

In 2009, Northumberland was re-constituted as a unitary authority area by abolishing its six districts and their councils and making Northumberland County Council its sole principal authority.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “Northumberland” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.