Constituency Information
The constituency of Bishop Auckland is located in the South West of County Durham in North East England.
It is one of the geographically largest constituencies in the UK, extending from former mining towns in the east, through the historic market town of Barnard Castle, to the Pennines in the west (see right)
Pending the introduction of a unitary authority for County Durham in May 2008, the constituency is divided into three separate local authorities: Sedgefield, Teesdale and Wear Valley. The former is Labour controlled, while Teesdale and Wear Valley have no overall majorities.
Neighbouring constituencies include Durham North West (Hilary Armstrong, Lab), The City of Durham (Roberta Blackman Woods, Lab), Sedgefield (Phil Wilson, Lab), Richmond (William Hague, Con), and Penrith (David Maclean, Con)
The three major towns in the constituency are Bishop Auckland, Shildon and Spennymoor. These former mining towns suffered from high levels of unemployment following pit closures from the 1950s to the 1980s, but a resurgent regional economy has seen unemployment fall by 53.9% from January 1997 to January 2008.
To the west of the constituency lie the open spaces of Teesdale and the Pennines, which include a large number of small villages and hamlets. These overwhelmingly rural communities are home to large numbers of tenant farmers and hill farmers.
Bishop Auckland is therefore a diverse constituency with a range of different and distinct challenges.
In addition to its beautiful scenery and open spaces, the constituency also contains a number of tourist attractions and places of interest, including:
● Auckland Castle: (see right) the picturesque home of the Bishop of Durham since the 12th century, and set in over 300 hectares of parks and gardens.
● The historic market town of Barnard Castle, (left) dating back to 1125.
● The National Railway Museum at Shildon, which celebrates Shildon’s place as one of the world’s oldest railway towns.
● Raby Castle: (left) A 14th century castle built by Baron Nevill, including the spectacular ‘Baron’s Hall’, and surrounded by a 200 acre deer park.
●The Bowes Museum, home to the finest collections of art in Northern England.
The constituency also has an interesting political history, which you can read more about here
And to see more photos of the constituency, click here
