Darlington

Darlington is a market town on the River Skerne in County Durham. It began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement, and in 1003 it became part of the patrimony of St Cuthbert, the saint of the Durham church. St Cuthbert’s Church, built in 1183, is among the most important early English churches in the north. In 1540 the antiquary John Leland called Darlington the best market town in the bishopric, saving Durham itself. In the eighteenth century the town was known for bleaching linen, even cloth brought from Scotland. On 27 September 1825 George Stephenson’s engine Locomotion No. 1 ran from Shildon to Stockton by way of Darlington on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, an event seen as the start of the railway age.