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You are here > Home > History & Heritage > Industrial Heritage
Industrial Heritage
Durham’s industrial past is brought to life at award-winning attractions across the county.
Mother Nature favoured Durham by providing abundant natural resources. Beautiful stone for quarrying plus coal, lead and iron ore for mining positioned the county on the international industrial map of the past.
Coal was the undisputed king and in the 1800’s Durham was the leading producer of coal in England. ‘King Coal’ created its own empire, firing the Industrial Revolution and whilst Durham’s landscape today shows little signs of this once extensive industry, the heritage of coal is still very much alive in The Colliery Village at Beamish Museum.
Durham was also the adopted home or birthplace of industrial pioneers and inventors. The engineering skills of Victorian railway pioneer Timothy Hackworth (1786-1850) meant Durham became known as the ‘Cradle of the Railways’ where new ideas were nurtured, developed and tested. And at Killhope Museum you can experience the life and work of the lead mining families of the North Pennines.
Without doubt, Durham wears its industrial heritage with pride.
