Chester-Le-Street

Chester-Le-Street, a town in the Chester-le-Street parliamentary division of Durham, England, near the river Wear, 6 m. N. of the city of Durham on the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 11,753. The parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert is an interesting building, formerly collegiate, with a tower 156 ft. high, and a remarkable series of monumental tombs of the Lumley family, collected here from Durham cathedral and various ruined monasteries, and in some cases remade. About 1 m. along the river is Lumley Castle, the seat of the earl of Scarborough, and about 2 m. north lies Lambton Castle, the residence of the earl of Durham, built in 1797 on the site of the old House of Harraton. Collieries and iron-works employ the industrial population. Chester-le-Street is a place of considerable antiquity. It lies on a branch of the Roman north road, on which it was a station, but the name is not known. Under the name of Cunecastre it was made the seat of a bishop in 882, and continued to be the head of the diocese till the Danish invasion of 995. During that time the church was the repository of the shrine of St Cuthbert, which was then removed to Durham.