Chester Le Street

Chester le Street is a town in County Durham, north-east England. Its name indicated that it was the location of a Roman fort (OE: ceaster) and on a Roman road (OE: streat), the road in question leading from York to the forts of South Shields and Newcastle upon Tyne.

The body of St. Cuthbert (c.634-687) lay at Chester le Street for 113 years, between 882 and 995. Cuthbert had been entombed at the monastery of Lindisfarne, on Holy Island, but following the Viking raid on the monastery in 875, the monks fled the island, bearing Cuthbert's body with them. After a seven-year peregrination around Northumbria, they settled in Chester le Street; in 995 they (and Cuthbert) moved to Ripon, before finally settling in Durham.

In the nineteenth century Chester le Street became the centre of a prosperous coal mining district.