Northumberland

Northumberland
Ceremonial county
Bamburgh Castle; Morpeth Clock Tower; and the lighthouse on East Pier, Blyth
Ceremonial Northumberland Historic Northumberland
Coordinates: 55°10′N 2°00′W
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	North East
Established	Ancient 12th century
Time zone	UTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time)
Members of Parliament	4 MPs David Smith (L) Ian Lavery (L) Joe Morris (L) Emma Foody (L)
Ceremonial county
Lord Lieutenant	Dr Caroline Pryer
High Sheriff	Lucia Bridgeman (2024–25)
Area
• Ranked	of 48
Population (2005 est.)	311,400
• Ranked	44th of 48
Density	62/km2 (160/sq mi)
Ethnicity	List 97.6% White 1.1% Asian 0.8% Mixed 0.3% other 0.2% Black
Unitary authority
Council	Northumberland County Council
Executive
Admin HQ	Morpeth
Area	5,013 km2 (1,936 sq mi)
• Ranked	1st of 326
Population	316,000
• Ranked	32nd of 326
Density	63/km2 (160/sq mi)
ISO 3166-2	GB-NBL
GSS code	E06000057
ITL	TLC21
Website	www.northumberland.gov.uk

Northumberland is the most northern county in England. Lindisfarne is an island close offshore. The county town is Morpeth. Its finest church is Hexham Abbey. Northumberland occupies a small part of the former Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

History

Northumberland is where Roman occupiers once guarded a frontier at Hadrian's Wall. Anglian invaders fought with Celtic natives. Norman lords built castles to suppress rebellion and defend a contested border with Scotland.

The present-day county was once part of an independent Northern English kingdom that stretched from Edinburgh to the River Humber. Northumberland has more castles than any other county. It has greatest number of recognized battle sites. It was an economically important region that supplied much of the coal that powered the industrial revolution. Northumberland is now a rural county with a small and gradually shrinking population.

The kingdom of Northumbria under Edwin (585–632) stretched from the Humber in the south to the Firth of Forth in the north. The kingdom and county were named for the Humber.

The county is noted for its undeveloped landscape of high moorland. That is a favourite with landscape painters. Now it is largely protected as a National park. Northumberland is the most sparsely populated county in England, with only 62 people per square kilometre. This is mainly because the large cities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Tynemouth which were in Northumberland, were joined to Gateshead and Sunderland in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear.