in_future photos on Flickr

Personal Computer by simon.zhao

1

Q8200

EVGA e-8800GT

2 removable hard drive tray,

I use 320GB WD 7200rpm for school work using Vista x64

second 250GB WD for games Vista x64.

HP DV6815 15" laptop for carrying around

750GB WD digital external HDD for movies and TV shows

500GB WD for personal files

500GB Lacie Porsche Design for Audiobooks

Metamorphoses by Merlino Mayo 161 by Merlino Mayo

2

merlinomayo.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/metamorphoses/

Metamorphoses by Merlino Mayo at LEA - Full Sim Project - 1st turn - 2011-2012 Show Open till 15 March 2012.

First of all I want to thank LEA (Linden Endowment for the Arts) and The LEA committee (Bryn Oh, Dancoyote Antonelli, Dekka Raymaker, JayJay Zifanwe, L1 Loire, Sasun Steinbeck, Solo Mornington, Werner Kurosawa, PatriciaAnne Daviau -advisor-) who trusted me and other artists (Artistide Despres, Charlotte Bartlett, comet Morigi, Freewee Ling, Glyph Graves, Harter Fall, Merlino Mayo, Mikati Slade, Misprint Thursday, Oberon Onmura, RAG Randt, Secret Rage, Selavy Oh, Sowa Mai, Ux Hax, Zachh Cale) for the first round LEA Land Grants to give me the opportunity to use a big space as a full sim to express my art.

Taking inspiration from the 1st book and a few of other episodes of the "Metamorphoses", word that from greek means "change of shape", written in latin by Publius Ovidius, this new project aims to build a path of multi levels within an allegorical vision related to the current age of crisis and transformation of human beings and our society.

The way to see the whole work would formally very different but conceptually similar to the fresco dedicated to the "Fall of the Giants" by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo Te in Mantua (Mantova), where the representation becomes a metaphor of the times lived and precarious power and human ambitions; So going on other examples are possible like the trasformations of Aracne, Daphne, Icarus, Heliades sisters, Medusa, ect. The outer and inner change of form and substance of living beings and their natural relationships into something different, new and unexpected, from the creative process naturally with technology through the lens of the symbolism of Myth and the squared glass of Science.

It is very intersting to see the origin of name Palazzo Te: "The famous villa, designed for parties, receptions and "idleness" of the Duke of Mantua, was built on an island in direct contiguity with the city center, known since the Middle Ages Tejeto, or Te. The hypothesis most likely derive from the term 'tilietum' (place of linden trees) or from the Celtic 'tezza' linked with Latin 'atteggia' in english 'attitude', both meaning 'hut'." *from

Obviously the project is not complete about the whole huge Ovid's work, and in start I've done just some main episodes, but my intention is to work on it in future, it will take time for sure. Stay tuned.

Merlino Mayo

Book I: Cosmogony, Ages of Man, Gigantes, Daphne;

0 Metamorphoses - Start point "Palazzo Te, Mantova"

1 Metamorphoses - I - Cosmogony - The Creation of Universe

2 Metamorphoses - II - Cosmogony The Elements - EL MENTUM (2010)

3 Metamorphoses - III - Cosmogony - The Creation of Sea and Sky

4 Metamorphoses - IV - Ages of Man - The Golden Age of Man

5 Metamorphoses - V - Raise of Giants

6 Metamorphoses - VI - Fall of Giants

7 Metamorphoses - VII - Daphne

6th Shanghai Art Bienalle 2006 by sa_be

8

nature in future

Alive And V-Dubbin 2014 - Volkswagen Camper by Lewis Adams

1

This was my first visit to Alive & V-Dubbin and I loved it, will definately return in future years!

© Copyright 2014 Dibaday Photography. All Rights Reserved. This image is the exclusive property of Dibaday Photography and is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Images may not be copied, printed or otherwise disseminated without express written permission from Dibaday Photography. No form of reproduction of this image, including copying or saving of the digital image file, or the alteration or manipulation of said image files is authorised unless written permission is given. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration (digital, artist rendering or alike) is a violation of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Healthy or Unhealthy Eggs: Which type of eggs do you have? by seedartbank

The frozen eggs IVF India is an effective way to extend your fertility age if you wish to become pregnant in future. The egg donation IVF India has gained huge popularity among the young women who are happily willing to make someone’s parenthood dream a reality.

goo.gl/gjQtWR

3O3A0174 by Caritas Internationalis

1

Danilo Baldesco, beneficiary of Caritas Philippines livelihoods project, Palo. “I was at home when the typhoon hit. It blew off the roof of my house. Our rice was also damaged and it was just before we were supposed to harvest. Typhoon Haiyan destroyed many crops, but Caritas helped us by giving us seeds. We are thankful we were able to start again and we will be able to build a good life because of the seeds Caritas have given us. I hope that my farm will be more productive in future, so my children can go to school and have good jobs.”

Lukasz Cholewiak/Caritas.

FINISH: The Multyfarnham 5KM Road Race and Fun Run 2015 by Peter Mooney

This is a photograph from the finish of the 4th Annual Multyfarnham (Multy) 5KM Road Race and Fun Run which was held in the village of Multyfarnham about 15KM west of Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Wednesday 3rd June 2015 at 20:00. An incredible and unprecedented crowd of almost 300 participants took to the route including runners, joggers and walkers which was on an out-and-back course on beautiful country roads. The weather was perfect for racing and running. The fast course combined with the good weather conditions provided personal and seasonal bests for many of the participants. The GAA Club and Community Centre provided car-parking and the race headquarters. Overall this was a very well organised race event which on the evidence of tonight's race can grow even further in future years. As this and other photographs in this set shows there is nothing like an evening race in summer time in rural Ireland. Multyfarnham's setting amongst the rolling hills of north county Westmeath and not far from the shores of Lough Derravaragh provides a wonderful race setting. The village of Multy is easily accessible and is just two miles off the N4 Dublin Sligo road.

We have an extensive set of photographs from tonight in the following Flickr Album: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157653957377992

Timing and event management was provided by Precision Timing. Results are available on their website at www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2718 with additional material available on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davidprecisiontiming?fref=ts) See their promotional video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7_TUVwJ6Q

USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?

Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share directly to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.

BUT..... Wait there a minute....

We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not charge for our photographs. Our only "cost" is that we request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, VK.com, Vine, Meetup, Tagged, Ask.fm,etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us or acknowledge us as the original photographers.

This also extends to the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?

You can download this photographic image here directly to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. Have a look for a down-arrow symbol or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.

I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?

If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting takes a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.

I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

Let's get a bit technical: We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?

The explaination is very simple.

Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.

ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.

Above all what Creative Commons aims to do is to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

New Zealand Army by World Armies

1

Lance Corporal Conrad Wall, a New Zealand Army soldier serving with 2nd, 1st Battalion, gives an order to one of his soldiers at the Infantry Immersion Trainer here during Exercise Dawn Blitz 2013, June 13. The IIT gave the New Zealander's a taste of what they might encounter in future combat operations. Dawn Blitz 2013 is a scenario-driven exercise designed to test Navy and Marine Corps forces at the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) and Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) level, while promoting military-to-military cooperation and interoperability with partnered nations.

F-AIR Colombia 2019 by S.C. Air National Guard

U.S. Air Force Thunderbird F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets perform a routine at Feria Aeronautica Internacional—Colombia 2019 at José María Córdova International Airport in Rionegro, Colombia, July 12, 2019. The United States Air Force is participating in the four-day air show with four South Carolina Air National Guard F-16s as static displays, along with an F-16 aerial demonstration by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. United States military participation in the air show provides an opportunity to strengthen our military-to-military relationships with regional partners and provides the opportunity to meet with our Colombian air force counterparts and facilitate interoperability, which can be exercised in future cooperation events such as exercises and training. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Megan Floyd)

Metamorphoses by Merlino Mayo 227 by Merlino Mayo

merlinomayo.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/metamorphoses/

Metamorphoses by Merlino Mayo at LEA - Full Sim Project - 1st turn - 2011-2012 Show Open till 15 March 2012.

First of all I want to thank LEA (Linden Endowment for the Arts) and The LEA committee (Bryn Oh, Dancoyote Antonelli, Dekka Raymaker, JayJay Zifanwe, L1 Loire, Sasun Steinbeck, Solo Mornington, Werner Kurosawa, PatriciaAnne Daviau -advisor-) who trusted me and other artists (Artistide Despres, Charlotte Bartlett, comet Morigi, Freewee Ling, Glyph Graves, Harter Fall, Merlino Mayo, Mikati Slade, Misprint Thursday, Oberon Onmura, RAG Randt, Secret Rage, Selavy Oh, Sowa Mai, Ux Hax, Zachh Cale) for the first round LEA Land Grants to give me the opportunity to use a big space as a full sim to express my art.

Taking inspiration from the 1st book and a few of other episodes of the "Metamorphoses", word that from greek means "change of shape", written in latin by Publius Ovidius, this new project aims to build a path of multi levels within an allegorical vision related to the current age of crisis and transformation of human beings and our society.

The way to see the whole work would formally very different but conceptually similar to the fresco dedicated to the "Fall of the Giants" by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo Te in Mantua (Mantova), where the representation becomes a metaphor of the times lived and precarious power and human ambitions; So going on other examples are possible like the trasformations of Aracne, Daphne, Icarus, Heliades sisters, Medusa, ect. The outer and inner change of form and substance of living beings and their natural relationships into something different, new and unexpected, from the creative process naturally with technology through the lens of the symbolism of Myth and the squared glass of Science.

It is very intersting to see the origin of name Palazzo Te: "The famous villa, designed for parties, receptions and "idleness" of the Duke of Mantua, was built on an island in direct contiguity with the city center, known since the Middle Ages Tejeto, or Te. The hypothesis most likely derive from the term 'tilietum' (place of linden trees) or from the Celtic 'tezza' linked with Latin 'atteggia' in english 'attitude', both meaning 'hut'." *from

Obviously the project is not complete about the whole huge Ovid's work, and in start I've done just some main episodes, but my intention is to work on it in future, it will take time for sure. Stay tuned.

Merlino Mayo

Book I: Cosmogony, Ages of Man, Gigantes, Daphne;

0 Metamorphoses - Start point "Palazzo Te, Mantova"

1 Metamorphoses - I - Cosmogony - The Creation of Universe

2 Metamorphoses - II - Cosmogony The Elements - EL MENTUM (2010)

3 Metamorphoses - III - Cosmogony - The Creation of Sea and Sky

4 Metamorphoses - IV - Ages of Man - The Golden Age of Man

5 Metamorphoses - V - Raise of Giants

6 Metamorphoses - VI - Fall of Giants

7 Metamorphoses - VII - Daphne

P1170482 by VT Artsalon 非常廟藝文空間

Bitter Sweet Harmony - M+M個展

Bitter Sweet Harmony - M+M Solo Exhibition

藝術家：M+M (Marc Weis and Martin De Mattia)

策展人：Lars Koepsel

展期：2015/08/22 - 2015/09/19

開幕酒會：2015/08/22 (六) 19:00

展覽地點：VT Artsalon 非常廟藝文空間 (台北市新生北路三段56巷17號B1)

藝術家座談會：2015/08/15(六)15:00

座談會地點：實踐大學媒體傳達設計系演講廳

網址：http://www.vtartsalon.com

聯絡電話：02-2597-2525

EMAIL：info@vtartsalon.com

本次展覽為非常廟藝文空間(以下簡稱VT)與德國藝術公寓(Apartment Of Art)三年計劃之一。兩年前VT與德國藝術公寓總監-拉斯科樸索(Lars Koepsel)為推廣台灣及德國兩地藝術家與藝術空間之間的交流，締訂為期三年合作計畫。兩地空間每年交換合作藝術家展覽、策展人、藝術家駐村等三階段合作方式。本次展覽檔期為計畫中的第二年，由德國藝術公寓總監-拉斯科樸索推薦新媒體藝術團隊「M+M」首度來台展出。

德國「M+M」為Marc Weis 和 Martin De Mattia 兩人所組成的新媒體科技藝術團隊，M+M多年來持續於國際間進行展演計畫。過去重要展覽節錄：1999年在義大利羅馬的Villa Massimo進行為期一年的駐村計畫，同年於威尼斯雙年展「義大利國家館」展出。2003年於ZKM卡爾斯魯厄藝術與媒體中心展出，2006年參加Lintz科技藝術節以及2015於盧森堡casino個展。

「M+M」兩位藝術家長期關注媒體中所產生的語彙，並分析影像媒體之間的運作，結合大眾社會對於影像媒體的交互機制，透過電影中畫面擷取並使用非線性的敘事方式，將虛構與現實的影像內容混合處理，作品內容帶有強烈情感，如恐懼、仇恨、愛情等，並透過虛實間的差異成為新的敘事方式。

本次將於VT展出系列作品「7 Tage」中兩件新作《Dienstag (Tuesday)》&《Freitag (Friday》，兩位藝術家挑選兩部經典電影-理髮師的男人(The hairdresser’s husband)與黑影(Tenebre)作為本次創作素材，作品影像中運用電影畫面對應一週的七天，並運用電影裡擷取部分畫面拼湊成每一天的生活景象，兩位藝術家各自將自行剪輯的影像運用雙投影同步裝置將兩影像並置，在大多數情況下，觀者將會看到這兩位藝術家都不約而同的就其類似情感內容做出對應畫面，細膩的處理家庭、人際關係以及生活中不確定性及矛盾狀態，擺盪在兩個非線性影像原件和翻拍之間的矛盾對抗。展覽中另外一件作品《kurz vor fünf (shortly before five)》則是將自2001年以來「7 Tage」系列中出現的電影場景運用電腦運算重新將影格輸出成290幀於平面畫面中，透過影像運算將3分多鐘影像畫面獨立，觀眾將可以發現運算過後的場景照片故事都在同一天的同一時間地點，透過運算影像畫面將可以看到不同的時間影像畫面聚落成同一影像，讓觀者重新於平面畫面重新審視影像中孤獨個體的趣味。

「7 Tage」系列作品自2009年來，逐段完成每段錄像影片，並於2015年發表了最新兩部新作《Dienstag (Tuesday)》&《Freitag (Friday》。本系列影像之中，除了相同的其他演員重複出現外，來自奧地利的演員Christoph Luser以精湛的演技表現出憂鬱詭譎的情緒變化，而體現了主角矛盾的異型建構的心理，投射非常輕微情緒以及揭示了人際關係中裂縫和固有的矛盾變化，無論是任何威脅與衝突的情緒反應，將在看似平靜的畫面帶來暗潮洶湧般的相互作用。

----------------------------------

Bitter Sweet Harmony - M+M Solo Exhibition

German Artists duo: M+M (Marc Weis and Martin De Mattia)

Exhibition: 2015/08/22−9/19

Opening：22nd August 19:00 p.m.

Location: VT Artsalon

(B1, No.17, Lane 56, Sec 3, Xinsheng N. Rd, TaipeiCity 104, Taiwan, Taipei)

Curator: Lars Koepsel

Symposium: 2015/08/15(Sat.) 15:00

Symposium location: Auditorium room, Department of Communication Design

(Shih Chien University)

Website: www.vtartsalon.com/

Contact Number: 02-2597-2525

Email: info@vtartsalon.com

___________________________________________________________

This exhibition is from one of the 3-year program between VT Artsalon(VT) and Apartment Of Art from German. VT and the director of Apartment of Art -Lars Koepsel have signed the contract for a “3-year program“ 2 years ago. The program is aim to promote the exchange in artist and art space between Taiwan and German. Each space will corporate in 3 stages every year, from exchanging the artist exhibition, curator to artist residency program. This exhibition is now in the 2nd-year. It was the director of Apartment of Art -Lars Koepsel, who recommended to exhibit the new media art group, named ”M+M” as their very first show in Taiwan.

Marc Weis and Martin De Mattia are a digital artists group named “M+M”, which use the new media in their project, from German. M+M has various international exhibition experience , which includes: the one-year residency program in Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy, back in 1999 and exhibited their work in Venice Biennale in the same year. They have also exhibited at ZKM in 2003 and participated the Ars Electronica Lintz in 2006. Their latest exhibition was at Casino, Luxembourg.

“M+M” have been focusing on the vocabulary produced from the media work, and analyze the operation between image media. They combined the public social consume system, and use non-way to describe things. They used film making skills such as camera movements and cuts to mix-up the fictional and the realistic image content. And also find out the new way to describe things through the difference between the fiction and reality.

”M+M” will be exhibit their new works in “7 Tage” (7 Days)series, which are 《Dienstag (Tuesday)》and《Freitag (Friday) 》. The artists picked two classic movie, includes《The hairdresser’s husband》and《Tenebre》as the elements. They named their works as“7 Tage” (7 Days), and make the image in their works able to correspond in 7 days a week. They have also excerpt some of the classic scenes from the epic movie as the everyday life in their works. From the artists remakes, cuts and the main actor’s view and mind changing from time to time; audience will get the new visual experience to re-conduct with the double projection device. The viewer will also find out the against between two non-linear original videos and conversion with the double channel device. And the other works named《kurz vor fünf (shortly before five)》in this exhibition have combined the movie scene and the computer operations and re-export the file fragmentation into 290 as a 2D picture. With the computer operations, they separated every scene in three minutes, which audience will find out the picture and the story are all at the same place and the same time in everyday. By gathering the video scene into on image, the viewers will discover the fun part in the isolation.

They have been shooting the ”7 Tage” series works for 7 years from 2009, and have also released the latest new works in recent, named 《Dienstag (Tuesday)》&《Freitag (Friday). The audience will get to see some of the actors repeatedly and the actor from Austria -Christoph Luse’s excellent performance skill, which he interpreted and showed the sad and odd emotional changes to incarnate the main character’s inconsistent mind structure. Whether is any threat or conflict emotion response, will all brings the audience the unexpected plot.

This exhibition will start from 22nd August to 19th September , and will be held an artist symposium on 15th August at Shih Chien University. The Artist M+M(Marc Weis, Martin De Mattia), curator Lars Koepsel and the director of the department of communication design- Wen-Chi, Chen will all participate the discussion.

Please feel free to join us!

“VT 3 Year Venture Project” Space

VT Artsalon, Taipei, Taiwan

Apartment of Art, München, German

Part 1:

Date: 2015/05/16-2015/06/13

Exhibition: “An Uncanny Tomorrow－Yuan Goang-Ming Solo Exhibition”

Curator: Wu Dar-Kuen

Location: Apartment of Art, München, Germen

Part 2:

Date: 2015/06/27-2015/07/24 “Peony Pavilion - Isa Ho Solo Exhibition”

Location: Apartment of Art, München, Germen

Part 3:

Date: 2015/08/22-2015/09/19 “M+M Solo Exhibition”

Location: VT Artsalon, Taipei, Taiwan

“VT 3 Year Venture Project” was the first time VT Artsalon and Apartment of Art collaborated with an exchange project as a 3-year program. The program is now in the third stage in the second year, and the exhibition will start from 22nd August, 2015 till 19th September, which is going to exhibit the art groups “M+M”’s works (Marc Weis, Martin De Mattia) from German, recommended by the director of Apartment of Art- Lars Koepselfor for their first exposure in Asia.

Currently it is the second stage of the second year, beginning on June 27th in Apartment of Art, Munich, will be Isa Ho’s solo exhibition, “ Peony Pavilion”, this is also the first solo exhibition of Isa Ho in Germany.

VT has been dedicated to bring the Taiwanese contemporary art into the international art world, connecting with the international community through various art spaces, galleries, exhibitions constantly.

We are hoping to converge the power of arts groups in Taiwan and gather more visions in Taiwan to create the collaboration opportunity. We are looking forward to extend more possibility of Taiwanese art in future with these exchanging programs.

1874 - Ffordd y Dyrpeg / Turnpike Road by Hugh Griffith Roberts

5 1

Noder y Toll dy / Note the Toll House.

Lleoliad Rhodfa'r Brenin ac Eglwys St. Tudwal 'rwan. / Location today of Kings Crecent and St. Tudwal's Church.

Bu i " Ddeddf y Priffyrdd 1862 " roi diwedd a'r dalu tollau am ddefnyddio'r mwyafrif o ffyrdd .

The " Highways Act of 1862 " put an end to the practice of paying tolls on the majority of roads.

Caewyd y toll-dy yn 1888 / Toll house was closed in 1888.

Dywed Leslie Darbyshire states :-

" The picture shows the Toll house the gate with Handlith Terrace. Kings Crescent had as yet not being built its location being where the Roman Catholic Church St Tudwal is sited. Also on the back of the frame we have another name for the Toll house namely Turnpike House.

The history of Toll houses or Turnpikes houses or "Tyrpec" in Welsh is fascinating, nearly all towns and villages had their Toll house which were erected to collect tolls for the repair and maintenance of road in that particular place.

The term Turnpike refers to the military practice of placing a pikestaff across the road to block and control passage, this would be "turned" to one side to allow travellers through. The first turnpike road, whereby travellers paid toll for its upkeep was authorised in 1663 for a section of road in Hertfordshire and the first Turnpike Trust was established by parliament through a Trust Act in 1706 placing a section of the London-Coventry-Chester road in the hands of a group of trustees.

The trustees could erect gates as they saw fit, demand statute labour or cash equivalent, and appoint surveyors and collectors. In return they repaired the road and put up mile posts. Trusts were established for a limited period of office, often for twenty one years. Before the 18th century each parish looked after its own roads but the traffic increased as part of the Agricultural Revolution and the parishes could no longer afford the upkeep without help. The law was changed; companies could be set up to look after the roads. They made money to look after the roads by charging people a toll to use them. The money was collected at toll houses (Turnpike House) and a gate to the turnpike opened to allow further passage. The collected money went to the investors and maintenance of the road and bridges .The companies who set up and maintained these roads were called Turnpike Trust. The Parliament of England had placed the upkeep of bridges to local settlements or the containing county under the Bridges Act of 1555 and similarly the care of roads were devolved to the parishes as statute labour under the Highways Act 1555. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four consecutive days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses, the work being overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the surveyor of Highways

It was not until 1654 that road rates were introduced; the improvements by paid labour were offset by the rise in the use of wheeled vehicles greatly increasing wear and the Government put a curb on wheeled vehicles and regulated their construction, by having wider rims which would be less damaging and for a period led to carts having sixteen inch wheels which did not cause ruts, but neither did they roll or flatten the road as was hoped. Many of the trust were fraudulently administered, the Turnpike Act of 1822 required trusts to keep accounts. In 1744 an act had made milestones compulsory on most turnpike roads.

At first there were no permanent toll houses, gates were closed at night, but when it was realised that turnpikes were not temporary, toll houses were built at road junctions with a clear view of the gates and roads. There were complaints that gates were found locked because the keepers were missing or that they were drunk or asleep. The wages of 9 shillings per week did not induce the right sort of staff.

However this changed in the 1770’s when the operation of turnpikes was “farmed” out to the highest bidder at a public auction. This meant that the successful bidder paid annual rent to the trust but kept the tolls collected. He would either run the tollgate himself or pay a gatekeeper. It is interesting to note that the North End Tollhouse at Barmouth, according to the census of 1851 was kept by a farmer but in the subsequent census we have a toll keeper.

At the beginning of the 18th century Daniel Defoe comments “Turn Pikes have been set up on several great roads of England, at which all carriages, droves or cattle and travellers on horseback are obliged to pay an easy toll: that is to say – a horse one penny, a coach three pence and a cart four pence at some or six to eight pence, a wagon six pence,in some a shilling. Cattle pay by the score or by the herd and in some places more. But in no place is it thought a burthen that ever I met with, the benefit of a good road abundantly making amends for the little charge the travellers are put to at the turn pikes …..” However they weren’t universally popular, people rioted against toll tax in 1726 and “gate crashing” was common practice.

The county of Merioneth did not escape the toll pike era, remains of toll houses are seen throughout the county and Barmouth itself can boast of three. The toll house depicted in the photo was on the North End of town.

Dr Lewis Lloyd, in his book of Harlech, gives valuable information about the condition and history of the local Trust. Turnpike Trust had been established in Ffestiniog and Maentwrog in 1833 and similarly the Barmouth Talybont Turnpike Trust was formed to develop a new road between Barmouth and Talybont and to improve the existing road from Talybont to Harlech. The condition of the road was so improved that a coach company started an express service between Barmouth and Caernarfon and was called the Mountaineer Coach; it took ten hours to do the journey and it operated on alternate days. It connected with the Mail Coach for Bangor or the Morning Coach at Seven for the Steam Boats at Menai Bridge and according to the advert in the Caernarfon Herald as soon as the road between Dolgellau and Aberystwyth was improved this public accommodation would be extended to the latter place; the advert was dated July 26th 1833.

The trust instituted three tollgates on the Harlech Barmouth route, one at Barmouth at the North end of the town and two at Harlech, Clogwyn-Twtil and Llechwedd. The toll road did not follow the route as we know it, at the Clogwyn tollgate the road proceeded through Pentre’r Efail and down Tryfarto Ty’n y Groes where it turned sharply up Twtil, past the castle and out of the town along Llechwedd. It is a mystery how four horse mail coaches negotiated the sharp bend and steep slope in either direction. The Ffestiniog- Maentwrog and Harlech-Barmouth merged in 1851 and was eventually wound up in 1851.

Dr David Craik made an interesting observation in a recent e-mail to the writer, “The Turnpikes were a source of great resentment throughout Wales, because of the charges made to farmers coming to marts (Helyntio Becca). This may well explain the diversity of roads approaching Harlech over the eastern top which were used by the drovers to catch up with the road to and from Bala.”

Barmouth had three tollgates, one up on the old road by Gorllwyn, which still retains the lookout. This presumably dealt with the drovers before the bottom road was made. The other was sited where Birmingham Garage stands today, the owner said recently when, years ago, they were excavating down for a petrol tank, they came across foundations of a building. This Toll House was called the East Toll House, not far from the present garage is an old quarry which, according to Dr David Craik, the poor of Barmouth were “offered” work in this parish quarry, the stone of which would be used for road ballast by the local turnpikes.

The income from the gates was quite high. Hugh J Owens’ book “The Treasures of the Mawddach” in which a notice of Public Auction to be held at the Angel Inn Dolgellau on Tuesday 11th February 1862 that the tolls arising at the under-mentioned Turnpikes will be let by auction…….. to the highest bidder. Amongst the thirteen gates included were Barmouth and Llanelltyd, which stated these two tolls produced the current year exclusive of collecting the sum annexed to each viz:- Barmouth gate £120. Llanelltyd Gate & Side Bar £163.

In 1800 the road between Dolgellau and Harlech was not more than a cart track, from Bontddu it took to the uplands past the mansion of Gorsygedol to lower ground at Talybont where Llanddwywe Inn was sited. It then followed the present road to Llanfair except for the length between Llanbedr and Pensarn whence it took to the high ground past Pant Mawr into Harlech.

Gate crashing of tolls has been mentioned and in his booklet “The Old Order” by B.Bowen Thomas based on the diary of Elizabeth Baker, it has an entry about the toll gate near Bryn Adda Dolgellau for the night of August 7th 1780. “The conversation was ended by the entrance of one of the maid servants, who with offrighted countenance spoke to her Mistress in Welsh. The Mistress caught the horror and cried out “the man’s shot – on asking who? was told my Charioteer – the Master and Mistress descended quick – I followed and found the man’s wounds not mortal. It was given by the person who keeps the Turnpike. The waggoner with his fellow servt returning home cry’d …..Gate ….. Gate usual enough the keeper coming out and finding no one there on horseback he ask’d ….. who had call’d? being told teo or three had pass’d fetch’d his gun and pursued them two or three hundred yards at least, then fir’d yhe wound was on the crown of his head, his companion receiv’d some shot in his legs, the poor fellow were fortunately more affrighted than hurt, yet the Gate-Keeper merits punishment of some kind to deter him from such a prank in future.”

In this period the wealthy had their private coaches for long journeys. They could take their time and so mitigate their discomforts. Ordinary folk had no alternative but to complete the task even at some peril to health and limb and life.

Elizabeth Baker records the plight of one “Richard Jones” who had travelled on the coach. “Poor Richard Jones returned last Saturday from London … poor man! The journey has emanciated him… left Salop together designing to be conveyed together upon the top of the Stage coach but poor RJ, when he had gone about six miles found it impossible to keep his seat and changed it for the basket – unluckily the rain was incessant till they reached Oxford: at that place a female, who went passenger within, terminated her journey and Richard Jones filled her room on paying three shillings out of his Exchequer ….. he, by rolling in the basket was dreadfully bruised ….. Lewis Jones continued on the top of the coach all the way.

The only coach service ran from Dolgellau to Bala and thence to Oswestry. The road to Barmouth as already mentioned had not been opened and traffic used the tidal river. The road to the old county town of Harlech went over Llawllech and passing Corsygedol, reached the coast at Dyffryn. This road and others which went through the mountains to Dinas Mawddwy and Welshpool to the south east and to Towyn to the west were only fit for cattle drovers and horse traffic.

However the days of the Turnpike Trust were numbered, various parliamentary acts were made and in 1885 the last turnpike trust ended in 1889. Newly formed county councils took over responsibility for local roads. The last toll gates to close were on the London to Holyhead road in Anglesey which closed in 1895. In 1909 central government began to give grants to local authorities for road maintenance. The Ministry of Transport was set up in 1930, County Councils accepted responsibility for all roads. Trunk roads became the financial responsibility of the Ministry of Transport. The Motorway system began in 1960. The evolution from cart /mud roads to modern high speed highways in a little over a century, but in certain areas, motorway tolls have been re-introduced ".

Preston Park, Preston-on-Tees, County Durham, England. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

Preston Park (officially Preston Hall Park) is a 100-acre (0.40 km2) public park in Preston-on-Tees, England. It hosts multiple events each year and is located next to the River Tees.

The land was originally a private residence with large grounds but has since become the property of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council after being purchased from Sir Robert Ropner and was redeveloped in 2010–12, with the Museum reopening in 2012.

Parking is free, but the Preston Park Museum & Grounds and Butterfly World have small admission charges. The museum has a volunteer community with its participants ranging from students to the retired. They carry out roles in the Museum such as gardening, gallery stewarding, supporting learning and costumed interpreters on the Victorian Street.

Preston Park is made up of several diverse areas:

It was not until 1882, when the estate and lands were sold to Robert Ropner for the princely sum of £27,500 (£1,328,525.00 in modern money), that the Preston Hall building of today was built.

Ropner was a wealthy shipping and industrial magnate and in common with the style of the times demanded a home to befit his status in society. Major alterations included the addition of a Winter Garden, Music Room, Billiard Room, entrance portico and extensive landscaped parkland – all ‘must haves’ of the Victorian age.

The Hall & Park were served by legions of staff, from a butler and cook through to maids and stable hands. Gardeners would tend the grounds and supply the kitchen with produce from the walled garden, which was restored and reopened to the public in 2012.

In 1937 the Hall & Park passed into the hands of a number of companies before being purchased by Stockton Corporation (now the Borough Council) in 1947.The site officially opened as Preston Hall Museum and Park in 1953 and has continued to bring pleasure to generations of visitors young and old ever since.

Following a successful bid for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, the Museum and Park have recently reopened following extensive redevelopment work. The £7 million transformation has seen significant improvements to facilities, including better access, the repair and conservation of the Grade II listed building and the development of further features, interpretation and exhibits.

Exhibits in the museum include the Yarm helmet, a c. 10th-century Viking age helmet found in Yarm. It is the first relatively complete Anglo-Scandinavian helmet found in Britain and only the second Viking helmet discovered in north-west Europe.

The flat, grassed area in front of the main house is now the main staging ground for large events held in the park. It is easily able to hold the largest of circus tents and other temporary structures. When not being used for an event, this area will often contain people playing sports or picnicking with their children. The field is used for training by a number of football teams and a local Frisbee team. However the field suffers from drainage problems, meaning that it often becomes waterlogged.

Across the showground from the car park is a model engineering club with a miniature railway. It operates to the public during the summer on Sunday afternoons and on bank holidays from 1pm to 4pm.

This building houses an environment specially controlled to allow a variety of exotic butterflies to thrive. There is a charge for entry.

Beside the main car park is a café operated by Stockton Borough Council.

Adjacent to the café is an extensive play area containing a variety of traditional swings and more adventurous climbing equipment for children of all ages.

A concrete skatepark opened on the site of the former crazy-golf course in 2014. The project was built by Wheelscape and cost £25,000. The skatepark is vary varied and suits a wide range of skill levels.

The Quarry Wood was declared a nature reserve in 2004. It is a former Victorian Quarry that has now been reclaimed by nature. This is a popular place for younger mountain bikers, with the main attraction being "The Dippers". These are a series of dirt jumps and gravel corners created by the natural terrain. They are mostly fenced off in an attempt to protect the public from out-of-control bikes.

"The Big Dipper" is a 15 ft-deep cut in the ground which is used as a kind of half-pipe. From the top of the slope, riders can aim at a variety of take-off points on the other side, each of which provides differing amounts of "air time".

There are a variety of smaller jumps nearby, as well as some rougher cycling routes.

Furthermore, Quarry Wood is home to a wide spectrum of wildlife including frogs, toads, newts, foxes, rabbits and birds such as moorhen and owls, as well as a host of invertebrates.

The world's first passenger railway ran through the grounds beside the main road from the early 19th century until 1852. There was no station.

In the 1970s and 80s there was a small zoo within the park, partly covering the area now used by the playground and stretching down to the hall. It famously had a penguin enclosure. There were also llamas and chipmunks, among others.

Previously in front of the café was a simple crazy golf course. However it was removed in 2014 to make way for the skatepark.

In 2009 it was proposed by Ingleby Barwick Councillors that Egglescliffe School be relocated to the park with a footbridge over the river linking the school to the town. The proposal was backed by the then MP for Stockton South, Dari Taylor, but was strongly opposed by many residents because it would have meant the loss of valuable public parkland.[11] The Conservative candidate for the Stockton-South seat, James Wharton, also opposed the proposal before narrowly winning the seat in the 2010 election. Leaflets from Dari Taylor's party have since expressed regret for not opposing the development of Preston Park.

The proposal for the development (coded option D2) has now been removed as a viable option. The reasons given are that funding for the new footbridge would not have come from central government, and that "During the feasibility work undertaken, the location of the proposed bridge also raised significant engineering issues. In addition to this, any additional traffic from a community school facility could not be accommodated without significant upgrading of the road network.", and that the Preston Park allotments would have had to be moved.

From this issue was also born 'Friends of Preston Park', a group consisting of members of the public that raises any issues that become apparent to visitors and presents them to the management of Preston Park during meetings.

Preston-on-Tees, locally called Preston, is a village and civil parish in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 1,689. It is home to Preston Hall and its accompanying public park.

In the 2011, the village was included as a part of Yarm, being on Yarm Road and in a continuous built-up area down to Yarm High Street.

The parish originated as a township in the Stockton-on-Tees parish, recognised as a civil parish itself in 1866. It was included in the Stockton poor law union and then the Stockton rural sanitary district. In 1894 this became the Stockton Rural District. In 1968 part of it became part of the county borough of Teesside. It later became part of the non-metropolitan district of Stockton-on-Tees in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972.

According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,748. It has a diverse number of property types, ranging from terraced rented houses to large detached private dwellings.

Preston-on-Tees has one school, Eaglescliffe Junction School was built in 1907, and later became known as Preston Primary School. The parish is in the catchment for Egglescliffe Secondary School.

There is a Methodist church on Witham Avenue. The church is named Eaglescliffe Trinity Methodist Church and was opened in 1902. There is also a Church of England parish church dedicated to All Saints, which was founded in the early 1900s as a church plant into Preston-on-Tees from the Church of St Thomas, Stockton.

County Durham, officially simply Durham is a ceremonial county in North East England. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne and Wear to the north, the North Sea to the east, North Yorkshire to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The largest settlement is Darlington, and the county town is the city of Durham.

The county has an area of 2,721 km2 (1,051 sq mi) and a population of 866,846. The latter is concentrated in the east; the south-east is part of the Teesside built-up area, which extends into North Yorkshire. After Darlington (92,363), the largest settlements are Hartlepool (88,855), Stockton-on-Tees (82,729), and Durham (48,069). For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas—County Durham, Darlington, and Hartlepool—and part of a fourth, Stockton-on-Tees. The county historically included the part of Tyne and Wear south of the River Tyne, and excluded the part of County Durham south of the River Tees.

The west of the county contains part of the North Pennines uplands, a national landscape. The hills are the source of the rivers Tees and Wear, which flow east and form the valleys of Teesdale and Weardale respectively. The east of the county is flatter, and contains by rolling hills through which the two rivers meander; the Tees forms the boundary with North Yorkshire in its lower reaches, and the Wear exits the county near Chester-le-Street in the north-east. The county's coast is a site of special scientific interest characterised by tall limestone and dolomite cliffs.

What is now County Durham was on the border of Roman Britain, and contains survivals of this era at sites such as Binchester Roman Fort. In the Anglo-Saxon period the region was part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. In 995 the city of Durham was founded by monks seeking a place safe from Viking raids to house the relics of St Cuthbert. Durham Cathedral was rebuilt after the Norman Conquest, and together with Durham Castle is now a World Heritage Site. By the late Middle Ages the county was governed semi-independently by the bishops of Durham and was also a buffer zone between England and Scotland. County Durham became heavily industrialised in the nineteenth century, when many collieries opened on the Durham coalfield. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, opened in 1825. Most collieries closed during the last quarter of the twentieth century, but the county's coal mining heritage is remembered in the annual Durham Miners' Gala.

Remains of Prehistoric Durham include a number of Neolithic earthworks.

The Crawley Edge Cairns and Heathery Burn Cave are Bronze Age sites. Maiden Castle, Durham is an Iron Age site.

Brigantia, the land of the Brigantes, is said to have included what is now County Durham.

There are archaeological remains of Roman Durham. Dere Street and Cade's Road run through what is now County Durham. There were Roman forts at Concangis (Chester-le-Street), Lavatrae (Bowes), Longovicium (Lanchester), Piercebridge (Morbium), Vindomora (Ebchester) and Vinovium (Binchester). (The Roman fort at Arbeia (South Shields) is within the former boundaries of County Durham.) A Romanised farmstead has been excavated at Old Durham.

Remains of the Anglo-Saxon period include a number of sculpted stones and sundials, the Legs Cross, the Rey Cross and St Cuthbert's coffin.

Around AD 547, an Angle named Ida founded the kingdom of Bernicia after spotting the defensive potential of a large rock at Bamburgh, upon which many a fortification was thenceforth built. Ida was able to forge, hold and consolidate the kingdom; although the native British tried to take back their land, the Angles triumphed and the kingdom endured.

In AD 604, Ida's grandson Æthelfrith forcibly merged Bernicia (ruled from Bamburgh) and Deira (ruled from York, which was known as Eforwic at the time) to create the Kingdom of Northumbria. In time, the realm was expanded, primarily through warfare and conquest; at its height, the kingdom stretched from the River Humber (from which the kingdom drew its name) to the Forth. Eventually, factional fighting and the rejuvenated strength of neighbouring kingdoms, most notably Mercia, led to Northumbria's decline. The arrival of the Vikings hastened this decline, and the Scandinavian raiders eventually claimed the Deiran part of the kingdom in AD 867 (which became Jórvík). The land that would become County Durham now sat on the border with the Great Heathen Army, a border which today still (albeit with some adjustments over the years) forms the boundaries between Yorkshire and County Durham.

Despite their success south of the river Tees, the Vikings never fully conquered the Bernician part of Northumbria, despite the many raids they had carried out on the kingdom. However, Viking control over the Danelaw, the central belt of Anglo-Saxon territory, resulted in Northumbria becoming isolated from the rest of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Scots invasions in the north pushed the kingdom's northern boundary back to the River Tweed, and the kingdom found itself reduced to a dependent earldom, its boundaries very close to those of modern-day Northumberland and County Durham. The kingdom was annexed into England in AD 954.

In AD 995, St Cuthbert's community, who had been transporting Cuthbert's remains around, partly in an attempt to avoid them falling into the hands of Viking raiders, settled at Dunholm (Durham) on a site that was defensively favourable due to the horseshoe-like path of the River Wear. St Cuthbert's remains were placed in a shrine in the White Church, which was originally a wooden structure but was eventually fortified into a stone building.

Once the City of Durham had been founded, the Bishops of Durham gradually acquired the lands that would become County Durham. Bishop Aldhun began this process by procuring land in the Tees and Wear valleys, including Norton, Stockton, Escomb and Aucklandshire in 1018. In 1031, King Canute gave Staindrop to the Bishops. This territory continued to expand, and was eventually given the status of a liberty. Under the control of the Bishops of Durham, the land had various names: the "Liberty of Durham", "Liberty of St Cuthbert's Land" "the lands of St Cuthbert between Tyne and Tees" or "the Liberty of Haliwerfolc" (holy Wear folk).

The bishops' special jurisdiction rested on claims that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had granted a substantial territory to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684. In about 883 a cathedral housing the saint's remains was established at Chester-le-Street and Guthfrith, King of York granted the community of St Cuthbert the area between the Tyne and the Wear, before the community reached its final destination in 995, in Durham.

Following the Norman invasion, the administrative machinery of government extended only slowly into northern England. Northumberland's first recorded Sheriff was Gilebert from 1076 until 1080 and a 12th-century record records Durham regarded as within the shire. However the bishops disputed the authority of the sheriff of Northumberland and his officials, despite the second sheriff for example being the reputed slayer of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots. The crown regarded Durham as falling within Northumberland until the late thirteenth century.

Following the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror appointed Copsig as Earl of Northumbria, thereby bringing what would become County Durham under Copsig's control. Copsig was, just a few weeks later, killed in Newburn. Having already being previously offended by the appointment of a non-Northumbrian as Bishop of Durham in 1042, the people of the region became increasingly rebellious. In response, in January 1069, William despatched a large Norman army, under the command of Robert de Comines, to Durham City. The army, believed to consist of 700 cavalry (about one-third of the number of Norman knights who had participated in the Battle of Hastings), entered the city, whereupon they were attacked, and defeated, by a Northumbrian assault force. The Northumbrians wiped out the entire Norman army, including Comines, all except for one survivor, who was allowed to take the news of this defeat back.

Following the Norman slaughter at the hands of the Northumbrians, resistance to Norman rule spread throughout Northern England, including a similar uprising in York. William The Conqueror subsequently (and successfully) attempted to halt the northern rebellions by unleashing the notorious Harrying of the North (1069–1070). Because William's main focus during the harrying was on Yorkshire, County Durham was largely spared the Harrying.

Anglo-Norman Durham refers to the Anglo-Norman period, during which Durham Cathedral was built.

Matters regarding the bishopric of Durham came to a head in 1293 when the bishop and his steward failed to attend proceedings of quo warranto held by the justices of Northumberland. The bishop's case went before parliament, where he stated that Durham lay outside the bounds of any English shire and that "from time immemorial it had been widely known that the sheriff of Northumberland was not sheriff of Durham nor entered within that liberty as sheriff. . . nor made there proclamations or attachments". The arguments appear to have prevailed, as by the fourteenth century Durham was accepted as a liberty which received royal mandates direct. In effect it was a private shire, with the bishop appointing his own sheriff. The area eventually became known as the "County Palatine of Durham".

Sadberge was a liberty, sometimes referred to as a county, within Northumberland. In 1189 it was purchased for the see but continued with a separate sheriff, coroner and court of pleas. In the 14th century Sadberge was included in Stockton ward and was itself divided into two wards. The division into the four wards of Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Easington and Stockton existed in the 13th century, each ward having its own coroner and a three-weekly court corresponding to the hundred court. The diocese was divided into the archdeaconries of Durham and Northumberland. The former is mentioned in 1072, and in 1291 included the deaneries of Chester-le-Street, Auckland, Lanchester and Darlington.

The term palatinus is applied to the bishop in 1293, and from the 13th century onwards the bishops frequently claimed the same rights in their lands as the king enjoyed in his kingdom.

The historic boundaries of County Durham included a main body covering the catchment of the Pennines in the west, the River Tees in the south, the North Sea in the east and the Rivers Tyne and Derwent in the north. The county palatinate also had a number of liberties: the Bedlingtonshire, Islandshire and Norhamshire exclaves within Northumberland, and the Craikshire exclave within the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1831 the county covered an area of 679,530 acres (2,750.0 km2) and had a population of 253,910. These exclaves were included as part of the county for parliamentary electoral purposes until 1832, and for judicial and local-government purposes until the coming into force of the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, which merged most remaining exclaves with their surrounding county. The boundaries of the county proper remained in use for administrative and ceremonial purposes until the Local Government Act 1972.

Boldon Book (1183 or 1184) is a polyptichum for the Bishopric of Durham.

Until the 15th century, the most important administrative officer in the Palatinate was the steward. Other officers included the sheriff, the coroners, the Chamberlain and the chancellor. The palatine exchequer originated in the 12th century. The palatine assembly represented the whole county, and dealt chiefly with fiscal questions. The bishop's council, consisting of the clergy, the sheriff and the barons, regulated judicial affairs, and later produced the Chancery and the courts of Admiralty and Marshalsea.

The prior of Durham ranked first among the bishop's barons. He had his own court, and almost exclusive jurisdiction over his men. A UNESCO site describes the role of the Prince-Bishops in Durham, the "buffer state between England and Scotland":

From 1075, the Bishop of Durham became a Prince-Bishop, with the right to raise an army, mint his own coins, and levy taxes. As long as he remained loyal to the king of England, he could govern as a virtually autonomous ruler, reaping the revenue from his territory, but also remaining mindful of his role of protecting England’s northern frontier.

A report states that the Bishops also had the authority to appoint judges and barons and to offer pardons.

There were ten palatinate barons in the 12th century, most importantly the Hyltons of Hylton Castle, the Bulmers of Brancepeth, the Conyers of Sockburne, the Hansards of Evenwood, and the Lumleys of Lumley Castle. The Nevilles owned large estates in the county. John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby rebuilt Raby Castle, their principal seat, in 1377.

Edward I's quo warranto proceedings of 1293 showed twelve lords enjoying more or less extensive franchises under the bishop. The repeated efforts of the Crown to check the powers of the palatinate bishops culminated in 1536 in the Act of Resumption, which deprived the bishop of the power to pardon offences against the law or to appoint judicial officers. Moreover, indictments and legal processes were in future to run in the name of the king, and offences to be described as against the peace of the king, rather than that of the bishop. In 1596 restrictions were imposed on the powers of the chancery, and in 1646 the palatinate was formally abolished. It was revived, however, after the Restoration, and continued with much the same power until 5 July 1836, when the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 provided that the palatine jurisdiction should in future be vested in the Crown.

During the 15th-century Wars of the Roses, Henry VI passed through Durham. On the outbreak of the Great Rebellion in 1642 Durham inclined to support the cause of Parliament, and in 1640 the high sheriff of the palatinate guaranteed to supply the Scottish army with provisions during their stay in the county. In 1642 the Earl of Newcastle formed the western counties into an association for the King's service, but in 1644 the palatinate was again overrun by a Scottish army, and after the Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644) fell entirely into the hands of Parliament.

In 1614, a Bill was introduced in Parliament for securing representation to the county and city of Durham and the borough of Barnard Castle. The bishop strongly opposed the proposal as an infringement of his palatinate rights, and the county was first summoned to return members to Parliament in 1654. After the Restoration of 1660 the county and city returned two members each. In the wake of the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned two members for two divisions, and the boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland acquired representation. The bishops lost their secular powers in 1836. The boroughs of Darlington, Stockton and Hartlepool returned one member each from 1868 until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 reformed the municipal boroughs of Durham, Stockton on Tees and Sunderland. In 1875, Jarrow was incorporated as a municipal borough, as was West Hartlepool in 1887. At a county level, the Local Government Act 1888 reorganised local government throughout England and Wales. Most of the county came under control of the newly formed Durham County Council in an area known as an administrative county. Not included were the county boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland. However, for purposes other than local government, the administrative county of Durham and the county boroughs continued to form a single county to which the Crown appointed a Lord Lieutenant of Durham.

Over its existence, the administrative county lost territory, both to the existing county boroughs, and because two municipal boroughs became county boroughs: West Hartlepool in 1902 and Darlington in 1915. The county boundary with the North Riding of Yorkshire was adjusted in 1967: that part of the town of Barnard Castle historically in Yorkshire was added to County Durham, while the administrative county ceded the portion of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in Durham to the North Riding. In 1968, following the recommendation of the Local Government Commission, Billingham was transferred to the County Borough of Teesside, in the North Riding. In 1971, the population of the county—including all associated county boroughs (an area of 2,570 km2 (990 sq mi))—was 1,409,633, with a population outside the county boroughs of 814,396.

In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 abolished the administrative county and the county boroughs, reconstituting County Durham as a non-metropolitan county. The reconstituted County Durham lost territory to the north-east (around Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland) to Tyne and Wear and to the south-east (around Hartlepool) to Cleveland. At the same time it gained the former area of Startforth Rural District from the North Riding of Yorkshire. The area of the Lord Lieutenancy of Durham was also adjusted by the Act to coincide with the non-metropolitan county (which occupied 3,019 km2 (1,166 sq mi) in 1981).

In 1996, as part of 1990s UK local government reform by Lieutenancies Act 1997, Cleveland was abolished. Its districts were reconstituted as unitary authorities. Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees (north Tees) were returned to the county for the purposes of Lord Lieutenancy. Darlington also became a third unitary authority of the county. The Royal Mail abandoned the use of postal counties altogether, permitted but not mandatory being at a writer wishes.

As part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England initiated by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the seven district councils within the County Council area were abolished. The County Council assumed their functions and became the fourth unitary authority. Changes came into effect on 1 April 2009.

On 15 April 2014, North East Combined Authority was established under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 with powers over economic development and regeneration. In November 2018, Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Borough Council, and Northumberland County Council left the authority. These later formed the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

In May 2021, four parish councils of the villages of Elwick, Hart, Dalton Piercy and Greatham all issued individual votes of no confidence in Hartlepool Borough Council, and expressed their desire to join the County Durham district.

In October 2021, County Durham was shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2025. In May 2022, it lost to Bradford.

Eighteenth century Durham saw the appearance of dissent in the county and the Durham Ox. The county did not assist the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. The Statue of Neptune in the City of Durham was erected in 1729.

A number of disasters happened in Nineteenth century Durham. The Felling mine disasters happened in 1812, 1813, 1821 and 1847. The Philadelphia train accident happened in 1815. In 1854, there was a great fire in Gateshead. One of the West Stanley Pit disasters happened in 1882. The Victoria Hall disaster happened in 1883.

One of the West Stanley Pit disasters happened in 1909. The Darlington rail crash happened in 1928. The Battle of Stockton happened in 1933. The Browney rail crash happened in 1946.

The First Treaty of Durham was made at Durham in 1136. The Second Treaty of Durham was made at Durham in 1139.

The county regiment was the Durham Light Infantry, which replaced, in particular, the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the Militia and Volunteers of County Durham.

RAF Greatham, RAF Middleton St George and RAF Usworth were located in County Durham.

David I, the King of Scotland, invaded the county in 1136, and ravaged much of the county 1138. In 17 October 1346, the Battle of Neville's Cross was fought at Neville's Cross, near the city of Durham. On 16 December 1914, during the First World War, there was a raid on Hartlepool by the Imperial German Navy.

Chroniclers connected with Durham include the Bede, Symeon of Durham, Geoffrey of Coldingham and Robert de Graystanes.

County Durham has long been associated with coal mining, from medieval times up to the late 20th century. The Durham Coalfield covered a large area of the county, from Bishop Auckland, to Consett, to the River Tyne and below the North Sea, thereby providing a significant expanse of territory from which this rich mineral resource could be extracted.

King Stephen possessed a mine in Durham, which he granted to Bishop Pudsey, and in the same century colliers are mentioned at Coundon, Bishopwearmouth and Sedgefield. Cockfield Fell was one of the earliest Landsale collieries in Durham. Edward III issued an order allowing coal dug at Newcastle to be taken across the Tyne, and Richard II granted to the inhabitants of Durham licence to export the produce of the mines, without paying dues to the corporation of Newcastle. The majority was transported from the Port of Sunderland complex, which was constructed in the 1850s.

Among other early industries, lead-mining was carried on in the western part of the county, and mustard was extensively cultivated. Gateshead had a considerable tanning trade and shipbuilding was undertaken at Jarrow, and at Sunderland, which became the largest shipbuilding town in the world – constructing a third of Britain's tonnage.[citation needed]

The county's modern-era economic history was facilitated significantly by the growth of the mining industry during the nineteenth century. At the industry's height, in the early 20th century, over 170,000 coal miners were employed, and they mined 58,700,000 tons of coal in 1913 alone. As a result, a large number of colliery villages were built throughout the county as the industrial revolution gathered pace.

The railway industry was also a major employer during the industrial revolution, with railways being built throughout the county, such as The Tanfield Railway, The Clarence Railway and The Stockton and Darlington Railway. The growth of this industry occurred alongside the coal industry, as the railways provided a fast, efficient means to move coal from the mines to the ports and provided the fuel for the locomotives. The great railway pioneers Timothy Hackworth, Edward Pease, George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson were all actively involved with developing the railways in tandem with County Durham's coal mining industry. Shildon and Darlington became thriving 'railway towns' and experienced significant growths in population and prosperity; before the railways, just over 100 people lived in Shildon but, by the 1890s, the town was home to around 8,000 people, with Shildon Shops employing almost 3000 people at its height.

However, by the 1930s, the coal mining industry began to diminish and, by the mid-twentieth century, the pits were closing at an increasing rate. In 1951, the Durham County Development Plan highlighted a number of colliery villages, such as Blackhouse, as 'Category D' settlements, in which future development would be prohibited, property would be acquired and demolished, and the population moved to new housing, such as that being built in Newton Aycliffe. Likewise, the railway industry also began to decline, and was significantly brought to a fraction of its former self by the Beeching cuts in the 1960s. Darlington Works closed in 1966 and Shildon Shops followed suit in 1984. The county's last deep mines, at Easington, Vane Tempest, Wearmouth and Westoe, closed in 1993.

Postal Rates from 1801 were charged depending on the distance from London. Durham was allocated the code 263 the approximate mileage from London. From about 1811, a datestamp appeared on letters showing the date the letter was posted. In 1844 a new system was introduced and Durham was allocated the code 267. This system was replaced in 1840 when the first postage stamps were introduced.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911): "To the Anglo-Saxon period are to be referred portions of the churches of Monk Wearmouth (Sunderland), Jarrow, Escomb near Bishop Auckland, and numerous sculptured crosses, two of which are in situ at Aycliffe. . . . The Decorated and Perpendicular periods are very scantily represented, on account, as is supposed, of the incessant wars between England and Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries. The principal monastic remains, besides those surrounding Durham cathedral, are those of its subordinate house or "cell," Finchale Priory, beautifully situated by the Wear. The most interesting castles are those of Durham, Raby, Brancepeth and Barnard. There are ruins of castelets or peel-towers at Dalden, Ludworth and Langley Dale. The hospitals of Sherburn, Greatham and Kepyer, founded by early bishops of Durham, retain but few ancient features."

The best remains of the Norman period include Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, and several parish churches, such as St Laurence Church in Pittington. The Early English period has left the eastern portion of the cathedral, the churches of Darlington, Hartlepool, and St Andrew, Auckland, Sedgefield, and portions of a few other churches.

'Durham Castle and Cathedral' is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Elsewhere in the County there is Auckland Castle.