BLAYDON, urban district, and manufacturing town, Dur ham, England, on the Tyne, 4m. W. of Newcastle by the L.N.E. railway. Pop. (1881) 10,687; (1931) 32,259. Its situation very frequently involved it in border warfare. Near by is the beautiful old mansion of Stella, and below it Stellaheugh, to which the vic torious Scottish army crossed from Newburn, on the Northum berland bank, in 164o, afterwards occupying Newcastle. Blaydon developed with the Northumberland and Durham coal-field. At the present time half the male population is engaged in coal-min ing, but a special feature of this region and of Blaydon in particu lar is the development of by-products based on coal. The town has extensive coke ovens, while the iron-foundries, and the manu factures of machinery, tools, fire-bricks and to some extent bottle glass, are of great importance.
UCE, town in France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Gironde, on the right bank of the Gironde (here over 2m. wide), 35m. N. of Bordeaux by rail. Pop. (1931), 2,883. In ancient times Blaye (Blavia) was a port of the Santones. As a crossing-place of the Gironde the site, avoiding the double crossing of the Dordogne and Garonne, was specially important on the Pilgrim Way (La Route St. Jacques) from Brittany to Roncevaux and Compostella. Tradition states that the hero Roland was buried in its basilica, sacrificed with other old buildings to make room for Vauban's citadel (1685). Blaye played an important part in the wars against the English and in the Religious Wars. The citadel, on a rock near the river, includes the ruins of an old Gothic château. Fort Pate on an island in the river and Fort Medoc on its left bank, are 17th century fortifications. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect, and l)as tribunals of first instance and of commerce.
