DARLINGTON, market town, county and parliamentary borough, Durham, England. 232 m. N. by W. of London, on the L.N.E. railway. Pop. (1931) 72,093. It lies on the river Skerne, a tributary of the Tees, not far from the main river. Its appear ance is almost wholly modern, but there is a fine old parish church on the site of an earlier church, dedicated to St. Cuthbert. It is 'cruciform, and in style mainly transitional Norman, and has a central tower surmounted by a spire of the i4th century. Educa tional establishments include an Elizabethan grammar school, a training college and a technical school. There is a park of forty four acres. The industries include worsted-spinning, coal and ironstone mining, quarrying and brick-making, the manufacture of iron and steel into locomotives, bridge castings, ships' engines, gun castings and shells, etc. The parliamentary borough returns one member. The town was incorporated in 1867. Area, 6,469 acres.
Not long after the monks of Lindisfarne had settled at Dur ham in 995, Styr gave them the vill of Darlington (Dearthington, Darnington), which by io83 had grown into importance. Bishop William of St. Carileph in that year changed the church to a collegiate church. Bishop Hugh de Puiset rebuilt the church and built a manor house which was for many years the occasional residence of the bishops of Durham. Boldon Book, dated 1183, contains the first mention of Darlington as a borough, rated at is, while half a mark was due from the dyers of cloth. The next account of the town is in Bishop Hatfield's Survey (c. 138o), which states that "Ingelram Gentill and his partners hold the borough of Derlyngton with the profits of the mills and dye houses and other profits pertaining to the borough rendering yearly four score and thirteen pounds and six shillings." Darlington possesses no early charter, but claimed its privileges as a borough by a pre scriptive right. Until the i9th century it was governed by a bailiff appointed by the bishop. Before the i9th century Darlington was noted for the manufacture of linen, worsted and flax, but it owes its modern importance to the opening of the railway between Darlington and Stockton on the 27th of September 1825. "Loco motive No. 1," the first that ever ran on a public railway, stands in Bank Top station. Darlington sent no members to parliament until 1862, when it was allowed to return one member. The fairs and markets in Darlington were formerly held by the bishop and were in existence as early as the iith century. The markets and fairs were finally in 1854 purchased by the local authority, and now belong to the corporation.