About North West Durham

 

North West Durham Constituency Labour Party is the Labour Party's organisational unit for the North West Durham Parliamentary Constituency.

 

Situated in County Durham, in North East England, North West Durham covers the main towns of Consett and Crook together with smaller towns and villages such as Willington, Wolsingham, Lanchester, Leadgate, Burnopfield, Dipton and Langley Park.

 

A very large constituency geographically, it reaches from the outskirts of the historic City of Durham to the top of Weardale and the North Pennines - an area of outstanding natural beauty. To the North it borders the metropolitian borough of Gateshead whilst to the South it reaches the River Wear just outside Bishop Auckland.

 

The area was built to the traditional industries  of steel-making and coal mining. The town of Consett was once dominated by the Consett Iron Works or "Company" that provided thousands of jobs for local people. Since the closure of British Steel in the early 80s, the town has battled back from high unemployment with new industries.

 

The last deep coal mine in the Constituency, at Langley Park, also closed in the early 80s. Coal Mining dominated the lives of the network pit villages across the constituency.