Northumberlandadministrative and historic county of northeastern England. It is England’s northernmost county, bounded to the north by Scotland, to the east by the North Sea, to the west by the administrative county of Cumbria (historic county of Cumberland), and to the south by Durham. The administrative county comprises six districts: Alnwick, Tynedale, Wansbeck, and the boroughs of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth Valley, and Castle Morpeth. The historic county of Northumberland includes the entire administrative county and the metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. Newcastle was the historic county town (seat) of Northumberland, but Morpeth is the county’s present administrative centre. Northumberland is a county of strongly contrasting landscapes, from the agricultural eastern coastal plain and the sparsely populated, rugged hills and moors of the west to the densely populated urban and industrial areas of the Tyne and Blyth valleys in the south.






Approximately 50 percent of the administrative county of Northumberland is mountain and rough hill pasture, 45 percent medium-quality farmland, and 5 percent good farmland. There was little crop production in the county until late in the 18th century. Even in the 1770s at least half of Northumberland was still wasteland, and parts of the moors are still among the most sparsely populated areas of England. The coastal plain produces sheep, cattle, and barley on large, highly mechanized mixed farms that include some of the richest fattening pastures in England. Sheep (mainly Cheviots) greatly outnumber cattle. Traditional salmon fishing in the Tyne and Tweed still flourishes. The larger towns and industrial villages—such as Blyth, Cramlington, Bedlington, and Ashington—are found in the south and east of the administrative county, Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed are the principal towns of the northeast, and the sparsely populated fells are served by the small market towns of Wooler, Rothbury, and Bellingham. An industrial complex on the River Blyth in the southeast produces electrical machinery, electronic equipment, and light manufactures. Service activities play an increasingly important economic role. The administrative county’s economy is closely linked to that of the neighbouring metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. Area administrative county, 1,941 936 square miles (5,026 013 square km). Pop. (1998 2005 est.) administrative county, 309311,600300.