Northumberland role in the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century on. Many coal mines operated in Northumberland until the widespread closures in the 1970s and 1980s. Collieries operated at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth, Choppington, Netherton, Ellington and Pegswood. The region's coalfields fuelled industrial expansion in other areas of Britain, and the need to transport the coal from the collieries to the Tyne led to the development of the first railways. Shipbuilding and armaments manufacture were other important industries before the deindustrialisation of the 1980s. Northumberland remains largely rural, and is the least-densely populated county in England. In recent years the county has
Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Hillsborough County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2010 census, the population was 400,721. The population was estimated at 407,761 in 2016. Its county seats are Manchester and Nashua. Hillsborough is northern New England's most populous county as well as its most densely populated. Hillsborough County comprises the Manchester-Nashua, NH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn constitutes a portion of the Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area. Hillsborough was one of the five original counties identified for New Hampshire in 1769, and was named for Wills Hill, the