Newcastle upon Tyne N/A

Newcastle-upon-Tyne is situated in the North East of England, in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear and the historical and traditional county of Northumberland.  The first recorded settlement in what is now Newcastle was Pons Aelius ("Hadrian's bridge"), a Roman fort and bridge across the River Tyne. It was given the family name of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who founded it in the 2nd century AD.  After the Roman departure from Britain, completed in 410, Newcastle became part of the powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, and was known throughout this period as Monkchester.  The settlement was all but destroyed by Odo of Bayeux.  Because of its strategic position, Robert Curthose, son of William the Conqueror, erected a wooden castle there in the year 1080. The town was henceforth known as Novum Castellum or New Castle. The status of city was granted to Newcastle on 3 June 1882. In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolutionas a leading centre for coal mining, ship building, engineering, munitions and manufacturing.