Diocese of Newcastle

The Diocese of Newcastle is a Church of England diocese based in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering the historic county of Northumberland (and therefore including the part of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne), as well as the area of Alston Moor in Cumbria (historic Cumberland). The diocese came into being on 23 May 1882, and was one of four created by the Bishoprics Act 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 68) for industrial areas with rapidly expanding populations. The area of the diocese was taken from the part of the Diocese of Durham which was north of the River Tyne, and was defined in the legislation as comprising: "....the county of Northumberland, and the counties of the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Berwick-upon-Tweed, and to include such detached parts of any other county as are under any Act of Parliament deemed to form part of the county of Northumberland, or have been or can be transferred to the county of Northumberland by the justices in general or quarter sessions assembled, and to include also the ancient common law parish of Alston with its chapelries in the county of Cumberland...." The cathedral is Newcastle Cathedral (until 1882 the Parish Church of St Nicholas) and the diocesan bishop is Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle. In 1966 the diocese appointed Northumberland Archives as its diocesan record office. The Woodhorn office of Northumberland Archives preserves and makes accessible the archival records of the diocese and its parishes.