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The town of Shildon across the River Gaunless, a mile to the south east of Bishop Auckland will be forever associated with the history of the railways, as it was from here on the 26th September 1825 that George Stephenson's famous Locomotion Number One, made its historic journey to Darlington for the opening of the world's first public railway. Shildon, rather than Darlington was the western terminus for locomotives on the Stockton and Darlington railway and in fact the railway itself, extended further west still, beyond Shildon towards Etherley and Witton Park Collieries near the River Wear. This part of the railway was operated by means of stationary engines..

Shildon was also noted in railway circles as the home of the railway pioneer Timothy Hackworth,who had been an assistant to George Stephenson. Locomotives built by Hackworth at Shildon included theRoyal George, which ran between Stockton and Darlington and the Sans Pereil, which competed against Stephenson'sRocket at the Rainhill Trials in 1830. Timothy Hackworth's former cottage at Shildon has been converted into a museum dedicated to the work of Shildons most famous son. Until fairly recently Shildon was still a railway town but sadly its last great link with the industry was broken in 1985, by the closure of the local waggon works.

Not far to the east of Shildon, is the new town of Newton Aycliffe, which was created in 1947. Nearby are the older villages of Aycliffe & School Aycliffe. The name of latter of these has nothing to do with the site of a former school, but in fact derives from the name of a Viking warrior called Scula, who owned land in this area of south Durham many centuries ago. The former Viking occupation of the southern part of the county is also indicated by the predominance of local streams in the area called `becks' rather than `burns'.Across the other side of the A1M motorway from Aycliffe, towards the northern outskirts of Darlington,is the village of Brafferton where the famous Durham Ox was bred.

The Ox was developed by the brothers, Charles and Robert Colling of nearby Ketton farm in 1796, and achieved such great fame that it was exibited throughout England and Scotland in an especially designed carriage. Over a period of five years, the ox journeyed more than 3000 miles before the unfortunate beast dislocated its hip while on show at Oxford in February 1807, It was slaughtered two months later and weighed in at 189 stones. During its lifetime, it reached an incredible maximum weight of 270 stone. The Collings acheived far reaching fame for their development and throughout the country there are many inns named after the Ox of Ketton Farm.

The untypically flat countryside to the east of Newton Aycliffe and Darlington is among the least populated parts of the eastern part of the County.. Parts of the Sedgefield district weren't within the Durham coalfield and as a result there are no former colliery villages in the locality. Apart from a few tiny rural villages, many of which are (now) in the nearby county of Cleveland, the most prominent feature in the area is an old Roman road called Cade's Road, which runs northwards from Dinsdale on the Tees through the village of Sadberge towards the outskirts of Sedgefield on its way to Chester le Street. Sedgefield is a small market-town, with the pleasant appearance of a very large village. The name 'Sedgefield', or 'Ceddesfeld' as it was known in the 10th century, comes either from the word meaning 'field of sedge' which fits in with the marshy nature of the area, or from a Saxon Warrior called 'Cedd' or 'Secg' who was possibly granted the land.

The Church is the main feature of the village green. Built in the 13th century it contains some fine woodwork by Robert Barker and has been featured on television. The tower dates from 1492. From the top of the tower, on a clear day, you can see the whole of the town laid out before you and many miles across across County Durham to the Moors, Dales, and Coast. Sedgefield was granted a Market Charter in 1312 and has flourished since then.