Newcastle upon Tyne, diocese of

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Newcastle upon Tyne, diocese of. The see was created in 1882 out of the Durham diocese simultaneously with Wakefield, Southwell, and Liverpool, to provide further pastoral care for the rapidly increasing population of industrial Newcastle. The diocese, conterminous with the former county of Northumberland, is an area of major contrasts from highly industrial Tyneside to sparsely inhabited border territory. It contains Lindisfarne, the historic springboard of the Celtic mission to northern England in the 7th and 8th cents. The 14th-cent church of St Nicholas became the cathedral, its open lantern tower pre-dating that of Edinburgh St Giles.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall