Tyne and Wear

Tyne and Wear
Metropolitan and Ceremonial county
The Angel of the North, Souter Lighthouse in Whitburn, and the River Tyne between Gateshead and Newcastle.
Tyne and Wear within England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	North East
Established	1974
Established by	Local Government Act 1972
Preceded by	Parts of County Durham Parts of Northumberland
Time zone	UTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time)
Members of Parliament	11 MPs
Police	Northumbria Police
Ceremonial county
Lord Lieutenant	Lucy Winskell
High Sheriff	Joanne Jane Curry (2025-2026)
Area
• Ranked	of 48
Population (2005 est.)	1,095,200
• Ranked	12th of 48
Density	2,028/km2 (5,250/sq mi)
Ethnicity	91.49% White British 4.10% Asian 1.98% Other White 0.97% Mixed 0.78% Black 0.67% Other
Metropolitan county
GSS code	E11000007
ITL	TLC22/23
Largest city	Newcastle upon Tyne
Districts
Districts of Tyne and Wear   Metropolitan districts
Districts	Gateshead Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside South Tyneside Sunderland

Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in North East England.

It was created in 1974, and consists of the five metropolitan boroughs:

• On the north bank of the River Tyne
  • Newcastle
  • North Tyneside
• On the south bank of the River Tyne
• Gateshead
• South Tyneside
• Spanning the River Wear
  • Sunderland

Like all metropolitan counties, the county council was abolished in 1986, and its functions given either to the individual boroughs or shared by new joint committees of the five boroughs.

Schools are now controlled by each borough. The fire brigade is one of several services run on a county-wide basis by a committee made up of members from each borough.

The people from Sunderland and the people from Newcastle did not like being joined in one county. The Royal Commission that recommended changing the county councils of England could not even find a name that the people of the two place liked. Their report just called the new county "area D".

Other websites

Media related to Tyne and Wear at Wikimedia Commons