River Wear

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The River Wear (pronounced /'wɪ:ə/) is a river in North East England. The river rises at Wearhead in County Durham, and meanders through Weardale passing through the market town of Stanhope, which is famous for the ford across the river, and on through Washington. It flows through, and its mouth is located at, Sunderland.

The wooded riverbanks of the Wear as it flows through Durham.

At Bishop Auckland the Wear then passes below Auckland Castle, the official residence of the Bishop of Durham and its Deer Park. Also overlooking the Wear at this point is Binchester Roman Fort, Vinovia.

The River Wear then continues flowing in a general northeasterly direction until it reaches the university city of Durham. Here, the river forms a peninsula upon which stand the imposing medieval sites of Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle. The Cathedral, which contains the final resting place of St. Cuthbert, and the City of Durham are now officially recognised as a World Heritage Site.

The route of the River Wear then passes Finchale Priory, Chester-le-Street and the new town of Washington in Sunderland, before reaching Sunderland city centre. It is here that the River Wear once boasted dozens of shipyards, now largely derelict, which contributed to making Sunderland one of the most productive shipbuilding towns on the planet. The River Wear flows out of Sunderland between Roker Pier and South Pier, and into the North Sea.

Prior to the last Ice Age, the River Wear actually flowed north from Chester-le-Street via the current route of the lower River Team, where the River Tyne merged with it at Dunston. The ice diverted the River Wear towards Sunderland and the River Tyne now occupies the former course of the combined river past Newcastle upon Tyne, towards the coast at Tynemouth and South Shields.

The section of the Wear at Durham was featured on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the North.