It lies within the historic county area of County Durham but is now a unitary authority in its own right and so not governed by Durham in any way.
Darlington has an attractive historic market area in the town centre and is famed for its associations with the birth of railways. The world's first ever rail journey travelled between Darlington and nearby Stockton-on-Tees[?], in the famous Stephenson's Rocket.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump