CHESTER-LE-STREET, a market-town of England in the county of Durham, near the River Wear, six miles north of Durham, on the North-Eastern Railway. The principal building is the parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert, an interesting old Gothic structure, restored in 1862, with a tower 156 feet in height. There is a union workhouse at the south end of the town, which consists of two long parallel streets. Chester-le-Street is a place of considerable antiquity; under the name of Cuneceastre, it was made the see of a bishop in 882, and continued to be the head of the diocese till the Danish invasion of 995. During that time the church was the repository of the shrine of St Cuthbert, which was then removed to Durham. About a mile along the river is Lumley Castle, the seat of the earl of Scarborough, and about two miles to the northward lies Lambton Castle, the residence of the earl of Durham, built in 1797 on the site of the old House of Harraton. The iron manufacture is prosecuted to a considerable extent, and about 4000 persons are employed in the coal mines of the neighbourhood. In 1871 the population of the town was 2450, and of the township, 4205.