Newcastle

Newcastle is also known as Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle is a city located in Tyne and Wear, England.  This town is the most populous city in the North East and forms the centre of the Tyneside city, the eighth most populous urban region in the United Kingdom. 

The city established the Roman settlement Pons Aelius. It was titled after the castle constructed in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror's eldest son.  The port advanced in the 16th century and, along with the dockyards lower down the River Tyne, was amongst the world's largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centres. Among its icons are Newcastle United football club and the Tyne Bridge. Since 1981 the city has held the Great North Run, a half-marathon which pleas over 57,000 runners each year.

Geography

Newcastle is situated in the North East of England, in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear and the historical and traditional county of Northumberland. The ground beneath the city is shaped from Carboniferous strata of the Middle Pennine Coal Measures Group. It is a group of sandstones, mudstones and coal seams which usually dip temperately eastwards. To the west of the city are the Upper Pennine Coal Measures and more west again the sandstones and mudstones of the Stainmore Formation, the local corresponding of the Millstone Grit.