Startforth Rural District was a rural district in the North Riding of the historic county of Yorkshire in the Pennines of northern England.
It was formed in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894. It constituted the part of the Teesdale Rural Sanitary District that was in the North Riding (the rest being in County Durham).
In 1974, the district was abolished and formed part of the Teesdale district of the non-metropolitan county of County Durham.
It comprised the area south of the River Tees between Cow Green Reservoir and Gainford, and north of the modern administrative border between County Durham and North Yorkshire.
The area is hilly and fairly sparsely populated. Places within it included:
Villages
- Barningham
- Boldron
- Bowbank
- Bowes
- Brignall
- Cotherstone
- Gilmonby
- Grassholme
- Greta Bridge
- Hutton Magna
- Holwick
- Hunderthwaite
- Hury
- Lanehead
- Lartington
- Mickleton
- Ovington
- Romaldkirk
- Scargill
- Startforth
- Thringarth
- Wycliffe
Dales
- Baldersdale
- Deep Dale
- Lunedale
- Teesdale (south side only)
Reservoirs and lakes
- Balderhead
- Blackton
- Fish Lake
- Grassholme
- Hury
- Selset
Fells and moors
- Barningham Moor
- Bowes Moor
- Cotherstone Moor
- Cronkley Fell
- Holwick Fell
- Hope Moor
- Hunderthwaite Moor
- Lune Moor
- Mickle Fell
- Scargill High Moor
- Sleightholme Moor
Forests
- Lune
- Stainmore
Rivers and becks
- River Balder
- Deepdale Beck
- River Greta
Roads
- A66
- A67
- B6276
- B6277
The Pennine Way also passes through the area.
Famous quotes containing the words rural and/or district:
“We realize that we are laggards from the past century, still living in what Marx kindly calls ‘the idiocy of rural life,’ and we know that our rural life is like that of the past, not like that of much of the present.”
—For the State of Vermont, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)