Notable People
Stan Laurel of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy lived in the town during his childhood attending the town's King James 1st Grammar School. His parents owned the now demolished Eden Theatre, which was located at the junction of Newgate Street and South Church Road. In 2007, a Wetherspoons pub opened in the town named after Stan, and in August 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled on the site that his parent's theatre once occupied.
One of the UK's most prolific serial killers, Mary Ann Cotton, lived in the nearby village of West Auckland. She was hanged at Durham Jail in 1873 for the murder of her stepson. However, it is believed that she could have been responsible for the deaths of at least 18 others.
Roland Boys Bradford, who during World War I was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery on 1 October 1916, and became Brigadier General, on 10 November 1917 at the age of 25 making him the youngest General in the British Army, was born in the nearby village of Witton Park.
Politician, Sir Anthony Eden, who was the British Prime Minister between 1955 and 1957, was born in Bishop Auckland. As was, Sir Peter Soulsby, the current MP for Leicester South, and Mansfield MP Alan Meale.
Jeremiah Dixon, Astronomer and Surveyor of the Mason–Dixon Line, footballer Charlie Wayman who played for Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and Southampton, Actor Christopher Hancock, who played Charlie Cotton in EastEnders, Chelsea goalkeeper Ross Turnbull, Town planner Thomas Wilfred Sharp, architect William Atkinson, scientific instrument maker John Bird, botanist Robert Kaye Greville and Craig Raine, the poet and critic were also all born in Bishop Auckland. Actor John Reed, was born and spent his childhood in the nearby village of Close House.
In addition to Stan Laurel, the theologian and catholic priest Frederick William Faber, nineteenth century industrialist William George Armstrong, linguist Harold Orton, 17th century politician James Craggs the Elder and astronomer Thomas Wright were all educated at the town's grammar school.
Read more about this topic: Bishop Auckland
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