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Barnard Castle is a market town in Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is named after the castle around which it grew up. It is the main settlement in the Teesdale area, and is a popular tourist destination. The Bowes Museum has the best collection of European fine and decorative arts in the North of England, housed in a "magnificent" 19th-century French-style chateau. Its most famous exhibit is the 18th-century Silver Swan automaton, though art includes work by Goya and El Greco. Barnard Castle sits on the north bank of the River Tees, opposite Startforth and 21 miles (34 km) southwest of the county town of Durham. Nearby towns include Bishop Auckland to the northeast, Darlington to the east and Richmond in North Yorkshire to the southeast. The population, according to the UK census of 2011, was 5,495. Barnard Castle's largest single employer is Glaxo SmithKline which has a manufacturing facility on the outskirts of town. Barnard Castle was originally a township in the ancient parish of Gainford in County Durham. It became a separate civil parish in 1866 and an urban district in 1894. Between 1974 and 2009 it became part of the larger Teesdale non-metropolitan district. Since 2009 County Durham has been a unitary authority. [edit] HistoryFor more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Barnard Castle. [edit] Research Tips
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