Whitburn is a village in South Tyneside in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear on the coast of North East England. It is located north of the city of Sunderland and south of the town of South Shields. Historically, Whitburn was a part of County Durham. Other nearby population centres include Seaburn, Cleadon and Marsden. The village lies on a south-facing slope, part of Durham's Magnesian Limestone plateau, which overlooks Sunderland. The population for the combined Whitburn and Marsden Ward in the 2011 UK Census was 7,448. For much of its history, Whitburn was a fishing and agricultural community. The village contains three schools, three churches, cricket club, recreational grounds, a pub and a variety of shops. Etymology The first written instance of Whitburn is an the Boldon Book of 1183, where the village is recorded as Whitberne. This name may refer to a stream or burn running through the village. Alternatively, the origin could come from Hwita Byrgen, or Hwita's tumulus, the place where the Saxon nobleman Hwita was buried. Other possible origins are Kwit-Berne, an Anglo-Saxon word for a tithe barn, or hwīt + bere-ærn, Old English for "white barn". History The earliest evidence of human occupation in Whitburn dates back to the Mesolithic period (8,000–4,500BC). Lumps of burnt daub have been discovered at Potter's Hole on the coast, probably from a timber structure. Archaeological deposits and Mesolithic flint scatters have been found at nearby sites, including St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth. Neolithic and Bronze Age flints have also been found in Whitburn. A Bronze Age cist burial was uncovered in Wheatall Farm in 1929 which contained a 35-year-old person buried with an arrowhead, flints and limpets. When the bishopric of Monkwearmouth was founded in 674, the king gifted all of the royal estates east of Dere Street and north of the River Wear – which included Whitburn – to the Church. Cuthbert, the Bishop of Lindisfarne at the time, was responsible for spreading Christianity throughout the North East. Whitburn was located within an important centre of European learning and culture at this time, being situated between the monasteries of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth. Part of the village to the south has been designated as an Area of Potential Archaeological Importance as it is the site of a medieval village. During the Middle Ages, Whitburn was both a township and a parish. Whitburn Parish included the townships of Whitburn