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Coordinates: 54°36′47″N 1°48′22″W / 54.61292°N 1.80616°W
| Cockfield | |
.png)  Cockfield shown within County Durham |
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| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| Unitary authority | County Durham |
| Ceremonial county | County Durham |
| Region | North East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Durham |
| Fire | County Durham and Darlington |
| Ambulance | North East |
| European Parliament | North East England |
| List of places: UK • England • County Durham | |
Cockfield is a village on the edge of Teesdale, County Durham, in England. It is situated a few miles to the south-west of Bishop Auckland. Remains found on Cockfield Fell suggest there was a settlement in the area in the Iron Age. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, probably dates from the late 12th century.
Coal mining began in the area in the medieval period. When the South West Durham coalfield was opened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the population of the village grew significantly.
One of the more illustrious families to hail from Cockfield was the Dixon family. George Dixon owned coal mines and was a keen inventor, once even blowing up a shed on Cockfield Fell before successfully inventing coal gas! His brother Jeremiah ( an astronomer ) went to America with Charles Mason in 1763 to survey the boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania thereby creating the 'Mason-Dixon Line'.
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