ABSTRACT
Causey Arch in County Durham (grid reference NZ 205 562) is a site symbolic of the very fundamental restructuring of the economy of the north east of England which took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. The spatial evolution of the northern coalfield was a complex outcome of the interaction of a number of significant factors. Geological conditions were of course a constraint, but we must also consider the available mining and transport technology and the facilitating organization. There is room here for only a brief resume of two main points: the attempts by entrepreneurs to monopolise space, and the outward linkages of the region with other parts of an emerging national economic system.
