Whitburn is a village in South Tyneside, in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear on the coast of North East England.

The village lies on a south-facing slope, part of Durham's Magnesian Limestone plateau, which overlooks Sunderland.

The village contains three schools, three churches, a cricket club, recreational grounds, a pub and a variety of shops.

Archaeological deposits and Mesolithic flint scatters have been found at nearby sites, including St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth.

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.

[3] 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.

[4] Whitburn was located within an important centre of European learning and culture at this time, being situated between the monasteries of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth.

[5][8] Whitburn had a tithe barn, a stone building which formed part of the village's feudal system, situated off Church Lane until it was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War.

The combined land area of Cleadon and Whitburn was approximately 3,309 acres (5.2 sq mi), suggesting that the settlements were well-established by the time of the Boldon Book.

The entry in the Boldon Book mentions a "John of Whitburn" who "holds 40 acres and 1 toft and returns 8s and goes on missions for the Bishop."

The use of the word "cornage", an old form of taxation pre-dating the Anglo-Saxon period, further suggests that Whitburn was among the oldest of settlements in the area.

In 1183, Whitburn and Boldon formed part of the bishop's estates and much of the surrounding land belonged to the Prior of Durham Cathedral.

[12] Whitburn operated under a manorial system until 1718 when the Land Enclosure Act came into force and a number of farms were created.

Detached villas and terraces were built along with two schools and the Wesleyan Chapel, which was replaced by the current Methodist Church in 1881.

[17] By 1931, Whitburn Colliery produced over 18,000 tons of coal per week, serving the surrounding Marsden pit village.

Prefabricated hutment camps were also recorded in West Hall and South Bents Farm in Whitburn.

[8][29] Throughout the 20th century, there was much residential development in Whitburn largely to the north and east of the village's historic core.

The majority of residents (58.2%) were in employment, with wholesale and retail trade and health and social work activities being the most common industries for the area.

[36] As of 2022, the ward of Whitburn and Marsden is represented by local councillors Peter Boyack, Tracey Dixon, and Joyce Welsh (all Labour).

[37] Whitburn has retained its village character, with its main street, parish church, cricket ground and park with bowling greens and tennis courts.

[41] The name "Bents" is derived from the coarse grass (agrostis, or bentgrass) that can be found in the local coastal area.

[10][16] In 1938, Sir Hedworth Williamson demolished the cottages at Bents and rebuilt them in a manner which resembles their current crescent form.

It is situated on the site of the former Whitburn Colliery and consists of a range of grassland, woodland and scrub habitats.

The Park, named after a local councillor, was constructed in the 1960s and was built on open land previously known as Church Fields.

It contains flower beds, ornamental tree planting, a children's play area, a bowling green, and tennis courts.

Michael Matthew is represented on the tomb as an elderly gentleman lying down, his head on a pillow, and holding a book with the inscription shall not lye here but rise.

Whitburn was historically quite an isolated settlement; a road connecting the Bents to Sunderland was constructed in 1865, and only in 1929 was the north-south route (now the A183) completed.

Only a few roads connect Whitburn to surrounding population centres (the A183 to South Shields, Roker and Sunderland, and the B1299 to East Boldon).

No railway lines enter Whitburn and so the area is not directly served by the Tyne and Wear Metro.