Grange Villa - Izeria

Grange Villa is a village situated in County Durham, England. It is located between the towns of Stanley and Chester-le-Street.

1. History

Grange Villa was built to house miners; Stone Row first, then the top block of Queen Street, followed by the rest of the streets. The Handen Hold Colliery was to the north of the village past the Binney burn toward West Pelton. It closed in 1968; the Alma Pit, to the south of the village toward Twizell Burn, closed in the 1950s. A railway line ran from the Alma Pit, behind Front Street towards the Pelton Fell landings. Miners were still using carbide lamps to work by down the mine in the late 1950s. There was a cinema, snooker hall, fish shop, a clothing factory, several newsagents, bakers, and fruit shops, as well as the Nobles Organisation that started in Grange Villa with Joe Nobles Bingo. Between Pine Street and Stone Row there were gardens where pigs and pigeons were kept. The First old age pensioners' club house was built by the old men of the village at the bottom of East Street in the late 1950s. Grange Villa Pavilion Cinema showed the first talking movie in the area and Bud Flanagan appeared live when it opened. The land between Stone Row and Pine Street used to be the rear gardens of those properties and were purchased by the local council during the early 1980s on compulsory purchase orders.

1. The village today

The village has one local newsagents, one tanning and beauty shop, a barbers and a community center. Grange Villa has a golf course on the north edge of the village, which is open to the public, and paths running through the forests surrounding the village. There was a church and a chapel, however in the last few years the church has both been sold off as a builders storage depot, and the chapel made into a house. Since 2004, regeneration of the village has been underway. The community, with help from grants and fundraising, opened the new Grange Villa Enterprise Centre in December 2004 which is used by residents young and old from provide cheap lunchtime meals to slimming clubs and Sure Start baby groups. Speed bumps have been introduced, and there are plans for more housing to be built at the top of East Street as well between Stone Row and Pine Street. There has been much debate about The Square being turned over to housing as this is one of the few safe play areas in the village for local children. The village has a 16+ football team.

1. References


1. External links

Grange Villa community website Dividend declared - The Northern Echo

Nearby Places View Menu

Fox & Parrot Wood

Fox & Parrot Wood is a broadleaf woodland in County Durham, England, about 4 miles (6 km) west of Chester-le-Street. It is situated just north of the B6313 road, near the village of Craghead. The wood forms part of the Great North Forest, which is one of England's community forests, and is adjacent to Twizell Wood, which lies to the north. The wood was originally planted in 1998 as part of a joint project between the Woodland Trust and the Forestry Commission. Further planting took place in 2004. It now covers a total area of 13.4 hectares (33.1 acres) and is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. As with other Woodland Trust woods, it is freely open to the public, with five access points. The forest was named after Dr Fox, a local General Practitioner in the 1950s, who was known for his pet parrot.

Landmark Park

1.1 km

Roseberry College

Roseberry College and Sixth Form was a state-funded secondary school and sixth form in County Durham, England, founded in 1963 and closed in 2014. The final college Principal was Ann Bowen, who is also a geography textbook author for the examination board AQA. The school was housed on a very large single site with capacity for almost 1000 pupils in the Pelton, County Durham / Newfield, Chester-le-Street / Ouston, County Durham areas.

School University

Newfield, Chester-le-Street

Newfield is a village in County Durham, England. It lies west of the town of Chester-le-Street, and falls partly within the civil parish of Pelton. In 2021 it had a population of 1529. Its services include the following: a mobile post office, primary school with a good Ofsted rating with some outstanding features, pub, beauty salon, a dental surgery, bakery/cafe and a lunch time take away cafe. It also has won silver two years in a row in the RHS In bloom awards. This is a semi-rural area with great access to Newcastle upon Tyne, Durham, Sunderland and the market town of Chester-le-Street.

Neighbourhood Restaurant

Beamish, County Durham

Beamish, previously named "Pit Hill", is a village in County Durham, England, situated to the north east of Stanley. The village is contained within Hell Hole Wood and is home to Beamish Museum, an open-air museum seeking to replicate a northern town of the early 20th century. Its principal public house is the Shepherd and Shepherdess, near the Beamish Museum entrance. To the south is the village of No Place (also called Co-operative Villas). North West Beamish lies in the conservation area of Beamish Burn. To the north of Beamish, Pockerley Manor preserves a rare though altered example of a pele tower in County Durham, probably dating from the 15th century with later alterations and additions. It is attached to a later farmhouse and the building is now known as Pockerley Manor. The tower has living accommodation built over a stone basement, the first floor reached through a stair built into the thickness of the wall, and the roof is largely original.