Stanley Crook
Encyclopedia
Stanley Crook is a village in County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is situated to the north of Crook
Crook, County Durham
Crook is a market town in County Durham, England. It is situated about 10 miles south-west of Durham.Crook lies a couple of miles north of the River Wear, on the A690 from Durham...

 and Billy Row
Billy Row
Billy Row is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a short distance to the north of Crook. According to the 2001 census, Billy Row has a population of 824....

. The area is rural, surrounded by open farm land and woodland. There are several farms and many small holdings. It is a small former mining village which used to have two collieries. During the 1970s, the village was classified as category D, which meant the council wished to demolish the whole village. However, this did not happen, only 3 streets were demolished.

The village has a BMX track and a football pitch, which until recently was home to Stanley United, one of England's oldest football clubs (who now play at Peases West). A park and a new housing estate is currently being built.

The village's other facilities include primary school, a community centre, a petrol station, a small garden centre, a Methodist church
Methodist Church of Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...

 and the Church of England's Church of St Thomas. There is also a monument to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

History

Until the 1850s, the area was open moorland
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...

. It was not until Viscount Boyne
Viscount Boyne
Viscount Boyne, in the province of Leinster, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1717 for the Scottish military commander Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Stackallan. He had already been created Baron Hamilton of Stackallan, in the County of Meath in 1715, also in the...

 of Brancepeth Castle
Brancepeth Castle
Brancepeth Castle is a castle in the village of Brancepeth in County Durham, England, some 5 miles south-west of the city of Durham . It is a Grade I listed building.-History:...

, leased the mineral rights to Joseph Pease and Company that mining operations began. The first colliery was Stanley Pit then Wooley Colliery.

The name of the village comes from Stanley Hall, a medieval farm on the hill top to the north of the village. The area now known as Stanley Crook was originally known as Mount Pleasant, which, along with Wooley, was originally a separate village. During the 1870s, the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 wished to build a church for the village. The village was part of the Parish of Brancepeth
Brancepeth
Brancepeth is a village and civil parish in County Durham, in England. It is situated about from Durham on the A690 road between Durham and Weardale. Brancepeth Castle was until 1570 the fortress of the Neville Earls of Westmorland. The castle was extensively modified and rebuilt in the 19th century...

. When the village was separated from Brancepeth, the Church of England gave it the name of Stanley Crook, the Crook being added to differentiate it from the existing settlement called Stanley
Stanley, County Durham
Stanley is a former colliery town and civil parish in County Durham, England. Centred on a hilltop between Chester-le-Street and Consett, the town lies south west of Gateshead....

in County Durham.
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