Hamsterley is a village in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, England. It is situated a few miles west of

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

. The village lies on a rise above the upper reaches of the

Wear Wear is the damaging, gradual removal or deformation of material at solid surfaces. Causes of wear can be mechanical (e.g., erosion) or chemical (e.g., corrosion). The study of wear and related processes is referred to as tribology. Wear in m ...

valley. To the west of the village the land rises to Hamsterley Common at the eastern edge of the

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle o ...

country which lies between the valleys of the Wear and the Tees. In the centre of the village is a pub called the Cross Keys. Near to the village is Dryderdale Hall, a grade II listed mansion built in 1872 by the architect

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

for the Backhouse family. It was used as a location for the filming of ''

Get Carter ''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detecti ...

''. Hamsterley has a population of around 550, measured as 445 at the 2011 Census. An episode of ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' in 2008 examined a large stone structure in nearby

Hamsterley Forest Hamsterley Forest is a commercial forest in County Durham owned and managed by Forestry England. It is the largest forest in County Durham and covers more than . Recreational activities within the forest are focused at the eastern end, around th ...

known as "the Castles", with walls five metres thick. It appears to date from the late

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and may have been an animal enclosure. However the thickness of the walls suggests a more defensible purpose.

References

External links

Hamsterley Village Website
Villages in County Durham {{Durham-geo-stub