Harwood is a small

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

and village near the head of

Teesdale Teesdale is a dale, or valley, in Northern England. The dale is in the River Tees’s drainage basin, most water flows stem from or converge into said river, including the Skerne and Leven. Upper Teesdale, more commonly just Teesdale, falls ...

. ''Harwood Beck'' is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...

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 ...

which forms a short valley, and the village is made of the scattered houses and farms which run the length of the valley. The valley forms part of the

North Pennines The North Pennines is the northernmost section of the Pennine range of hills which runs north–south through northern England. It lies between Carlisle to the west and Darlington to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Tyne Valley and ...

AONB An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

. Lying along the B6277, the village is north-west of

Middleton-in-Teesdale Middleton-in-Teesdale is a market town in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. It is situated on the north side of Teesdale between Eggleston and Newbiggin, Teesdale, Newbiggin, a few miles to the north-west of Barnard Castle. The ...

and south-east of Alston in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. It is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Forest and Frith Forest and Frith is a civil parish in the County Durham unitary authority, in the ceremonial county of Durham, England. In the 2011 census it had a population of 163. The parish has an area of . It is bordered by the parishes of Stanhope t ...

, and the

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 ...

parliamentary constituency. There is a long history of

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

mining in Harwood, which reached a peak in the late nineteenth century when a church (1849) and school (1853) were built. The buildings, long abandoned, can be still be seen today. To the west of Harwood,

Cow Green Reservoir Cow Green Reservoir is a long water reservoir forming part of the border between the historic counties of Westmorland and County Durham in northern England, built between 1967 and 1971 to supply the industries of Teesside. The reservoir acts ...

was constructed on former mining land in the 1960s, while Harwood Common rises above the valley to the north.

References

External links

* Villages in County Durham {{Durham-geo-stub