Pelton Fell 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.

History

Adjacent to the park, on Station Lane, the Miner's Institute was built in 1889 and later expanded in 1909 to cope with a rise in population. The institute was used for many social activities and local clubs up until the 1990s when it fell derelict and was later destroyed by fire. There are now four newly built detached houses on the site. A

Durham County Council Durham County Council is a local authority administering all significant local government functions in the unitary authority area of County Durham in North East England. The council area covers part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, e ...

sponsored redevelopment of the village began in 2004 with a significant number of council houses, and a small number of private houses, demolished. This was done to make way for more modern accommodation, which is to a mix of

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

and private housing.

Location

Pelton Fell is situated a short distance to the north-west of

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at Sun ...

. It is the site of a former coal mine and a closed railway station primarily used to service both Pelton Fell and Pelton, a village at the opposite end of Station Lane, although very few traces of either remain today, except in some of the street names.

Features

Primarily residential, it has a small village shop, a

doctor's surgery A doctor's office in American English, a doctor's surgery in British English, or a doctor's practice, is a medical facility in which one or more medical doctors, usually general practitioners (GP), receive and treat patients. Description Doct ...

and a newly open community centre called the Brockwell Centre. There is a

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

Restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

at the far end of the village, called The Moorings, with an attached

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, which opened in April 2007. This is the area traditionally referred to as Hett Hills. The Pelton Fell

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class me ...

was closed and demolished in March 2008, several years after the Colliery Inn was closed and demolished only 100 yards from the same location. A small

industrial estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

called Stella Gill was established in the late 1980s and primarily provides start up premises for small businesses. A substantial proportion of the village is made up of pre and post

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

, many of which (particularly in the north of the village) have been purchased under the

right to buy scheme The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large ...

. The village is split into two sides by an area locally called 'The Battery'. On the Station Lane side is Pelton Fell memorial Park, housing a war memorial, tennis courts, children's play area, and a bowling green home to the local bowling club. Pelton Fell Football Club play home games on the football pitches situated at the rear of Park View and Battle Green, just off Station Lane.

External links

Miners – History of Pelton FellHistory of Pelton Fell
{{authority control Villages in County Durham