Whitwell House is a place in County Durham, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

situated a few miles to the south-east of

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. It now consists of the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Whitwell Grange, but was from 1836 was the site of the village of Whitwell Colliery. The village declined following the closure of the

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

in 1875 and was described as 'almost deserted' by 1894. Whitwell House was also an extra-parochial chapelry, and from 1858 a

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 authorit ...

until its incorporation with

Shincliffe Shincliffe is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The parish population (according to the 2011 census) was 1,796. It is situated just over to the south-east of Durham city centre, on the A177 road to Stockton. Shincliffe is ...

. The chapelry was closely associated with the nearby

Sherburn Hospital Sherburn Hospital (also known as Christ's Hospital in Sherburn) is a medieval hospital located in the hamlet of Sherburn House to the southeast of Durham, England. History The hospital was founded in 1181 by Hugh de Puiset (Bishop Pudsey), to ...

External links

Durham Mining Museum entry on Whitwell Colliery

Vision of Britain entry on Whitwell House

GenUKi entry on Whitwell House

Whitwell Grange {{Durham-geo-stub