St John's Chapel is a village 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Stanhope, in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, England. It is situated in

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. The u ...

, on the south side of the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in Northern England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...

on the

A689 road The A689 is a road in northern England that runs east from the A595, to the west of Carlisle in Cumbria, to Hartlepool in County Durham. The road begins west of Carlisle, just outside the city at the A595. The initial stretch was recently co ...

between Daddry Shield and Ireshopeburn. The 2001 census reported a population of 307. The village has its own primary school, which in 2014 was graded at "outstanding" by Ofsted. The nearest secondary schools are in Alston (12 miles) and Wolsingham (14 miles). The nearest swimming pool is 14 miles away and the nearest library is 22 miles away. This population makes the village marginal in terms of thresholds for service provision. Although the population of the ward (1,446, including surrounding hamlets) has remained fairly stable for 30 years, this masks the out-migration mainly of the younger generation affecting the population structure. Although this area has a high quality of life with low pollution and crime rates, in 2001 16 residents were unemployed and 26% of households were without a car. Originally St John's chapel was a medieval hunting stop, it then grew as a centre of lead mining after 1600. The parish Church is dedicated to St John the Baptist (from where the place name originates). The present building was built in 1752 on a medieval

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

. The medieval chapel was extant in 1465 when bishop Lawrence Booth granted a chantry to be set up. Sir

Walter Blackett Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, 2nd Baronet (18 December 1707 – 14 February 1777) was a British baronet and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1734 to 1777. He was born Walter Calverley at Otley, the only son of Sir Walter Calver ...

provided funds for the re- building. The chancel was extended by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Arch ...

1881–1883. A Primitive Methodist chapel was built in 1852 and demolished in 1960. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1869. St John's Chapel Town Hall was completed in 1868. St John's Chapel was the penultimate stop of the Weardale Extension Railway which opened on 21 October 1895, being mainly a freight line carrying

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, iron ore,

lead ore Lead () is a chemical element; it has symbol Pb (from 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 cut, lead ...

and

fluorspar Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

to the industrial areas of North East England. It closed to passenger traffic in 1953 and later to freight in 1963. The station was entirely demolished. Being situated in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, St John's Chapel is increasingly popular with cyclists, walkers and bird watchers. In 2013 a Visitor Information Point was opened in the Market Place. The village has two pubs and one cafe. The Weardale Show - organised by the Weardale Agricultural Society - is a family-friendly agricultural event held in the village in the last weekend of August.

References

External links

stjohnschapel.co.uk - visitor information website for St John's Chapel and surrounding villagesWeardale Show in St. John's Chapel
{{authority control Saint John's Chapel Stanhope, County Durham