Phoenix Row
Encyclopedia
Phoenix Row is a tiny village of about 30 houses in County Durham
, in England
. It is situated a short distance to the north of Low Etherley
and a few miles west of Bishop Auckland
. It was built on the abandoned line of George Stephenson's original Etherley Incline railway, designed to haul coal by static steam engine from the Witton Park collieries to join the locomotive-driven section of the Stockton & Darlington Railway at Shildon in 1825. As such it has a largely unrecognised importance in railway history.
The hamlet of Phoenix Row had a Methodist Chapel and its own cricket team which played at the New Inn Fields. At one time almost all the houses were reputed to be occupied by just three families, the Watsons, Grays and Stubbses.
In the 1960s Phoenix Row was threatened with the dreaded Category "D" notice, a death sentence for many post-industrial County Durham villages. However the determined villagers fought the Category "D" notice tooth and nail. Showing remarkable community spirit, they united under the banner of PRIDE (the Phoenix Row Improvement & Development Effort) and succeeded in getting the threat lifted, modernising their homes and saving their village for future generations.
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated a short distance to the north of Low Etherley
Low Etherley
Low Etherley is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a few miles to the west of Bishop Auckland.-External links:...
and a few miles west of Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in north east England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless...
. It was built on the abandoned line of George Stephenson's original Etherley Incline railway, designed to haul coal by static steam engine from the Witton Park collieries to join the locomotive-driven section of the Stockton & Darlington Railway at Shildon in 1825. As such it has a largely unrecognised importance in railway history.
The hamlet of Phoenix Row had a Methodist Chapel and its own cricket team which played at the New Inn Fields. At one time almost all the houses were reputed to be occupied by just three families, the Watsons, Grays and Stubbses.
In the 1960s Phoenix Row was threatened with the dreaded Category "D" notice, a death sentence for many post-industrial County Durham villages. However the determined villagers fought the Category "D" notice tooth and nail. Showing remarkable community spirit, they united under the banner of PRIDE (the Phoenix Row Improvement & Development Effort) and succeeded in getting the threat lifted, modernising their homes and saving their village for future generations.