A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U W
Waldridge (County Durham)
The village of Waldridge grew up in response to a growing need for workmen’s housing associated with Waldridge Colliery in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is known that a Methodist Church was once located in the village at the time that the colliery was in use but this has now been demolished. During the First World War many men of the collieries of Durham went to serve for their country and as a result many of them died. War memorials are common features of villages and towns up and down the country and are located in public places where they can be seen. Waldridge is no exception only that the previous focal point of the village, the Methodist Church, is no longer extant. The memorial is in the form of a Roll of Honour dedicated to the men of the colliery who served and fell and it is now located in the Village Hall.
Wall (Northumberland)
Wall parish covers a range of landscapes and has a wide variety of archaeological remains. It spans the lowlands by the River North Tyne, rising through steep wooded slopes, pasture and rough-grazing to a high plateau which descends sharply to the north. Dere Street Roman road and Hadrian’s Wall mark part of the parish boundary. The geology of the area has been important from Roman times to the post-medieval period….
Wallington Demesne (Northumberland)
Wallington Demesne parish lies in mid-Northumberland and is dominated by the estate of Wallington Hall. The immediate area around Wallington Hall is improved farmland, landscaped grounds and woodland….
Walworth (County Durham)
Walworth is a scattered village in gentle countryside to the north-west of Darlington….
Warden (Northumberland)
Warden is a small parish in the Tyne valley in south Northumberland. The rivers North and South Tyne form two of its boundaries and combine at its southern tip to form the River Tyne….
Wark (Northumberland)
Wark is a large parish mostly on the west bank of the River North Tyne. There is a mixture of upland rough grazing, forestry plantations and border mosses and lowland pastures and farmland….
Warkworth (Northumberland)
Warkworth lies on the coast in mid-Northumberland with the River Coquet running west-east through the parish. The most prominent and well known monument is Warkworth Castle but there are important prehistoric remains as well….
West Allen (Northumberland)
West Allen lies in south Northumberland, in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is an upland parish on the high Pennine plateau that borders County Durham to the south….
West Auckland (County Durham)
In 1925 an institute hall was built as a war memorial to commemorate the men of the village who had served and died in the First World War. In 2009 a memorial garden was constructed on the village green in front of a disused pant (water fountain with pump) as a means of regeneration of the former monument and as a way of completing the list of commemorated WW1 soldiers. It also provided a place to commemorate those of the village who served and fell in WW2 and Northern Ireland.
West Rainton (County Durham)
St. Mary’s Church is the focal point for the commemoration of West Rainton’s contribution to the war effort during the First World War, and indeed in later conflicts. The church itself contains a number of WW1 memorials including rolls of honour dedicated to parishioners and plaques donated by families in remembrance of fallen relatives, whilst outside by one of the walls in the grounds of the church is the more traditional freestanding memorial in the form of a stone scroll. The scroll was originally made as a WW1 monument and then it was either adapted to accommodate WW2 names or was completely recommissioned – exactly what happened is unknown.
Westerton (County Durham)
Westerton is a small village to the south of Spennymoor. The earliest settlers in this area were probably of Mesolithic date. These earliest inhabitants would have been simple hunter and gatherers living of nature. It is possible that one of their small flint tools has been found here. Farming was introduced in the Neolithic period and developed throughout the Bronze Age. By the Iron Age there was a probably a network of small fields and enclosed settlements of round-houses. The cropmarks of an enclosure may be all that remains one of these early farmsteads….
Whalton (Northumberland)
Whalton is a small parish in central Northumberland. Its main settlement is the pretty village of Whalton. There is a wide variety of archaeological remains surviving both as earthworks and cropmarks as well as a fine range of buildings in the farms, hamlets and villages of the parish….
Wheatley Hill (County Durham)
Although Wheatley Hill is now mainly a pit village it has a long history. It is possible that there was an Anglo-Saxon settlement here. The placename comes from the Old English for ‘clearing in the woods where the wheat grows’. A silver ring was found here during the digging of foundations in Wheatley Hill. It has the words ‘Ring, I am called’ carved onto it in runes. It has spaces for three small gems, though only one is now filled, with red glass. This ring is probably of Anglo-Saxon dates, and is likely to have been made in the later 8th century….
Whittingham and Callaly (Northumberland)
The parish of Callaly lies just beyond the south-eastern fringe of the Cheviots in central Northumberland. It stretches from rolling countryside in the west to the hills and crags of Callaly Moor in the east. The upland parts of the parish contain a wealth of upstanding prehistoric remains from cairnfields to settlements….
Whittingham and Callaly (Northumberland)
Whittingham parish lies in mid-Northumberland and stretches from the vale of the River Aln to the heights of Thrunton Crags….
Whittington (Northumberland)
Whittington parish lies in south Northumberland and stretches from Hadrian’s Wall in the south to Hallington Reservoir in the north….
Whitton and Tosson (Northumberland)
Tosson parish is an irregular shape and has a landscape that ranges from flat haugh lands to the Fell Sandstones. Archaeologically, there are a rich variety of sites and finds from prehistoric rock carvings to World War II pillboxes….
Whorlton (County Durham)
Whorlton stands on the north bank of the Tees four miles downstream from Barnard Castle. The village of Whorlton (population 205) consists of houses built round a triangular green, various out-lying farms and Sledwich, a 16th century house. This village was first recorded as Queorningtun in about 1050. It probably means ‘Farmstead by the mill stream’. The Old name of Whorlton Beck was no doubt Cweorning, a derivative of Old English cweorn ‘mill’….
Widdrington Station and Stobswood (Northumberland)
Widdrington Station and Stobswood is a small parish on the coastal plain of south-east Northumberland. Much of the parish has been subject to large-scale modern opencast coal extraction….
Widdrington Village (Northumberland)
Widdrington parish lies in south-east Northumberland, reaching out westwards from the southern half of Druridge Bay. The land generally flat with the exception of the ridge on which Widdrington village sits. This is largely a reflection of widespread opencast coalmining in the area and its subsequent restoration. Along the coastline is a thin strip of sand dunes….
Willington (County Durham)
Willington is a small town seven miles south west of Durham City and four miles north of Bishop Auckland….
Windlestone (County Durham)
It is documented that during the First World War Windlestone Hall was used as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) hospital. In the Second World War it is documented that a military camp was also located nearby that was used as a training ground and POW camp, but its exact location is unknown and no suggestive remains have ever been found.
Wingate (County Durham)
Wingate is a village lying to the west of the A19 near Trimdon….
Winston (County Durham)
Winston is an attractive village on the rocky banks of the River Tees. A stone bridge built in 1764 to replace a medieval one built sometime before 1424, crosses the river. When it was built it was the longest bridge of its kind….
Witton Gilbert (County Durham)
The village of Witton Gilbert lies to the north-west of Durham City on the road to Lanchester. Now bypassed by the main road, the village lies on a hillside. To the south the edge of the parish is marked by the River Browney….
Witton-le-Wear (County Durham)
Witton-le-Wear stands on the edge of the North Pennines to the south-west of Crook. As its name suggests it lies on the River Wear, about four miles upstream from Bishop Auckland….
Witton-le-Wear (County Durham)
Witton-le-Wear stands on the edge of the North Pennines to the south-west of Crook. As its name suggests it lies on the River Wear, about four miles upstream from Bishop Auckland….
Wolsingham (County Durham)
Wolsingham is located at the eastern end of Weardale….
Woodland (County Durham)
Woodland is a village lying at the foot of Woodland Fell, to the south of Hamsterley Forest. Apart from the village itself which is strung out along the B6282, most of the parish is upland, including much of Woodland Fell and some of Langleydale Common….
Wooler (Northumberland)
Wooler lies in north Northumberland on the edge of the Cheviots and just south of the Milfield Basin. The parish has a mix of high moorland in the south and low farmland to the north along the banks of Wooler Water. The archaeological remains in the upland parts of the parish are extensive and very well preserved….
Wycliffe (County Durham)
The small village of Wycliffe, originally in Yorkshire, lies just to the south of the River Tees, around 5 miles south-east of Barnard Castle. The parish itself straddles both sides of the river….
Wylam (Northumberland)
Wylam is a small parish in the Tyne valley bordering Tyne and Wear. It rises from the banks of the River Tyne to moderately high land near the A69 Newcastle to Carlisle road. Although it may be small Wylam has two river crossings and a wealth of post-medieval remains of importance not just to the parish ‘ but the world….