Town Kelloe

Town Kelloe Bank is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. It is situated to the south of The Bottoms SSSI and just north of the village of Town Kelloe. The site has an important expanse of primary magnesian limestone grassland, in which the dominant blue moor-grass, Sesleria albicans, is associated with species such as quaking grass, Briza media, glaucous sedge, Carex flacca, and meadow oat-grass, Avenula pratensis. The site holds the largest known population of bird's-eye primrose, Primula farinosa, in County Durham. Other plants that are largely confined to northern limestone areas include butterwort, Pinguicula vulgaris, maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes, and grass of Parnassus, Parnassia palustris. The site has a breeding population of the Durham argus butterfly, Aricia artaxerxes salmacis.

Kelloe is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 Census was 1,502. It is situated to the south-east of Durham.

The Bottoms is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. It lies just south of the A181 road, roughly midway between the villages of Cassop and Wheatley Hill, some 10 km south-east of Durham city. The site's interest lies in an area of unimproved magnesian limestone grassland, in which blue moor-grass, Sesleria albicans, and small scabious, Scabiosa columbaria, are the dominant species. This is a scarce vegetation type, which is found only in County Durham and the extent of which has been severely reduced by quarrying and intensive agriculture.Other grasses that are frequent in the sward include meadow oat-grass, Avenula pratensis, quaking grass, Briza media, sheep's fescue, Festuca ovina, and crested hairgrass, Koeleria macrantha. There is a rich variety of herbs, including rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium, glaucous sedge, Carex flacca, spring sedge, C. caryophyllea, and mouse-ear hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum, and a small population of purple milk-vetch, Astragalus danicus, a local rarity on magnesian limestone.

Trimdon Limestone Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Sedgefield district of County Durham, England. It lies about 1 km west of the village of Trimdon Grange and about 5 km east of the village of Coxhoe. The site is an abandoned quarry and exposed to a section of the Ford Formation of Late Permian magnesian limestone. The site is nationally important for an interpretation of the geological history of the Ford Formation carbonates. The abandoned quarry workings include an area of floristically-rich magnesian limestone grassland, a habitat which is nationally scarce in Britain, with only an estimated 270 ha remaining.The site is part of a larger area that is managed by the Durham Wildlife Trust as the Trimdon Grange Quarry nature reserve.

Cassop (formerly New Cassop) is a village in County Durham, in England. It has a population of about 500 and is located near the city of Durham. A former mining village, mining is no longer the main occupation of Cassop's inhabitants due to extensive mine closure over the last 30 years. Formerly this village was in the parish of Kelloe, but like many of the villages in that extensive parish, it broke away during the 19th century in this case to form the parish of Cassop-cum-Quarrington, with the neighbouring village, Quarrington Hill. Cassop Primary School is believed to have been the first in the UK to generate some of its own electricity with its own wind turbine which was erected in February 1999.

Raisby Hill Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in east County Durham, England. It lies just under 2 km east of the village of Coxhoe. The site is a working quarry and has been designated as of national importance in the Geological Conservation Review. Until 1984, the site included most of the area that now forms the Raisby Hill Grassland SSSI. The quarry exposes a section through the Marl Slate and the Ford and Raisby Formations of the Upper Permian. It is the type locality for the Raisby Formation, a carbonate unit of the English Zechstein sequence. The exposed sequence commences with the Yellow Sands, which are overlain by the Marl Slate and some 200 feet of calcareous and dolomitic limestones.

Trimdon Grange is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated ten miles to the west of Hartlepool, and a short distance to the north of Trimdon.

Hownes Gill railway station served the town of Consett, County Durham, England, from 1845 to 1858 on the Stanhope and Tyne Railway.

Garmondsway is a small dispersed hamlet in the parish of Kelloe in County Durham, England situated between Durham and Sedgefield. It is notable as including substantial remains of an abandoned village including an extant ridge and furrow field system and became a scheduled monument in 1957. It was formerly part of the extra-parochial chapelry of Garmondsway Moor due to its ownership by Sherburn Hospital. Garmondsway Moor was also a civil parish between 1866 and 1937. King Canute (1017–1035) reportedly walked five miles barefoot from Garmondsway to Durham Cathedral on pilgrimage, and gave the church a large estate around Staindrop and Gainford.

Quarrington Hill Grasslands is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. The site consists of three separate areas, two closely adjacent to the east of the village of Quarrington Hill, the third immediately west of the village, which lies 8 km south-east of Durham City. The area is important for its magnesian limestone grassland communities, which are largely confined to County Durham and increasingly scarce even there. The grasslands at Quarrington Hill are typical of the type, being characterised by the presence of blue moor-grass, Sesleria albicans, and small scabious, Scabiosa columbaria. Less common species include common milkwort, Polygala vulgaris, hairy violet, Viola hirta, and wild carrot, Daucus carota. The nationally scarce dark-red helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens, is found at the site, as is basil thyme, Clinopodium acinos, a southern species that is uncommon this far north. The Durham Argus butterfly, Aricia artaxerxes salmacis, a form which is only found in the magnesian limestone areas of Durham, is known to breed at the site.

Quarrington Hill is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a short distance to the north of Kelloe. Having been part of the extensive parish of Kelloe, it merged with the village of Cassop during the 19th century to form the parish of Cassop-cum-Quarrington, it is now in the parish of Coxhoe. As in most of County Durham, the chief trade here was coal mining and Cassop Colliery was where the miners worked. The inhabitants of Quarrington Hill also shared the church of St. Pauls (built in 1868), with Cassop. The stones that were used in its construction were allegedly transported by William Smith, Innkeeper of the Half Moon Inn, Quarrington Hill, as he was the only villager to own such a cart to make this possible. It was closed during the 1980s and is now demolished. The churchyard is still used for burials.

Wingate Quarry is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the County Durham district of east County Durham, England. Part of the site is also a Local Nature Reserve It is a disused quarry located just south of the village of Wheatley Hill. The quarry was worked for Magnesian Limestone until the 1930s, when it closed. Since then a large and varied grassland has developed on the site. Magnesian limestone grassland is nationally scarce, with this site accounting for close to 8 percent of the national total. As well as species that are characteristic of this vegetation type, there are also two orchids, fragrant orchid, Gymnadenia conopsea, and frog orchid, Coeloglossum viride, both of which are uncommon in County Durham.