Hownes Gill railway station

See also Thornley in Weardale.Thornley is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated about 5 miles (9 km) to the east of Durham and 5 miles (7 km) west of Peterlee. Thornley is part of the Sedgefield parliamentary constituency of which Tony Blair was the Member of Parliament from 1983 until 2007.

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.

Wheatley Hill is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the west of Peterlee, near Thornley and Wingate. Until 2009 it was part of Easington district.

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.

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.

Wheatley Hill Stadium is a greyhound racing stadium in Wheatley Hill, County Durham. It is situated to the west of Peterlee, near Thornley and Wingate. It is currently closed following a serious fire but usually races on Friday evenings at 7.15pm, Facilities included a club, bar, and tote which were destroyed in the fire.

Ludworth is a pit village in County Durham, England situated between Durham and Peterlee. It consists of just over 350 houses in three main housing estates (Barnard Avenue, Moor Crescent and Springfield Meadows) and a few smaller streets. Ludworth has a post office, a primary school, a community centre and a printers. The village used to have a church, two Methodist chapels and a fish shop, most of which were destroyed in a fire. The last public house in Ludworth, The Queen's Head, has been closed since before 2009. Ludworth Tower was originally a medieval manor house, founded by the de Ludworth family. In 1422, Thomas Holden added a rectangular pele tower, when he was granted licence to crenellate his manorial complex, by Cardinal Langley. The only surviving remains are the barrel-vaulted basement, the three storey west wall and fragments of a first floor spiral stair in the south wall. The remains can be seen on the left as you come into the village from Shadforth.

Town Kelloe is a small village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a short distance to the east of Kelloe.

Haswell Plough is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated between Durham and Peterlee, south of Haswell. Haswell Plough was first mentioned in the 12th century as being one of three parts of the village of Haswell. It is also the village where MEP of thirty years Stephen Hughes was brought up.

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.

Deaf Hill is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated a short distance to the east of Trimdon Colliery. The origin of the name is not known. The alternative name for the village is Trimdon Station. Locally Deaf Hill is thought to have been originally called Death Hill, the name originating from a belief that if children were passed through the fork of a sycamore tree in the area they would be cured of diphtheria, however they died and the spot was called Death Hill. The name was changed as more people settled there. According to Trimdon Snippets, "No one seems to know how this pit got its name of Deaf Hill, but the nearest guess is that in days of long ago, if land was very poor, the old farmers would say it was ‘deed’ or ‘dead’ land, which perhaps has grown into the word deaf" The rising land behind the pit is called Sleepy Hill.

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.