Beamish, County Durham
Cooperative Villas, No Place
Last Updated:
13 Mar 2023
Beamish, County Durham
This is a
Dwelling
54.873556, -1.664249
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
Still in situ, and occupied by residents
NEHL - This lovely Victorian terrace can be found in No Place, nr Beamish. They’re called the Cooperative Villas, and were built to house the miners of the Beamish Colliery pits which encircle the area. It’s quite remarkable they survive given the scale of clearances last century.
"No Place (also known as Co-operative Villas) is a small village close to Beamish near the town of Stanley in County Durham. Some believe the name of the village is was shortening of "North Place" or "Near Place", others that village was a boundary between two parishes both of which didn't want to include the village. No Place was originally a community of just four terraced houses, but when they were demolished in 1937, residents close by Co-operative Villas took on the name for their village. In 1983 residents protested when Derwentside Council tried to change the name of the village back to Co-operative Villas; today road signs say both No Place and Co-operative Villas. The Mary Pit of Beamish Colliery, which opened in 1883, was located west of the village, towards East Stanley (at grid ref NZ209535). The pit is remembered in the name of the 'Beamish Mary Inn' at No Place (the inn dates from1897, and was previously called the 'Red Robin'). Beamish Primary School is located in the village."
- Co-Curate (https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/no-place/#:~:text=The%20village%20originally%20consisted%20of,name%20for%20their%20own%20village.)
Listing Description (if available)
Both maps above illustrate the Cooperative Villas once the first terrace had already commenced construction. At the point of which the area was surveyed, the 2nd terrace had already started construction, with the original Gladstone Street already finished. It was well placed between a swathe of coal workings, the reason for these built in the first place. The 'original' No Place can be seen two, which was a small hamlet of 3 or 4 terraces just south of Stanley Waggonway.
The survey of 1915 delivers a much more developed village, complete with the Red Robin Inn (now the Beamish Mary Inn), school and Methodist Church which are still in situ today. Many of the pits were still operating.
This is the Ordnance Survey of 1942. Since the 1910s the area has little changed, though the constituency boundary has shifted westwards to incorporate the village. This signifies the population increase of the settlement. Interestingly, the U.M church became an Apostolic Church, which gained a foothold in the 1900s. The original No Place is still standing, though some pits have gradually closed.
Gladstone Street is the first of the Cooperative Villas. It was likely named after the PM at the start of constuction. Gladstone's premiership ended in 1894.
A stone plaque can still be seen, denoting the name 'Cooperative Villas' and the year they were built which appears to be 1895.
