Stanley Crook Village Hall Association
Get to Know Us
Committed to Serving the Community
At Stanley Crook Village Hall Association, we are committed to enhancing the lives of members in the community through our wide range of activities and events. Over the years, we have been recognized as the leading community center and go the extra mile to make sure our members are happy with our services.
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Furthermore, due to the upgrades of the facility within the last two years, the Village Hall has become more a vibrant and and exciting place to be, especially for all of our partners who use the facility on a weekly basis!
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About Stanley Crook
Our History
The village emerged in the 1850s when Joseph Pease & Company started mining operations. First came the Stanley pit followed by the Wooley colliery.
Alongside the mining operations grew two villages of Mount Pleasant and Wooley. Each village had it's own Methodist chapel. At that time the area came under the Church of England parish of Brancepeth. In the 1870's the Church of England decided to separate the area from the Brancepeth parish and give it its own church. They named the parish Stanley Crook, the Stanley originating from the medieval Stanley Hall farm, the Crook part was added to differentiate the village from the town of Stanley in Derwentside.
The church of Saint Thomas was opened in 1877 then rebuilt in 1894 following a catastophic fire the previous year. The village grew around the pits and in the 1950s boasted 14 shops, 4 pubs and three churches. However, the pits became uneconomic and closed. To add insult to injury, as the miners were moved out of the village, the county council put the village in "Category D." This meant that no further development was allowed and that the village was scheduled for demolition. Only three streets were actually demolished but that halved the population of the village.
The last shop in the village closed when Post Office Ltd decided to close the local branch which was also the village shop. The shop was unable to continue without the Post Office and closed. Around the same time the last pub in the village closed.
Since the "category D" was lifted the village has started to recover. A number of self-build properties have been built and Persimmon have started an 80 home estate in the village and this increase in population may support more facilities.