No Place

Coordinates: 54°52′25″N 1°39′44″W / 54.87357°N 1.662283°W / 54.87357; -1.662283

No Place
No Place  No Place shown within County Durham
OS grid reference	NZ210530
Unitary authority	County Durham
Ceremonial county	County Durham
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STANLEY
Postcode district	DH9
Dialling code	0191
Police	Durham
Fire	County Durham and Darlington
Ambulance	North East
EU Parliament	North East England
UK Parliament	North Durham
List of places: UK • England • County Durham

Sign for Co-operative Villas and No Place.

No Place is a small village near the town of Stanley in County Durham, England, east of Stanley and west of Beamish. Situated to the south of the A693, it is home to an award-winning real ale pub, the Beamish Mary Inn (dating from 1897 and originally known as the Red Robin), and lies near the Beamish Mary coal pit.^[1] The local church is known as the "Tin Chapel".^[2]

Etymology

The origins of the village's unusual name are uncertain; however, theories include a shortening of "North Place", "Near Place", or "Nigh Place", or that the original houses of the village stood on a boundary between two parishes, neither of which would accept the village.^[3] The village originally consisted of four terraced houses, known as No Place. In 1937, residents of the terrace of houses to the north, known as Co-operative Villas, demolished these houses, but took on the name for their own village.^[2] Derwentside Council tried to change the name of the village to Co-operative Villas in 1983; however, they met with strong protests from local residents at the removal of all signs pointing to No Place.^[4] Today the signs say both No Place and (at the request of some residents) Co-operative Villas.^[1]

Other unusual place names in the North East include the village of Pity Me (probably a contraction of Pithead Mere, a nearby bog), Bearpark (from Beaurepaire, French for "beautiful retreat" - the name of a nearby Norman manor), Idle (home of the famous Idle Working Men's Club), Once Brewed, and Twice Brewed.

Film References

Sharing the village's name is No Place,^[5] an independently produced feature film made in the North East of England, which as of this writing remains largely undistributed.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} No Place to Go - Time Magazine, January 25, 1954
2. ^ ^{a b} No Place finds its way into a history book, The Northern Echo, 16 March 2001
3. ^ Nameless Girls - New Scientist, 18 March 2006
4. ^ Earth movers and the mysterious history behind naming of No Place, North East History, 5 December 2007
5. ^ IMDB