Qualla: Crook, County Durham

Crook, County Durham: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit norman griffin, CC BY-SA 2.0. The cinema in Crook is older than almost every cinema in northern England. The Electric Palace opened its doors on 21 November 1910, and parts of its original Edwardian interior still survive. For a small market town on the edge of Weardale, that is an unusual distinction. Crook was just an agricultural village then, only barely a century old, and yet someone built a purpose-built film palace here at a moment when most people had never seen a motion picture. The Empire Electric Palace Theatre, as it is now known, still stages pantomimes, a continuous thread of entertainment running from the silent era to the present.

Read more: Crook, County Durham on Qualla

Image: norman griffin | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crook, County Durham: From Farmland to Coal

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walkerma, CC BY 3.0. Crook only really appeared on maps around 1795, although the smaller villages surrounding it, Billy Row, Stanley, White Lea, and Helmington Row, had been settled for centuries. In its early years the new village had an inn, a blacksmith, and not much else. Farming dominated. Then...

Read more: Crook, County Durham on Qualla

Image: Walkerma | CC BY 3.0

Crook, County Durham: The Coach Who Won La Liga

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walkerma, CC BY-SA 3.0. Jack Greenwell was born in Crook in 1884. He started as a footballer for Crook Town and later played in Spain, but his real legacy was as a coach. In 1917 he became the first official head coach of FC Barcelona. Over two spells with the Catalan club he won four Catalan championsh...

Read more: Crook, County Durham on Qualla

Image: Walkerma | CC BY-SA 3.0

Crook, County Durham: Notable Lives from a Small Town

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mjobling, CC BY 3.0. Crook punches well above its weight for famous residents. Brian Foster, the particle physicist and Donald H Perkins Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford, grew up here. Bill Rowe, who twice won the BAFTA for Best Sound and worked on more than 160 films between 1955 and 1992...

Read more: Crook, County Durham on Qualla

Image: Mjobling | CC BY 3.0

Crook, County Durham: Hills Around the Market

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walkerma, CC BY-SA 3.0. Crook sits in a bowl, with hills rising on every side except the south. The tallest stands at 300 metres above the town, roughly 980 feet. The highest point in the town itself is on West Road at 210 metres. The market still runs on Tuesday mornings, with a few stalls also setting...

Read more: Crook, County Durham on Qualla

Image: Walkerma | CC BY-SA 3.0

Crook, County Durham: The Gateway to Weardale

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walkerma, CC BY 3.0. The nickname is well earned. The A689 from Durham runs straight through Crook and continues west into Wolsingham and Stanhope, climbing into the upper reaches of Weardale and eventually crossing the Pennines. Travellers heading for the dales pass through here. Two miles west of t...

Read more: Crook, County Durham on Qualla

Image: Walkerma | CC BY 3.0