When I set up this page, I asked myself, where was the 1851 chapel and what happened to it? I couldn’t see a Primitive Methodist chapel in Middle Rainton on Ordnance Survey maps from late in the Nineteenth century.
However thanks to Howard Richter for spotting it on the 1895 map on Lewis Street. He tells us that
The building was later used by the Salvation Army and was demolished when the whole village was swept away as an unsustainable settlement- category D in officialese:
The 1951 Durham County Development Plan classified villages as an A, B, C or D settlement. In Category D settlements no future development would be permitted and property would be acquired and demolished. The population would be relocated to new housing.
In 2021 the former village site is a forested picnic area.
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not sure you have the correct location. I was born and raised in Middle Rainton, I knew the chapel, have cets and perhaps a photo.
I know there was a Methodist chapel , hence one of the streets is Chapel Street.
I thought the chapel was built with the village in 1892
and was a small building near Chapel street.
Tha SA hall was not on Lewis Street but just over the street from it.
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