is one of the prettiest in the north-east of England; it lies on the southern edge of a limestone escarpment from which natural springs send water coursing, especially after heavy rains; the land on which the village lies is bounded by ‘becks’ (streams) that lie in deep valleys to east and west. In early medieval times the village would have been completely hidden from view being surrounded by woodland, and indeed, until the middle of the last century, though the woodlands had long since been cut down, it was still pretty much hidden from travellers passing along the Stockton to Sunderland Road, even as it passed close to the village; it is interesting to note that, until the second World War, there was no proper road to Hartlepool, just a cart track. From the 1950s onwards the village began to expand eastwards and northwards to its current size of around 240 dwellings. When the main road became the A19 dual-carriageway, and was slightly raised in the process, a glimpse of this newer part of the village could be seen. Even today, travellers from Hartlepool cannot see the village until almost upon it.

The village was first laid out by the Normans, based on an earlier Saxon settlement; it is typical of a Norman village having the dwellings surrounding an enclosed village green, that runs east to west. The green and the area around it, has been given Conservation Area status by Hartlepool Borough Council. The Parish Council maintains the green and the trees upon it on behalf of residents and to the benefit of both residents and our many visitors.  We have a small Wildlife Garden at the top of Greenlea, developed at the turn of the century as part of a 'Britain in Bloom' entry, by the Elwick Residents Association. The garden is now maintained by the Parish Council and has now undergone a complete renovation. To the west end of the village, at the bottom of the hill known as Church Bank, (it leads to the church which is situated at the top of the bank on the other side, and was not originally built for the use of village residents - and thereby hangs a tale!), lies the James Grieves Memorial Playing Field. The Playing Field is leased by a local farmer to the Parish Council, in memory of his son, and has been equipped over the last 30 years with a range of wooden play equipment, for use mostly by children under 12. There is an area equipped with football goalposts, though it would be rather over-egging it to call it a football pitch; it is well-used both by local children for a kick-about, but also by local Sunday-league teams and a ladies’ team, for training.

The village, and its surrounding farms, is served by the church of St. Peter’s, whose vicar, the Reverend Canon Janet Burbury, is also vicar of the mother church of the parish, St. Mary Magdalene at Hart, 2 miles to the north-east. Both now lie within the Diocese of Durham (to learn more about the history of the church, the village and the wider parish, do read the information provided on the ‘Elwick Village History’ page, it is really fascinating!).

The village primary school caters for 100 children drawn from both Elwick and Dalton Piercy villages as well as the town.  We are lucky to have 2 public houses - The Spotted Cow and The McOrville as well as the Coopers of Elwick Shop and Tea Room, and a dairy at Home Farm which sells raw milk, for which people travel from all over the north-east. A Post-Office van visits twice a week early on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and, introduced only in early 2020, we have the Tees Flex rural bus service, providing much-needed public transport between our rural community and our neighbouring urban centre of Hartlepool. (See the ‘Tees Flex Rural Bus Service’ page for further information).

The WI Hall, situated on the south side of the village green, not only hosts the Women’s Institute’s own monthly meetings, held at 7.00pm on the 1^st Monday of the month, but an active Young Farmers Club on a Tuesday evening, at 7.00pm once a fortnight, an Art Club every Tuesday morning between 10.00am and 12.00, a craft group, ‘Needles and Pins’ from 10.00am ‘til noon every Wednesday and ‘Rising Stars’, a performing arts group for children aged 6 and upwards, on Sundays, 10.00am -1.00pm and, of course, our own Parish Council meetings at 7.00pm on the last Monday of the month. All these groups are very welcoming and would be delighted to see you! Contact details for all the organisations mentioned are listed below.

A defibrillator is situated on the wall of The Spotted Cow.  

The church produces a monthly magazine on behalf of residents, ‘Village Life’, which covers Elwick village, Dalton Piercy, Hart and the Bishop Cuthbert estate in Hartlepool (our Vicar’s parish!). 

The Parish Council organises a number of Social events throughout the year and a monthly ‘Litter Pick’ around Elwick village, usually on the first Saturday of the month, although the weather is not always accommodating. (For more information, check out the ‘Events Calendar’).

Many residents have, over the years, shown a great deal of interest in how and why the village came to be as it is.

In preparation for the Millennium, in 1998 a small group of residents asked the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) to provide a tutor to help them learn the necessary research skills to enable them to understand the history of the village, and Margaret Ray, B.A, an historian, came to help. From the start, members of the group were astonished to learn that there had probably been a settlement, on the site where the village now stands, for possibly up to a thousand years – indeed, the present village can trace its layout, and some dwellings, back to the Normans who, in all likelihood, supplanted a previous Saxon settlement, bringing in farmers and tradespeople to form a viable community. There is evidence that a Saxon church once existed on the site of the present church.

The group worked for 18 months, researching in the archives of both the University and Diocese of Durham; the Central Libraries of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, the Durham County Record Office and Teesside Archives. Hartlepool Arts and Museum staff, especially Robin Daniels, then with Tees Archaeology, gave tremendous support. Residents of the village and surrounding farms were asked for any photographs or historical documents they were willing to share and piece by piece, a picture of the development of the village began to emerge.

This all culminated in the production of a booklet, ‘Elwick – A Thousand Years in the Life of a Village’ sponsored by National Lottery via the Elwick Millennium Association, who provided sufficient funds to allow us to have 1,000 copies of the book printed, with a copy given free to every household in the parish on Millennium Year’s Eve; every school and library throughout Cleveland was also sent a free copy, as was every museum in the north-east. The remaining copies have continued to be sold, for a modest fee of £5.00, with the proceeds being divided equally between the three main village institutions – St. Peter’s church, where it contributed to the cost of a new, stained-glass ‘Marriage’ window; the village Church of England sponsored primary school, where it supported a campaign to save the school in 2008, and later purchased a portable altar and furnishings; and the Women’s Institute (WI) where it paid for a flower-bed display to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the formation of Elwick WI as well as the stained-glass WI logo installed above the main door. There are still a few copies remaining; sadly though, the original text was lost when the printer closed down unexpectedly, but efforts are underway to try to make a copy for this website.

Another opportunity to build on the original research, came up in 2011, when ‘The Limestone Landscapes Partnership’, funded by the Lottery Heritage Fund, invited Elwick to participate, and we agreed to work on a Village Atlas.