Little Stainton

Coordinates: 54°34′23″N 1°27′43″W / 54.573°N 1.462°W / 54.573; -1.462 Little Stainton is a village in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is situated a few miles to the west of Stockton-on-Tees. It is, in fact, a hamlet rather than a village, consisting of houses and farms that have no local service facilities except for a public telephone kiosk. Until around 1960, it consisted of a group of individual farms, to which was added a set of four council houses with agricultural dwelling restrictions. In the late 1980s there was a significant change in the nature of the hamlet, with planning permission being granted for a series of private dwellings that have transformed Little Stainton into a rural agglomeration of dwellings, within which the farms now constitute a minority. Although large pieces, if not all the land surrounding the dwellings is owned primarily by the farms, many private dwellings also own a substantial amount of land, ranging from 2 acres (8,100 m²) to about 5 acres (20,000 m²). a stream runs down the bottom of all of the gardens on one side of the street, named Bishopton Beck. It is also rumoured that the last witch in England was to be hanged in Little Stainton.