Slaley, Northumberland

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Slaley is a village in Northumberland, England, southeast of Hexham. In 2011, 711 people lived there. It is surrounded by the villages Ruffside, Whitley Chapel, Ordley, Wooley, Healey, Juniper, Riding Lea and Blanchland.

The parish church is St Mary the Virgin. The current building dates from 1832 and was designed by Milton Carr; it stands on the site of an earlier church from 1312, which itself was built on land given in 1239 by Gilbert de Sclaueley to the prior of Hexham. Nearby Shield Hall has the remains of a medieval unfortified house from late 13th/early 14th century, now part of a 19th-century farmhouse. Dukesfield is another nearby hamlet, mentioned in 1256 as the scene of a murder; the area was once part of the barony of Bolbec.

Lead mining and smelting began in 1834. Dukefield Hall is a listed building. To the north of the village there is a disused nuclear bunker, opened in 1961 and closed in 1991.

Public transport is limited to the bus service 689 between Consett and Hexham (twice daily, three times on Saturdays), via Whittonstall and Ebchester, and it also calls at Slaley Hall. Parish website: www.slaley.org.uk