It is situated north of Stanley and Annfield Plain, close to the River Derwent and is 564 feet above sea level.

In control of her £20,000 fortune, he set off for London, where he met the widowed Countess of Strathmore, who owned the Gibside estate.

By this time other two places of worship had been built: in 1870, a second Methodist chapel, and in 1873, the Anglican church of Saint James was constructed in 1873 at the Leazes end of the village.

Coal mining in County Durham began in the 1600s, and narrow waggonways were laid from the pits and Burnopfield was found to be an ideal place for the waggonways from the Pontop and Tanfield Moor areas to pass through and then continue down the hill to cross the Derwent, and on to the River Tyne for the coal to be shipped.

[3] Although surrounded by colliery villages like Lintz, Hobson, High Friarside and Marley Hill, it never had a serious mine of its own.

[3] With the decline of the British mining industry, the number of miners in the village drastically decreased, and they worked in the coastal pits.

During the latter part of the 20th century, the village changed from its old waggonway days; new council and private estates have been built and Burnopfield has extended both to the east and the west absorbing much of the adjoining areas into its postal district.

In 2013, a planning report concluded that[6] Burnopfield Cricket Club is no longer able to meet the standards necessary for the level at which the club plays and, due to the site’s physical constraints, there is no scope to address the deficiencies of its pitch and facilities nor attract any grant funding from cricket’s governing body or Sport England.

When Milburn died in 1990, his funeral was the largest ever seen in Burnopfield, and was attended by many notable cricketing figures including future Durham player Ian Botham.