[2] Phoenix Row was built in the 1840s, originally of local sandstone, Stobart brick and red pantiles to house families of miners and farmworkers.

The people of Phoenix Row built their own Methodist chapel (now a private house) and they had a cricket team which played at the New Inn Fields.

Phoenix Row's bracing climate was credited in the local press for breeding tall, strong sportsmen - "sturdy six-footers".

In the 1960s Phoenix Row was threatened with the dreaded Category "D" notice, a death sentence for many post-industrial County Durham mining communities.

(the Phoenix Row Improvement & Development Effort) and succeeded in getting the Category D threat lifted, modernising their homes and saving their village for future generations.