(Village near Wheatley Hill)
Traditional county: County Durham · Region: North East
Explore Thornley, County Durham with this interactive street and satellite map. You can “grab” the Thornley map and move it around to re-centre it. You can change between standard map view and satellite map view by clicking the small square in the bottom left-hand corner of the map. You can use the zoom buttons on the lower right side of the map to zoom in or out to street-level detail.
This page also offers OS MAPS — Ordnance Survey Outdoor mapping and the OS Explorer 1:25 000 sheets — plus a labelled National Grid overlay, a distance and bearing tool, and a GPS grid reference readout. See How to Use This Map below. You will find live weather, local and world news further down the page.
This interactive map shows the street layout and satellite imagery for Thornley, County Durham, England. Use the Map and Satellite buttons above to switch between street map and aerial imagery views. Use the + and − buttons to zoom in or out, or scroll your mouse wheel while holding the Control key to zoom. On a touchscreen, use a two-finger pinch gesture to zoom in and out.
Click ⛶ Fullscreen to expand the map to fill your screen for a larger view. To return to the normal page view, press the Escape key on your keyboard, click the ✕ Exit Fullscreen button that appears above the map, or on a mobile device tap the back button (Android) or the close icon (iOS).
Drag the map to pan to any area of County Durham or beyond. Switch to Satellite view to see high-resolution aerial photography of Thornley and surrounding areas, including streets, buildings, parks and waterways.
OS MAPS — NEW. Click the green 🔍 Search Maps button below the map to open a second map with a Base map row. OSM is the standard OpenStreetMap street map. Topo shows OS Outdoor mapping — contours, footpaths, bridleways and access land. Explorer 1:25k shows the OS Explorer sheets themselves: the orange-covered 1:25 000 maps walkers, fell runners and mountain rescue teams use, with field boundaries, rights of way and open access land. The search box finds any British town, village or landmark by name, so you are not limited to Thornley.
Reading the map like a paper Explorer sheet. Click Grid to overlay the OS National Grid, labelled along the edges exactly as a printed sheet is — at normal zoom the squares are one kilometre across, so you can read a six-figure grid reference such as NY 266 234 by eye and judge distance directly off the map. Click Measure, then tap two points, to get the distance between them together with the grid bearing in degrees and mils, the true bearing, and the magnetic bearing to set on a compass.
Click 📍 My position to take a single GPS reading from your device. It marks where you are and reports your position as an OS National Grid reference as well as plain latitude and longitude — the grid reference being what mountain rescue and the coastguard work from — with a Copy position button so you can paste it straight into a text message. It takes one reading and stops, rather than tracking continuously, to conserve your battery. Note that map tiles need mobile coverage, but a GPS reading does not — your grid reference stays correct even where the map itself cannot load, which in the Lakes, the Dales and the Highlands is often exactly where you need it.
Map search is available for a limited number of queries per session to manage costs. Be specific — search precisely for best results.
| Place | Thornley |
| Traditional County | County Durham |
| Region | North East |
| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Latitude | 54.749569 |
| Longitude | -1.436830 |
| Place Type | Village |
Thornley commands a high, exposed ridge in County Durham, where the wind carries the sharp, clean scent of the North Sea across the open fields. It lies 4.1 miles west of Peterlee (from Peterlee: bearing 259°T, OS grid NZ 363 395), and is situated west-north-west of Wheatley Hill village. The landscape surrounding Thornley bears the heavy, melancholic weight of a coal-mining past, now softened by the slow reclamation of the earth. Just to the east, the rusted iron of the Thornley Pit Wheel stands as a silent sentinel, its skeletal frame silhouetted against the vast, bruised purple of a winter sky. Beyond the domestic hearths, the slopes of Gore Hill rise sharply, offering a vantage point where one might watch the light catch the edges of the distant dales. The ground here is uneven and restless, marked by the faint, rhythmic indentations of an older, agrarian life that preceded the heavy machinery of the industrial age. Thornley retains a quiet, stoic character, shaped by the uncompromising horizon and the long, pale shadows that stretch across its tarmac lanes at dusk.
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Explore Thornley, County Durham, with an embedded street and satellite map - switch between views using the small square in the bottom left-hand corner of the map. Coordinates: 54.749569, -1.436830. Live weather conditions and 7-day forecasts are provided through Open-Meteo, while real-time local and world news feeds help keep the page current. Wikipedia and editorial summaries provide additional local information and context.
Search Maps opens a second, independent map. It searches OpenStreetMap for any British town, village or landmark by name; offers OS Outdoor and the OS Explorer 1:25 000 sheets as base layers; overlays a labelled OS National Grid so the map can be read like a printed Explorer sheet; measures distance and grid, true and magnetic bearings between any two points; and takes a single GPS fix reporting your position as an OS National Grid reference and as latitude and longitude. Map tiles require mobile coverage, but a GPS position does not, so the grid reference remains correct even where the map cannot load.
Location data is sourced from OS Open Names © Crown copyright and database rights 2024, Ordnance Survey, Open Government Licence v3.0, and verified by coordinates.
| Page built | September 2026 |
| Location data | OS Open Names © Crown copyright and database rights 2024. Ordnance Survey. Open Government Licence v3.0. |
| Map layers | Google Maps; © OpenStreetMap contributors; OS Outdoor and OS Explorer 1:25 000 via the OS Maps API — contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights; magnetic declination from NOAA NCEI (World Magnetic Model) |
| County data | Traditional county boundaries. Modern unitary authority: OS Open Names / ONS Geography. |
| Coordinates | WGS84 decimal degrees derived from OS National Grid (OSGB36) |
| Wikipedia validation | Article content matched by Wikipedia category membership (e.g. “Villages in Derbyshire”) and name verification against OS Open Names data. |