Pity Me

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Pity Me
Pity Me shown within County Durham
OS grid reference	NZ265452
District	City of Durham
Shire county	County Durham
Region	North East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DURHAM
Postcode district	DH1
Dialling code	0191
Police	Durham
Fire	County Durham and Darlington
Ambulance	North East
European Parliament	North East England
UK Parliament	City of Durham
List of places: UK • England • County Durham

Coordinates: 54°48′04″N 1°35′13″W / 54.801, -1.587

This article concerns the County Durham village of Pity Me. For the Cornish village see Pityme

Pity Me is a village in County Durham in England, although other instances of the name can be found in Hexhamshire and near Morpeth. Pity Me is located north of Framwellgate Moor and west of Newton Hall, and is the home of the Arnison Centre, one of Durham's retail parks.

Locals claim the term arose because monks sang the 51st Psalm during their flight from a Viking invasion. The Latin words of the psalm are Miserere mei, Deus, meaning "Pity me, O God" in English. For its part, the Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names speculates that it may simply be "a whimsical name bestowed in the 19th century on a place considered desolate, exposed or difficult to cultivate". However, it probably refers to a Pithead Mere, an extended area of boggy waste ground, onto which the outwash from minehead pumping engines was discharged. An alternative theory suggests, as with some local place names in County Durham, the name derives from Norman-French for 'A Small Lake'.^[1]

[edit] Transport

Pity Me is bypassed by the A167 which connects to Darlington and Newcastle via Chester-le-Street. This, like many roads in the area, is the former route of the A1 through the region.

[edit] See also

Other unusual place names in the North East include the village of No Place, believed to be a contraction of North Place, as marked on the original Ordnance Survey maps, and Bearpark, from Beaurepaire, French for "beautiful retreat" - the name of a nearby Norman manor house.