Stay away from Chilton and Newton Aycliffe. Some decent areas in Spennymoor, but nightlife is poor. Bishop Auckland used to be a good night out - but again be careful with certain areas.
What about Durham itself (straight down A1) amazing night out and loads of lovely students or Darlington (up A1) - again excellent night out.
Hartlepool, Newcastle, South Shields etc have an excellent nightlife, all depends on how far you want to commute?
I used to work for Black & Decker in Spennymoor, 10mins from Ferryhill. Can i ask what you're doing up there? Also, my ex lives in Ferryhill; say "hi" for me!!
Which part of Newton Aycliffe are you saying stay away from? It has some extremely nice areas (Woodham especially). It has a rough council estate or two, but the town overall isn't bad, and I would say the town is beautiful if you live in Woodham.
Darlington isn't too far from Ferryhill, simple enough commute. Nice town centre and it's OK for a night out... it's not Durham or Newcastle but it's not bad. Like any town it has its good and not so good places to live.
Durham is nicer City and has more going on, it isn't actually that much bigger than Darlington, but given it is a city it does have a bit more to offer in terms of bars, night life and shopping.
If I was making the choice, I'd be opting for Durham. I live and work in Darlington, but Durham is nice. Plus you're much closer to Newcastle.
Given that Darlington has a population of 92,000 in the town, and 106,000 in the borough, and given that Durham has a population of 48,000, I'd suggest that Darlington is bigger than Durham. And a lot less pretentious, but with some lovely areas, especially in the West End of Darlington.
Not sure why so many people think Durham is bigger than Darlington. Durham has a smaller population and a smaller area.
The nicest large settlements are:
Durham, Darlington, Chester-le-Street.
But that doesn't mean they're the nicest places to live in County Durham. Far from. They're merely the nicest "large" places. Yes, Durham, Darlington, Chester-le-Street have lovely areas, but they also have places as rough as a badger's ****hole. Durham has the best nightlife because of the students (but do you want to party with students?) Darlington's nightlife is second best in the county but it's more locals rather than southern "rars".
The nicest medium sized settlements (nicer than the nicest large settlements) are:
Barnard Castle, Sedgefield, Wolsingham.
However, the nicest places overall, are the rural areas and the villages, (note, not all villages, as some are ex pit villages!) The following villages are among the nicest areas to live in County Durham (and some of them arguably have among the best living standards in England), and they are within short distance of amenities in other towns:
Heighington Village, Hurworth-on-Tees, Aycliffe Village, School Aycliffe, Redworth, Ingleton, Staindrop, Brancepeth, Shincliffe and High Shincliffe, Long Newton, and several more.
Long story short, the nicest villages are in the south of the county, towards the border with North Yorkshire. They tend to be west of Darlington and to the east of Darlington. Most of the ones I mentioned have village pubs and a village store.
If you need a bouncing, urban environment, I'd recommend Darlington or Durham (both on the mainline and next to the A1). You can be in York or Newcastle in 25 minutes by train from Darlington).
If you need somewhere with lots of facilities but not as "urban" I'd recommend Barnard Castle, which is overall a nicer place to live than Darlington and even Durham.
If you need the best place overall with no chavs whatsoever, with houses with little manicured lawns tended to by grannies from the WI, I'd recommend Heighington Village or Hurworth-on-Tees.
If you can go as far south as North Yorkshire (aka the piece de resistance and generally the nicest area as a whole in Northern England), go to the medium-sized towns of Northallerton or Yarm (if you can stand the "Yarm-aggant" folk).
