Cramlington's Green Heritage

THE CRAMLINGTON YESTERDAY SOCIETY.

CRAMLINGTON'S GREEN HERITAGE.

Cramlington's Green Heritage.

The Cramlington Yesterday Society.

IF YOU WISH TO SEND US AN E-MAIL CLICK HERE:

cone@blythvalley.gov.uk

OR WOULD LIKE MORE ABOUT OUR GREEN HERITAGE:

www.workingwithwildlife.co.uk

The Cramlington Yesterday Society is a local history group launched in 1982 by people keen to record information on Cramlington in the North East of England. We have a considerable archive of written material, photographs, slides and artifacts which is the main source of material used in planning our programme of four meetings held each year. Our meetings are held at St. Nicholas Church Hall in Cramlington. We have ninety members and a Committee of seven. Committee meetings are generally an occasion for an illustrated talk on some aspect of local history. A wide range of topics are covered including events, work, domestic life, education, arts & entertainment, customs & dialect, recreation and the environment. Our aim is to present a comprehensive view of life in earlier times and make it available to the community. Apart from stimulating memories of older people, we attempt to involve families that have settled in Cramlington in recent years and use our materials for education. The Society is represented at meetings of Cramlington Community Assembly where emphasis is put on co-operation with fellow organisations such as Cramlington Organisation for Nature and the Environment (C.O.N.E.).

Each year there is an event called Showcase which is sponsored by Blyth Valley Borough Council and is held in the Manor Walks Shopping Centre in September. Local groups are invited to exhibit information about themselves for the public benefit and we have taken advantage of this for a number of years. In addition to Showcase occasional displays are held, for example, in May 1998 we exhibited an historical survey of Cramlington in St. Nicholas' Parish Church, Cramlington Village. A exhibition on the history of Cramlington supported by Blyth Valley Arts Network and our sister organisation, The Cramlington Local history Society, was held in the Town Centre and Cramlington Library during the summer of 2000.

Cramlington - a rich and interesting heritage.

Cramlington New Town opened in 1964 and developed around the original village of Cramlington in Northumberland, England. The Village has a history dating to the 12th. century and grew beside a manorial dwelling and chapel. The name Cramlington indicates the possibility of an earlier settlement as it is thought to be of Anglo-Saxon or Danish origin. The manor lands were extended to the limits of the old Parish from Storton Burn in the north to Sandy's Letch in the south.

The Parish church of St. Nicholas was built between 1865 and 1868 in a Gothic style, its predecessor also was a rebuilding of what would have been a chapel, probably in the Norman style. Cramlington Hall is largely an early 19th. century rebuilding.

The Village contained four farmsteads; East, Middle, West Farm and Hall Farm. Of these West Farm and Middle Farm survive although have other uses. A smithy stood on the site of Smithy Square and the foundation stone of the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was laid in 1881 west of the Blagdon Arms (formerly the Blue Bell). Across the Village Square stands the British Legion Comrades' Club which was the Fox and Hounds Inn. The War Memorial was dedicated in 1922.

A small pond existed behind the Wesleyan Chapel. A larger pond was located on the site of the north-eastern car park at Manor Walks Shopping Centre. What was an old quarry is now occupied by a garden centre between Quarrie House and the Surveyor's House. A street of stone houses called Quarry Row marked the site of a second quarry and a third is located on Station Road. East from the car park stands a stone building built in 1853 as a school. When a new larger school was opened in 1909, now called Parkside Middle School, the older building became the Parish Hall and then commercial premises.

Before large scale coal mining began in the 19th. century, the Parish was rural with farms such as Whitehall, Beacon, Bassington, Crowhall and Moor Farm. Arcot Hall was built at the beginning of the 19th. century and not far from it was Dam Dykes Farm. There had been small scale coal mining since Medieval Times on the north-west boundary which ceased about 1813. Traces of a wagon way constructed about 1700 to take coal to the coast at Blyth for shipment can still be seen.

The first deep pits were sunk about 1825 and grew during the following decades. Colliery villages grew around the new mine-heads as at Shankhouse, High Pit, East Cramlington, West Cramlington and East Hartford. In 1934 a pit was sunk down Crow Hall Lane and Nelson Village was built beside a First World War airship shed. An aerodrome built during World War One, near the present Garden Centre, was the headquarters of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Aero Club during the 1920's and 1930's. A local Co-operative Society was founded in 186 which had a blacksmith's, a building department and shoe factory. The railway station was opened in 1874 on the London to Edinburgh line.

A vigorous local culture had developed by the 20th. century. Apart from the Anglican Parish Church in the Old Village and its Mission Church at Shankhouse there were ten Methodist churches, a Salvation Army and the imposing Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist. The Miners' Welfares and Mechanics' Institutes fulfilled an important role. Sport was prominent including football teams such as the Shankhouse Black Watch and East Cramlington Black Watch. Music flourished not only in the church choirs but also in the Choral Society and Cramlington Male Voice Choir.

In the year 2000 the Town had a population of over 30,000 which was growing. Cramlington has an attractive shopping mall and amenities with spacious business, industrial and housing. It has excellent road and rail links but above all has a rich and interesting heritage.

Tomorrow's History and Cramlington's Green Heritage.

With the help and support of Tomorrow's History Cramlington Yesterday Society researched, produced and displayed an exhibition of photographs on our Green Heritage. This exhibition was in support of the tenth anniversary of the Cramlington Organisation for Nature and the Environment (C.O.N.E.). During October 2001 for over two weeks this exhibition was displayed at Cramlington Library and consisted of over 100 photographs of 'green' locations in Cramlington. Many of these 'green' areas have survived urban development. Some photographs showed conservation work carried out in creating new areas or restoring derelict ones by Blyth Valley Council and other organisations. There were examples of existing farmland, old woodland, pastures, hedgerows, ponds, a nature reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

As well as Cramlington Library a shorter version of the exhibition was displayed at the Showcase mentioned earlier. It proved to be a popular attraction and has increased awareness about how much 'green' space there is in Cramlington. As the display boards, purchased with the help of Tomorrow's History, are mobile we also held the exhibition at Nelson Village Community Centre and East Hartford Community Centre during November 2001.