Killingworth
Encyclopedia
Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town north of Newcastle Upon Tyne
, in North Tyneside
, United Kingdom
.
Built as a planned town
in the 1960s, most of Killingworth's residents commute
to Newcastle, or the city's surrounding area. However, Killingworth itself has a sizeable commercial centre, strong bus
links to the rest of Tyne and Wear
. Killingworth is not on the Tyne and Wear Metro
network but the nearest metro station is Palmersville
.
Nearby towns/villages include Killingworth Village
(which existed for centuries before the Township was built), Forest Hall
, West Moor
and Backworth
.
Killingworth
in Australia is named after Killingworth in England on account of its extensive history of coal-mining; it lies to the west of Newcastle
, New South Wales
, so-named for the same reason.
1373 - A detailed survey was made of Killingworth in this year. The township was divided into fields (more than twenty named) and within each field the various landholders farmed strips, or selions, of land. Fifteen landholders are mentioned as holding tenements in Killingworth and strips of land scattered among the fields. One of the fields mentioned is Dimisdale (Dymmyngesdale). This name survived until the 18th century and can be identified with the lands abutting Burradon township.
1704 - The last male heirs of the Killingworth family, Oliver and Luke, were by this date dead and the lands that they had held in Killingworth were divided out between their sisters: Mehitabel, Deborah, Blandina and Bethseba. Dimisdale was assigned to Mehitabel Killingworth, wife of Thomas Partis.
c. 1737 - Dimisdale farm and other lands in Killingworth were sold to John Williams of the Close Gate glass house.
1763 - John Williams died leaving his Killingworth property to his son, John Williams, who rebuilt Killingworth Hall.
1767 - John Williams sold his land and property in Killingworth to George Colpitts. Colpitts was to pay a land tax of £8 4s. 9d. in this year and again in 1779. This is just short of the figure for Burradon township. We can therefore calculate that he held about 500 acres.
1790 - Elizabeth Harrison, the niece and heiress of George Colpitts, married Henry Utrick Reay of Co. Durham and brought ownership of the lands by marriage to him.
1793 - The common lands of Killingworth Township were enclosed by a parliamentary act. It is possible that some enclosure had taken place previous to this date - Dimisdale Farm could be almost coterminous with Hill Head farm which survived until the 1960s. Each landholder was allocated a tract of land within the township to enclose, where before they would have had scattered strips and closes throughout the township. This land would become an individual farm, each one adjoining the village of Killingworth. Henry Utrick Reay was allocated Hill Head farm, although part of this may have been sold shortly afterwards to the Ogle family of Burradon. Thomas Pugh was allocated West House farm which ran to the line where Moor View now occupies. He was also allocated White House farm which covered the west side of Camperdown where the industrial estate now occupies. See the Ownership Map of Killingworth Farms. www.burradon-camperdown.co.uk/resources/FieldsKillingworth.jpgh
1828 Mar.13 - Henry Utrick Reay died in London. His eldest daughter Elizabeth Anne inherited his lands. She married Matthew Bell of Woolsington. They were to live in Killingworth Hall. He served as a Member of Parliament.
1841 Census
Killingworth Township
Population 112; Dwellings 14.
, began in 1963. Intended for 20,000 people, it was a former mining
community, and was formed on 760 acres (3.1 km²) of derelict colliery land near Killingworth Village
, which had existed since the 18th century and earlier. The building of Killingworth Township was undertaken by Northumberland County Council
, and was not sponsored by the Government. It was assigned "New Town" status in the 1960s in a similar fashion to the nearby town of Cramlington
.
Unlike that town, Killingworth's planners adopted a radical approach to town centre design, resulting in a development of relatively high-rise buildings in an avant-garde
and brutalist style, and won awards for architecture, dynamic industry and attractive environment.
This new town centre consisted of pre-cast concrete
houses, with millions of small shells unusually embedded into their external walls, 5 to 10 storey flat
s, office
s, industrial units and service buildings, which often consisted of artistic non-functional characteristics, shops and residential multi-storey car parks, interconnected by ramps and walkway
s. These made up a deck system of access to shopping and other facilities, constructed on the Swedish
Skarne method of construction http://www.rls.org.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-001-233-L.
Originally named Killingworth Township, the latter part of the name was quickly dropped through lack of colloquial use. Killingworth is often referred to as 'Killy' by a large portion of residents of the town and residents of the surrounding areas.
Around 1964, during the reclamation
of the derelict pit sites, a 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) lake south of the town centre was created; spoil heaps were levelled, seeded and planted with semi-mature trees. Today, swan
s, duck
s and local wildlife live around the two lakes which span the main road into Killingworth. The lake is kept well stocked with fish and an angling
club and model boating
club use the lakes regularly.
, enginewright at the colliery, built his first locomotive Blücher
with the help and encouragement of his manager at Killingworth, Nicholas Wood
, in the colliery workshop behind his house "Dial Cottage" on Lime Road. This locomotive could haul 30 tons of coal up a hill at 4 mph (6.4 km/h), and was the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive; its traction depended only on the contact between its flanged wheels and the rail. It was used to tow wagons of coal along the wagonway from Killingworth to the Wallsend
coal staithes. Although Blücher did not survive long it provided Stephenson with the knowledge and experience to build better locomotives at Killingworth. Later he would build the famous Rocket in his locomotive works in Newcastle.
At the same time Stephenson was also developing his own version of the miner's safety lamp, which he demonstrated underground in Killingworth pit a month before Sir Humphry Davy
presented his design to the Royal Society in London in 1815. Known as the "Geordie lamp" it was to be widely used in the North-east in place of the Davy lamp
.
houses. The first houses at Angus Close, owned by the local authority, were built to house key workers for the British Gas
Research Centre. The rest of Killingworth's estates were cul-de-sac
s named "Garths" - all numbered, although Garths 1-3 never existed. The actual numbering of the Garths was;4,6,7,9,11,12,13,etc. In the 1990s
the Garths located in West Bailey changed their names to street names with estates taking certain trends such as garth 11 is named after trees, Laburnum Court, Willow Gardens etc. and garth 12 after birds e.g. Dove Close, Chaffinch Way.
The houses in most of the Garths in West Bailey (the west of Killingworth) were built of concrete and had flat roofs, but around 1995 the Local Housing Association modernised these houses by adding pitched roof
s to the flat-roofed homes, renewed fencing, built new brick sheds, and relocated roads and pathways. Along with this they changed several Garths' names and replaced them with names of lakes, birds and trees.
The lowest remaining numbered Garth is Garth Four (the highest is Garth Thirty-Three in East Bailey aka Hadrian court). The housing estate formally known as garth 21 was not built as Local Housing but as a private estate, the houses are detached and semi detached 3 and 4 bed room. The street names are Crumstone Court, Longstone, Megstone etc.
Many of the Local Authority Homes have been purchased by the tenants, some of whom still reside in the houses that were built new in the 1960s.
, Agincourt
, Stamford
, Culloden
, Sedgemoor
, etc.
The most eye-catching and radical aspect of the township was the 3-tier housing estate called the Killingworth Towers - apartment blocks built in the early 1970s. Tenanted by the local authority, they were made of dark grey concrete blocks, and were named Bamburgh, Kielder and Ford Tower etc., after castles. They consisted of a combination of 1, 2 and 3 storey homes built on top of each other rising to 10 storeys high in some towers, with tremendous views.
The estate was originally designed to mimic a medieval castle with an outer wall and inner keep all interconnected to elevators and garbage chutes by ramps and a two-tier walkway (see gallery). This design could be realized on maps of the Towers which existed on the cast-iron drain covers within the estate. The walkways all led to a ¼ mile long elevated walkway leading straight through the, mostly covered, Killingworth Citadel Shopping Centre. This communal configuration was experimental and somewhat typical of the time.
Grating was retrofitted to prevent risk takers sliding down the 100 ft high girders holding up the walkways. Cast iron grills were erected to stop thoroughfare by over-exuberant youths racing their bikes and skateboards along the perfectly smooth walkway racetrack. Dogs fouling the limited ecosystem walkways, blocked garbage chutes, vandalism and fires set in the communal bins, stairwells, lifts and multi-storey residential car parks also added to the ever growing list of problems. The residents' fight to have pride in their homes was never easy due to their design. The Towers were not widely popular and were consequently demolished in 1987.
The last remaining eyesore, the walkway to the shops, was eventually demolished as it served no further practical interconnecting or visually pleasing purpose after the Towers' demise, but it stood alone for 10 years until funds were found to bring it down. Although happy to see the end of them, some local people still look upon the Towers with the nostalgia of a failed new age of architecture with lessons learned.
The land is now occupied by two new estates of privately-owned homes which were built by Cussins Homes and Barratt Homes
.
shop, situated between Garth Six and Angus Close and next door to the West House pub
, but these shops were demolished in the 1970s.
The original town centre was built in the 1960s. The boxer Henry Cooper
declared the shopping centre
open while standing on the steps of the Puffing Billy pub. The centre included a large department store
, Woolco
, which sold groceries and car
parts, and even incorporated a tyre
service bay. The shopping centre also included Dewhurst butcher
s, Greggs
bakery
, and newsagent
s, but it was demolished in the 1980s.
Puffing Billy Pub / Mr Brown's Video Fire 1990 can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0e6SLzVXEY
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Morrisons
shopping complex (containing the Morrisons supermarket
) was the commercial centre of Killingworth, while the former Woolco site stood as wasteland for more than a decade. Then, in the early 2000s, the Killingworth Centre, a modern shopping mall, was built on the former Woolco site. Morrisons moved into a new purpose-built store. The premises vacated by Morrisons are now occupied by Matalan.
In 2010, a new KFC and public house ('The Shire Horse') was constructed next to McDonald's in the grounds of Killingworth Centre.
The Hello Eco Living website designed by Killingworth based 21 Inspired was chosen as a showcase site for the 1.2 release of the BuddyPress
social network.
which is served by Stagecoach
, Arriva, Go-North East
, Northumbria Coaches and Classic Buses.
Originally, a building owned by Merz & McLellan
, built in the 1960s, stood here. This office
block contained 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) of office space and employed 600 professional and clerical people. Constructed by Northumberland County Council
, the building towered over Killingworth and could be seen for miles around.
Over the years, the office space became vacant and, like the former Woolco site, it was disused through the 1990s. Then the building was reduced in height, remodernised, reopened and renamed the White Swan Centre. The name White Swan was chosen from suggestions provided by local school children and reflects the swans found on the local lake. The White Swan Centre was built to house many of the local services previously provided in the demolished buildings which had been attached to the high-level shopping precinct. For example the doctors' surgery and library, a small gym was also housed in the White Swan centre as the swimming pool and sports centre had also been demolished. The new Lakeside swimming pool and sports centre has since been built alongside the lake (next to the High School).
, George Stephenson High School. In recent years Killingworth has moved from a three-tier education system consisting of, First, Middle and High schools, to the current two-tier system.
).
The two public houses in Killingworth Village are:
Facebook Killingworth Photos and videos
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, in North Tyneside
North Tyneside
The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. Its seat is Wallsend Town Hall....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Built as a planned town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
in the 1960s, most of Killingworth's residents commute
Commuting
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...
to Newcastle, or the city's surrounding area. However, Killingworth itself has a sizeable commercial centre, strong bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
links to the rest of Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
. Killingworth is not on the Tyne and Wear Metro
Tyne and Wear Metro
The Tyne and Wear Metro, also known as the Metro, is a light rail system in North East England, serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland. It opened in 1980 and in 2007–2008 provided 40 million public journeys on its network of nearly...
network but the nearest metro station is Palmersville
Palmersville Metro station
Palmersville is a station on the Tyne and Wear Metro system, named for the nearby community. It was not one of the original Metro stations, and was opened on March 19, 1986, nearly six years after the Metro line. It is situated on the opposite side of the Great Lime Road bridge to the short-lived...
.
Nearby towns/villages include Killingworth Village
Killingworth Village
Killingworth Village, sometimes known as "Old Killingworth", is a small village south of the modern town of Killingworth, and north of Forest Hall in North Tyneside, North East England.- St. John the Evangelist Church :...
(which existed for centuries before the Township was built), Forest Hall
Forest Hall
Forest Hall is a village east of Benton in North Tyneside in the north of England.-Facilities:There are pubs, social clubs and a shopping centre with a variety of shops, take away food outlets and two restaurants. It has two supermarkets. One is Sainsbury's Local, which opened in November 2007...
, West Moor
West Moor
West Moor is a small place in Tyne and Wear, UK.West Moor began as a colliery village around the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was so-called because it lies to the west of the ancient Killingworth Moor, which has now disappeared under development. It was at the colliery here in 1804 that...
and Backworth
Backworth
Backworth is a village in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England, about west of Whitley Bay on the north east coast. It lies northeast of Newcastle and north northwest of Sunderland...
.
Killingworth
Killingworth, New South Wales
Killingworth is a small town located south of West Wallsend, New South Wales and west of the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway. It is part of the West Ward of the City of Lake Macquarie local government area, and Ward 'D' of the City of Cessnock.-History:...
in Australia is named after Killingworth in England on account of its extensive history of coal-mining; it lies to the west of Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, so-named for the same reason.
Culture
- Killingworth was used in the filming of the sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is a 1970s British sitcom broadcast between 9 January 1973 and 9 April 1974 on BBC1. It is the colour sequel to the mid-1960s hit The Likely Lads. It was created and written, as was its predecessor, by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais...
in 1973/1974. The Highfields estate (Garth Sixteen), built in the early 1970s and containing some of Killingworth's first privately-owned houses, was seen as a suitable location for the new home (on Falkirk) of the young couple Thelma and Bob, while Terry Collier works at a factory (filmed at the Killingworth industrial estate). Although Killingworth is not mentioned in the series, its presence can be seen as reflective of the times. - In an episode of the architecture series Grundy's WondersGrundy's WondersGrundy's Wonders is a Tyne Tees Television architecture programme presented by John Grundy, which began in 2000.On the programme, Grundy explores buildings in north-east England, as well as Cumbria and Yorkshire...
on Tyne TeesTyne Tees TelevisionTyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
, John GrundyJohn GrundyJohn Grundy is a television presenter and author. His work is mainly featured around North East England.- Biography :...
deemed Killingworth's former British Gas Research Centre the best industrial building in the North East. - Killingworth has a lot of recreational land, such as the playing fieldPlaying fieldA playing field is a field used for playing sports or games. They are generally outdoors, but many large structures exist to enclose playing fields from bad weather. Generally, playing fields are wide expanses of grass, dirt or sand without many obstructions...
s used by local schools. - The Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode titled "The Mark of the RaniThe Mark of the RaniThe Mark of The Rani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 2 February to 9 February 1985...
" depicted a 19th-century Killingworth in its episode, with the 6th Doctor in search of George StephensonGeorge StephensonGeorge Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
after the villager goes mad.
Early History
Killingworth Township was part of Longbenton parish. It was held as part of the barony of Merlay (Morpeth). Land within the township was held and tenemented by many individuals and institutions, the main ones being the Killingworth family.1373 - A detailed survey was made of Killingworth in this year. The township was divided into fields (more than twenty named) and within each field the various landholders farmed strips, or selions, of land. Fifteen landholders are mentioned as holding tenements in Killingworth and strips of land scattered among the fields. One of the fields mentioned is Dimisdale (Dymmyngesdale). This name survived until the 18th century and can be identified with the lands abutting Burradon township.
1704 - The last male heirs of the Killingworth family, Oliver and Luke, were by this date dead and the lands that they had held in Killingworth were divided out between their sisters: Mehitabel, Deborah, Blandina and Bethseba. Dimisdale was assigned to Mehitabel Killingworth, wife of Thomas Partis.
c. 1737 - Dimisdale farm and other lands in Killingworth were sold to John Williams of the Close Gate glass house.
1763 - John Williams died leaving his Killingworth property to his son, John Williams, who rebuilt Killingworth Hall.
1767 - John Williams sold his land and property in Killingworth to George Colpitts. Colpitts was to pay a land tax of £8 4s. 9d. in this year and again in 1779. This is just short of the figure for Burradon township. We can therefore calculate that he held about 500 acres.
1790 - Elizabeth Harrison, the niece and heiress of George Colpitts, married Henry Utrick Reay of Co. Durham and brought ownership of the lands by marriage to him.
1793 - The common lands of Killingworth Township were enclosed by a parliamentary act. It is possible that some enclosure had taken place previous to this date - Dimisdale Farm could be almost coterminous with Hill Head farm which survived until the 1960s. Each landholder was allocated a tract of land within the township to enclose, where before they would have had scattered strips and closes throughout the township. This land would become an individual farm, each one adjoining the village of Killingworth. Henry Utrick Reay was allocated Hill Head farm, although part of this may have been sold shortly afterwards to the Ogle family of Burradon. Thomas Pugh was allocated West House farm which ran to the line where Moor View now occupies. He was also allocated White House farm which covered the west side of Camperdown where the industrial estate now occupies. See the Ownership Map of Killingworth Farms. www.burradon-camperdown.co.uk/resources/FieldsKillingworth.jpgh
1828 Mar.13 - Henry Utrick Reay died in London. His eldest daughter Elizabeth Anne inherited his lands. She married Matthew Bell of Woolsington. They were to live in Killingworth Hall. He served as a Member of Parliament.
1841 Census
Killingworth Township
Population 112; Dwellings 14.
History
Construction of Killingworth, a new townNew town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
, began in 1963. Intended for 20,000 people, it was a former mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
community, and was formed on 760 acres (3.1 km²) of derelict colliery land near Killingworth Village
Killingworth Village
Killingworth Village, sometimes known as "Old Killingworth", is a small village south of the modern town of Killingworth, and north of Forest Hall in North Tyneside, North East England.- St. John the Evangelist Church :...
, which had existed since the 18th century and earlier. The building of Killingworth Township was undertaken by Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. It was originally formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of Northumberland and reformed in 1974 to cover a the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Northumberland...
, and was not sponsored by the Government. It was assigned "New Town" status in the 1960s in a similar fashion to the nearby town of Cramlington
Cramlington
Cramlington is a town and civil parish in the county of Northumberland, North East England, situated north of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The town's name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or an Anglo-Saxon origin, the word "ton" meaning town. The population was estimated as 39,000 in...
.
Unlike that town, Killingworth's planners adopted a radical approach to town centre design, resulting in a development of relatively high-rise buildings in an avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and brutalist style, and won awards for architecture, dynamic industry and attractive environment.
This new town centre consisted of pre-cast concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
houses, with millions of small shells unusually embedded into their external walls, 5 to 10 storey flat
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s, office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
s, industrial units and service buildings, which often consisted of artistic non-functional characteristics, shops and residential multi-storey car parks, interconnected by ramps and walkway
Walkway
In US English, a walkway is a composite or umbrella term for all engineered surfaces or structures which support the use of trails. These include sidewalks, footbridges, stiles, stairs, ramps, paseos or tunnels...
s. These made up a deck system of access to shopping and other facilities, constructed on the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Skarne method of construction http://www.rls.org.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-001-233-L.
Originally named Killingworth Township, the latter part of the name was quickly dropped through lack of colloquial use. Killingworth is often referred to as 'Killy' by a large portion of residents of the town and residents of the surrounding areas.
Around 1964, during the reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
of the derelict pit sites, a 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) lake south of the town centre was created; spoil heaps were levelled, seeded and planted with semi-mature trees. Today, swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
s, duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
s and local wildlife live around the two lakes which span the main road into Killingworth. The lake is kept well stocked with fish and an angling
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
club and model boating
Radio-controlled boat
- Fun Sport :Electric Sport boats are the most common type of boat amongst casual hobbyists. Hobby quality boat speed generally start at around 20MPH and go up from there, and can be just as fast or faster than their internal combustion counterparts, with the latest in Lithium Polymer and Brushless...
club use the lakes regularly.
Killingworth Colliery
Killingworth was home to a number of pits including the world-famous Killingworth Colliery. It was here in 1814 that George StephensonGeorge Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
, enginewright at the colliery, built his first locomotive Blücher
Blücher (locomotive)
Blücher was an early railway locomotive built in 1814 by George Stephenson for Killingworth Colliery. It was the first of a series of locomotives that he designed in the period 1814-16 which established his reputation as an engine designer and laid the foundations for his subsequent pivotal role in...
with the help and encouragement of his manager at Killingworth, Nicholas Wood
Nicholas Wood
Nicholas Wood was an English colliery and steam locomotive engineer. He helped engineer and design many steps forward in both engineering and mining safety, and helped bring about the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, holding the position of President from its...
, in the colliery workshop behind his house "Dial Cottage" on Lime Road. This locomotive could haul 30 tons of coal up a hill at 4 mph (6.4 km/h), and was the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive; its traction depended only on the contact between its flanged wheels and the rail. It was used to tow wagons of coal along the wagonway from Killingworth to the Wallsend
Wallsend
Wallsend is an area in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 42,842.-Romans:...
coal staithes. Although Blücher did not survive long it provided Stephenson with the knowledge and experience to build better locomotives at Killingworth. Later he would build the famous Rocket in his locomotive works in Newcastle.
At the same time Stephenson was also developing his own version of the miner's safety lamp, which he demonstrated underground in Killingworth pit a month before Sir Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine...
presented his design to the Royal Society in London in 1815. Known as the "Geordie lamp" it was to be widely used in the North-east in place of the Davy lamp
Davy lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp with a wick and oil vessel burning originally a heavy vegetable oil, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.Sir...
.
Garths
Killingworth originally consisted of local authorityPublic housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
houses. The first houses at Angus Close, owned by the local authority, were built to house key workers for the British Gas
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
Research Centre. The rest of Killingworth's estates were cul-de-sac
Cul-de-sac
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
s named "Garths" - all numbered, although Garths 1-3 never existed. The actual numbering of the Garths was;4,6,7,9,11,12,13,etc. In the 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
the Garths located in West Bailey changed their names to street names with estates taking certain trends such as garth 11 is named after trees, Laburnum Court, Willow Gardens etc. and garth 12 after birds e.g. Dove Close, Chaffinch Way.
The houses in most of the Garths in West Bailey (the west of Killingworth) were built of concrete and had flat roofs, but around 1995 the Local Housing Association modernised these houses by adding pitched roof
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
s to the flat-roofed homes, renewed fencing, built new brick sheds, and relocated roads and pathways. Along with this they changed several Garths' names and replaced them with names of lakes, birds and trees.
The lowest remaining numbered Garth is Garth Four (the highest is Garth Thirty-Three in East Bailey aka Hadrian court). The housing estate formally known as garth 21 was not built as Local Housing but as a private estate, the houses are detached and semi detached 3 and 4 bed room. The street names are Crumstone Court, Longstone, Megstone etc.
Many of the Local Authority Homes have been purchased by the tenants, some of whom still reside in the houses that were built new in the 1960s.
Highfields, first privately-owned homes
Killingworth has grown since the early 1960s, with the addition of new privately-owned homes, Highfields Estate was built in the 1970s and was named after battles e.g. FloddenBattle of Flodden Field
The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field or occasionally Battle of Branxton was fought in the county of Northumberland in northern England on 9 September 1513, between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey...
, Agincourt
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory against a numerically superior French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 , near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France...
, Stamford
Battle of Stamford Bridge
The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire in England on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada of Norway and the English king's brother Tostig...
, Culloden
Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...
, Sedgemoor
Battle of Sedgemoor
The Battle of Sedgemoor was fought on 6 July 1685 and took place at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset, England.It was the final battle of the Monmouth Rebellion and followed a series of skirmishes around south west England between the forces of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and the...
, etc.
The Towers
Killingworth Towers 1986 Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUmcQIdLT6wThe most eye-catching and radical aspect of the township was the 3-tier housing estate called the Killingworth Towers - apartment blocks built in the early 1970s. Tenanted by the local authority, they were made of dark grey concrete blocks, and were named Bamburgh, Kielder and Ford Tower etc., after castles. They consisted of a combination of 1, 2 and 3 storey homes built on top of each other rising to 10 storeys high in some towers, with tremendous views.
The estate was originally designed to mimic a medieval castle with an outer wall and inner keep all interconnected to elevators and garbage chutes by ramps and a two-tier walkway (see gallery). This design could be realized on maps of the Towers which existed on the cast-iron drain covers within the estate. The walkways all led to a ¼ mile long elevated walkway leading straight through the, mostly covered, Killingworth Citadel Shopping Centre. This communal configuration was experimental and somewhat typical of the time.
Decline
The idea was to create community interaction, with large parks in the grasslands around the towers and social clubs for the adults. However, despite this vision of an integrated society, the design did not live up to expectations. The estate started to look, and feel, like a prison rather than a castle with the introduction of measures to stop anti-social behaviour from youths (would-be ASBOs) congregating within the high rise instead of in the parks.Grating was retrofitted to prevent risk takers sliding down the 100 ft high girders holding up the walkways. Cast iron grills were erected to stop thoroughfare by over-exuberant youths racing their bikes and skateboards along the perfectly smooth walkway racetrack. Dogs fouling the limited ecosystem walkways, blocked garbage chutes, vandalism and fires set in the communal bins, stairwells, lifts and multi-storey residential car parks also added to the ever growing list of problems. The residents' fight to have pride in their homes was never easy due to their design. The Towers were not widely popular and were consequently demolished in 1987.
The last remaining eyesore, the walkway to the shops, was eventually demolished as it served no further practical interconnecting or visually pleasing purpose after the Towers' demise, but it stood alone for 10 years until funds were found to bring it down. Although happy to see the end of them, some local people still look upon the Towers with the nostalgia of a failed new age of architecture with lessons learned.
The land is now occupied by two new estates of privately-owned homes which were built by Cussins Homes and Barratt Homes
Barratt Developments
Barratt Developments PLC is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1958 as Greensitt Bros. but control was later assumed by Sir Lawrie Barratt. It was originally based in Newcastle upon Tyne but is now located at David Wilson's former...
.
History of commerce
The first two shops built in Killingworth in the 1960s were Moore's and a small confectioneryConfectionery
Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...
shop, situated between Garth Six and Angus Close and next door to the West House pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, but these shops were demolished in the 1970s.
The original town centre was built in the 1960s. The boxer Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper may refer to:*Sir Henry Cooper , British Heavyweight boxer*Henry Cooper from Tennessee*Henry Cooper , English recipient of the Victoria Cross...
declared the shopping centre
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
open while standing on the steps of the Puffing Billy pub. The centre included a large department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
, Woolco
Woolco
Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in the city of Columbus, Ohio, by the F.W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in...
, which sold groceries and car
Čar
Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...
parts, and even incorporated a tyre
Tire
A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...
service bay. The shopping centre also included Dewhurst butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s, Greggs
Greggs
Greggs plc is the largest specialist retail bakery chain in the United Kingdom. It was established in the 1930s as a single shop but has approximately 1,500 outlets....
bakery
Bakery
A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...
, and newsagent
Newsagent
A newsagent's shop , newsagency or newsstand is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local interest. In Britain and Australia, these businesses are termed newsagents...
s, but it was demolished in the 1980s.
Puffing Billy Pub / Mr Brown's Video Fire 1990 can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0e6SLzVXEY
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Morrisons
Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The company is usually referred to and is branded as Morrisons formerly Morrison's, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies...
shopping complex (containing the Morrisons supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
) was the commercial centre of Killingworth, while the former Woolco site stood as wasteland for more than a decade. Then, in the early 2000s, the Killingworth Centre, a modern shopping mall, was built on the former Woolco site. Morrisons moved into a new purpose-built store. The premises vacated by Morrisons are now occupied by Matalan.
In 2010, a new KFC and public house ('The Shire Horse') was constructed next to McDonald's in the grounds of Killingworth Centre.
The Hello Eco Living website designed by Killingworth based 21 Inspired was chosen as a showcase site for the 1.2 release of the BuddyPress
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is an open source social networking software package owned by Automattic since 2008. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform...
social network.
Transport
The Killingworth Centre also incorporates a covered Killingworth bus stationKillingworth bus station
Killingworth bus station serves the town of Killingworth, Tyne and Wear, England. The bus station is part of the Killingworth Centre, next to the town's Morrisons supermarket just off the Citadel E road....
which is served by Stagecoach
Stagecoach North East
Stagecoach North East is a major operator of bus services in North East England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group. The company is made up of two formerly municipal operations; Busways and Transit...
, Arriva, Go-North East
Go-Ahead Group
The Go-Ahead Group plc is a rail and bus operating company that was created following the privatisation of the UK's train and bus industries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-Early history:...
, Northumbria Coaches and Classic Buses.
The White Swan Centre site
This is a large white building in the town centre.Originally, a building owned by Merz & McLellan
Merz & McLellan
Merz and McLellan was a leading British electrical engineering consultancy based in Newcastle.-History:The firm was founded by Charles Merz and William McLellan in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902 when McLellan joined Merz's existing firm established in 1899...
, built in the 1960s, stood here. This office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
block contained 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) of office space and employed 600 professional and clerical people. Constructed by Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. It was originally formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of Northumberland and reformed in 1974 to cover a the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Northumberland...
, the building towered over Killingworth and could be seen for miles around.
Over the years, the office space became vacant and, like the former Woolco site, it was disused through the 1990s. Then the building was reduced in height, remodernised, reopened and renamed the White Swan Centre. The name White Swan was chosen from suggestions provided by local school children and reflects the swans found on the local lake. The White Swan Centre was built to house many of the local services previously provided in the demolished buildings which had been attached to the high-level shopping precinct. For example the doctors' surgery and library, a small gym was also housed in the White Swan centre as the swimming pool and sports centre had also been demolished. The new Lakeside swimming pool and sports centre has since been built alongside the lake (next to the High School).
Schools
Killingworth is also home to four primary schools (Westmoor, Bailey Green, Moor Edge and Amberley) and a high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, George Stephenson High School. In recent years Killingworth has moved from a three-tier education system consisting of, First, Middle and High schools, to the current two-tier system.
Public houses
Killingworth has four public houses (and there are two more in Killingworth VillageKillingworth Village
Killingworth Village, sometimes known as "Old Killingworth", is a small village south of the modern town of Killingworth, and north of Forest Hall in North Tyneside, North East England.- St. John the Evangelist Church :...
).
- The West House, originally called the West House Inn, is in West Bailey. It was built from a derelict farmhouse and barn (see early history 1793, West House farm was occupied by an original landowner together with Whitehouse farm which is now converted to private housing in Westmoor) - this in the style of an old Northumberland inn.
- The Station public house is on the industrial estate to the west of the town. It was originally next to the Killingworth railway station, which was demolished some years ago. The railway still runs by the Station pub, with a level crossingLevel crossingA level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
within 50 m of the pub. - Killingworth Working Men's Social ClubSocial clubsA social club may refer to a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity . Note that this article covers only two distinct types of social clubs, the historic gentlemen's clubs and the modern activities clubs...
(in East Bailey) was built in the 1970s and located next to the Town Centre. - The Shire Horse, situated next to the White Swan Centre, was opened in May 2010 on the same piece of land as a new KFC. Run by Marstons, it has a popular carvery and selection of real ales.
The two public houses in Killingworth Village are:
- The Killingworth Arms (originally a hotel) is located at the top of Killingworth Bank
- The Plough Inn, situated in the centre of Killingworth Village opposite the entrance to the park
See also
Facebook Killingworth Photos and videos