Great Whittington is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Whittington, in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England, 7 miles NE of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

. In 1951 the parish had a population of 158, in 2011 it had a population of 401.

Governance

Great Whittington is in the

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

constituency of

. Great Whittington was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was k ...

parish, from 1866 Great Whittington was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1955 to form Whittington.

History

Immediately north of Great Whittington, in a field west of the Unnamed Road leading to Matfen, lies Great Whittington Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post. This was 1 of approx. 1,563 underground monitoring posts built all over the UK during the Cold War to monitor the effects of a Nuclear Strike. They were operated by the ROC who were mostly civilian volunteers. Great Whittington ROC post was opened in June 1962 and closed in September 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which saw the end of the Cold War.

Landmarks

The

Devil's Causeway The Devil's Causeway is a Roman roads, Roman road in Northumberland, in North East England, North East England. It branches off Dere Street north of Corbridge and can be traced through Northumberland for about north to Berwick-upon-Tweed. D ...

passes the village about to the west. The causeway was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

road which started at

Portgate The Portgate was a fortified gateway, constructed as part of Hadrian's Wall where it crossed the Roman road now known as Dere Street, which preceded Hadrian's Wall by around 50 years. It was built to control traffic along Dere Street as it pa ...

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

, north of

, and extended northwards across Northumberland to the mouth of the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

Transport

Great Whittington is served by

Go North East Go North East is a bus operator running both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead No ...

'
74
bus service, which provides four buses per day to

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

Ponteland Ponteland ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is northwest of Newcastle upon Tyne. Built on marshland near St Mary's Church and the old bridge, most marshland has now been drained to make way for housing. In the ind ...

and

Religious sites

A now

deconsecrated Deconsecration, also referred to as decommissioning or ''secularization'' (a term also used for the external confiscation of church property), is the removal of a religious sanction and blessing from something that had been previously consec ...

Wesleyan Methodist The Wesleyan Church is a Methodist Christian denomination aligned with the holiness movement. Wesleyan Church may also refer to: * Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia, the Australian branch of the Wesleyan Church Denominations * Allegheny We ...

chapel can be found on the northern side of the village green, distinguishable by a large cross above the door.

References

* The Official Great Whittington Website * Geanology archives

External links

*
Whittington, as seen from the south
Villages in Northumberland Former civil parishes in Northumberland {{Northumberland-geo-stub