Wylam is a village and
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 ...
in the county of
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. It is located about west of
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 ...
.
It is famous for the being the birthplace of
George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...
, one of the early railway pioneers.
George Stephenson's Birthplace, his cottage, can be found on the north bank of the
Tyne east of the village. It is owned by the
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
.
Wylam has further connections with the early railway pioneers. The steam locomotive engineer
Timothy Hackworth, who worked with Stephenson, was also born here.
William Hedley
William Hedley (13 July 1779 – 9 January 1843) was born in Newburn, near Newcastle upon Tyne. He was one of the leading industrial engineers of the early 19th century, and was instrumental in several major innovations in early railway deve ...
who was born in the nearby village of
Newburn attended the village school. He later went on to design and manufacture
Puffing Billy in 1813, two years before George Stephenson produced his first locomotive
Blücher.
Christopher Blackett as
lord of the manor
Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...
in the first 30 years of the 19th century provided the entrepreneurial drive that encouraged these engineers.
History
Once an industrial workplace with collieries and an ironworks, it is now a commuting village for
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 ...
and
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 ...
, served by the
Tyne Valley line.
The earliest reference to Wylam is in a record of 1158 that records that the settlement belonged to the priory at
Tynemouth
Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...
. It is thought that
Guy de Balliol, Lord of Bywell, gave Wylam to the priory in 1085. The priors of Tynemouth held lands in the village until the
dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.
The
Blackett family have had a long association with the village. In 1659 Christopher Blackett acquired the Lordship of the Manor of Wylam on the death of his wife's father, Thomas Fenwick. Following Christopher's death, his second son, John Blackett, took over the estate and purchased additional land in the area, including two farms at Wylam bought in 1685. These farms formed a modest estate and residence for the Blackett family until the third quarter of the 20th century. The Lordship also included mineral rights within the township. This allowed the family to develop the colliery and further increase their prosperity.
An article in the ''Newcastle Courant'' of 17 January 1874 entitled "Our Colliery Villages" paints an unattractive image of the village – 'Wylam is the very worst colliery village that we have yet beheld ...'. The colliery has an important place in the history of the development of the locomotive. It is thought that the Wylam waggonway was opened in 1748 and was therefore one of the earliest waggonways in the
North of England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...
. The waggonway linked the colliery to the
staiths at Lemington from where the coal was taken down the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...
on flat bottomed boats called
keels to be loaded on the large coal ships further down the river.
Several famous engineers have had links with the village.
George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...
was born at a small cottage at Wylam in June 1781.
Timothy Hackworth's father was foreman blacksmith at the colliery and his son was born in the village in December 1786. Hackworth together with
William Hedley
William Hedley (13 July 1779 – 9 January 1843) was born in Newburn, near Newcastle upon Tyne. He was one of the leading industrial engineers of the early 19th century, and was instrumental in several major innovations in early railway deve ...
and Jonathan Forster were involved in the development of the locomotive engine at the colliery. Perhaps the most famous of the engines to be developed was the
Puffing Billy, which is now housed at
The Science Museum in London, followed closely by
Wylam Dilly which is on display at the
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
in Edinburgh. Wylam Railway Museum has lots more information on the village's unique place in railway history and is co-located with Wylam Library and has the same opening hours.
The late 18th century was a period of prosperity for the village – the
colliery
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. 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 extra ...
was thriving and an ironworks, a leadshot manufactury and a brewery were all established in the village. In 1864 the ironworks closed. Four years later the colliery was closed. The brewery ceased to operate sometime in the 1870s. This decline in the industry led to a change in the character of the village. By the 20th century the village was almost entirely a residential settlement.
Wylam has approximately 800 households, with a population of 2,100.
Governance
Wylam, for
Local Government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.
Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
purposes, comes under
Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Northumberland in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having also ...
, a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
.
It 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
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 ...
.
Culture
Wylam Winter Tales is a not-for-profit arts and culture festival held in the village every January/February. It features a week of varied events including music, storytelling, film, crafts and history at venues throughout the village. It is funded through small grants, donations and ticket sales and is run by volunteers.
Geography
Wylam is located on the north and south sides of the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...
, in Northumberland, England. The riverside walks and country trails surrounding the village are popular for cyclists, runners and walkers alike and the view of Wylam Bridge from Wylam Wood Road towards the southwest is especially dramatic.
To the east of
Wylam railway station is the mouth of the small brook known as Stanley Burn, which originates in the southern Prudhoe area and also forms the regional border between
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 ...
to the west and the borough of
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...
(
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The county is ...
). The traditional boundary between
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 ...
and
County Durham
County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
follows the River Tyne from this point.
Landmarks
Wylam Railway Bridge (also known as Points Bridge and the Half Moon bridge) is located at
Hagg Bank, approximately west of the town. It is a
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...
bridge built by the
Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway Company in 1876 to link the
North Wylam Loop with the
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway.
The original plan had been to build a bridge with four spans resting on three piers on the river bed. This was rejected by the local coal companies who feared that the construction of the piers on the river bed would disturb the shallow mine workings below, which already suffered from flooding.
The designers found the solution in designing a single-span bridge carrying a double track, without the need for piers. The bridge consists of three parallel wrought iron arches resting on abutments on each bank, with the twin rail decks suspended by 14 wrought iron drop bars. It cost £16,000 to build. The bridge paved the way for new developments in bridge building – Newcastle's
Tyne Bridge in 1928 and
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...
in 1932, being direct descendants of the design and construction of Hagg's Bridge.
Many of the trains which used the bridge carried coal from the collieries at
Newburn and
Walbottle westwards to
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England.
Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
.
The line was closed in 1968 and the bridge later purchased by
Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Northumberland in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having also ...
. It was restored in 1997 with help from the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
. All the old lead-based paint was removed, requiring the bridge to be wrapped in plastic to prevent polluting the river.
The war memorial, which is a cross about in height, stands by the roadside just to the north of Wylam Bridge. The inscriptions and names on the war memorial have been transcribed and published by the North East War Memorials Project.
Transport
Unusually for a rural area, transport in Wylam is mainly Rail and cycle orientated.
Railway
The village is served by
Wylam railway station on the
Tyne Valley Line. The line was opened in 1838, and links the city of
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 ...
in Northumberland with
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England.
Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
in
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...
. The line follows the course of the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...
through
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 ...
. Passenger services on the line are operated by
Northern. The line is also heavily used for
goods
In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...
.
The railway station is on the south bank of the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...
. There used to be another railway station in Wylam on the north bank of the river, which was part of the
Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway. The line has now closed and the tracks removed, with the North Wylam railway station area now being used as a car park.
Bus
The bus service to and from Wylam is poor and many services have been discontinued over the years. There is an hourly service to
Newcastle
Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
and
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 ...
provided by
Go North East with the X84 service.
Cyclepath
After the
Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway line was closed the trackwork was removed and the trackbed later converted into a
cyclepath. That cyclepath forms part of
National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network (NCN) was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million N ...
Route 72 and starts at Tyne Riverside Country Park at Low Prudhoe. After Wylam it keeps to the north side of the River Tyne, linking Wylam with
Newcastle
Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
and the coast at
Tynemouth
Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...
. There is another cyclepath on the south side of the river which starts in the car park at Wylam railway station and links Wylam to
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...
and the coast at
South Shields
South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...
.
Religious sites
Wylam's parish church was built in 1886 and is dedicated to
St. Oswin, a
Northumbria
Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland.
The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...
n saint. Wylam St. Oswin's has a regular Sunday and weekday services. Pre-1886 the villagers of Wylam had to walk to nearby
Ovingham to attend church, George and William Hedley, sons of Frances and William, the railway engineer, contributed most of the money needed to build the church so the Anglicans of Wylam could have their own place of worship. The church has six bells with regular Sunday ringing and a practice night on Mondays.
Wylam also has a Methodist chapel, located on Chapel Lane. The chapel was extended in the 1990s to extend the worship and meeting areas, and to also include a kitchen.
Churches in and around Wylam, notably
Horsley and
Crawcrook, of different
denominations have a covenant to work together in the community, to share in youth work and some special services such as
Harvest
Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...
,
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces me ...
and some Christmas and Easter services.
Notable residents
*
Basil Bunting – poet
*
Antonia Byatt – novelist
*
Margaret Drabble – novelist
*
Archibald Matthias Dunn – Victorian architect
*
Greg Dyke – broadcaster
*
Timothy Hackworth – railway pioneer
*
William Hedley
William Hedley (13 July 1779 – 9 January 1843) was born in Newburn, near Newcastle upon Tyne. He was one of the leading industrial engineers of the early 19th century, and was instrumental in several major innovations in early railway deve ...
– railway pioneer
*
Helen McCallum - singer-songwriter, academic and writer
*
Charles Algernon Parsons
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was an Anglo-Irish mechanical engineer and inventor who designed the modern steam turbine in 1884. His invention revolutionised marine propulsion, and he was also the founder of C ...
– inventor of the steam turbine
*
George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...
– 'Father of the Railway'
*
Ken Traill – (1926–2002), rugby league player and coach, born in Wylam
References
Further reading
*
External links
Wylam Parish Council HomepageWylam Railway Museum web pageWylam Homepage
{{authority control
Villages in Northumberland
Civil parishes in Northumberland