Stella
Stella is located in Tyne and Wear
Stella
Stella
Location within Tyne and Wear
OS grid referenceNZ171644
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBLAYDON-ON-TYNE
Postcode districtNE21
Dialling code0191
PoliceNorthumbria
FireTyne and Wear
AmbulanceNorth East
UK Parliament

Stella is a community in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It lies on the south bank of the Tyne, about 5 miles (8 km) west of central Newcastle upon Tyne, between Blaydon (to the south-east) and Ryton (to the west). The area includes the Stella Park housing estate, built on the grounds of a mansion of the same name.

History

In the 12th century the Bishop of Durham, William of St. Barbara, granted Stellinglei to the nuns of Newcastle, and it remained the property of the nunnery until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.[1] Around 1600 the land was granted to the Tempest family, who built a mansion called Stella Hall, overlooking the river.[2]

In the 1840s there was a coal pit, and there were makers of coal wagons, railway rolling stock and fire bricks.[1] The Addison mine was opened at Stella in 1864, and in 1894 coal was processed in 180 coke ovens on the site.[3] The Stella Coal Company owned several more mines in the neighbouring Ryton and Blaydon areas.[4][5] Mining continued into the 20th century; the Stella Coal Company Ltd entered voluntary liquidation in 1954[6] and the final seams in the area were abandoned in 1963.[3]

William Burn's book (1896) describes Stella thus: "It is straggling in appearance, and several of the houses are old and thatched. Nearly the whole of the land is in the possession of the Townley family."[7]

There is an 18th-century watermill at Path Head, on the Stella bank of the Blaydon Burn, which was restored in the late 20th century as a visitor attraction.[8]

The Roman Catholic church of St Mary and St Thomas Aquinas, with adjoining presbytery, was built in 1831–1832 to designs of John Green and enlarged in 1848–1849 to designs of John Dobson.[9] For the Church of England, a district was created in 1845 from parts of Ryton and Winlaton parishes, those parishes being said to have a large population.[10] In the same year a church dedicated to St Cuthbert was completed in the south-east of the district, to which was added a chancel in 1862 and a tower in 1869.[11] Today the church is within the Blaydon built-up area and its parish takes in all of Blaydon.[12]

Governance

Stella was anciently a township in Ryton parish within County Durham,[13] and was made a separate civil parish in 1866.[14] The Blaydon Burn was the eastern boundary of the parish, separating Stella from Winlaton parish (which at that time included a small settlement at Blaydon).[15]

When Blaydon Urban District was created in 1894, its area included Stella.[16] The parish was abolished in 1937 as part of the formation of Blaydon parish; the population of Stella parish had been 642 in 1931.[14] Changes to local government in 1974 saw Blaydon parish and urban district abolished and replaced by an unparished area, at first within Tyne and Wear, then from 1986 within the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

Stella is part of Ryton, Crookhill and Stella ward, which elects three members of Gateshead Council.[17] For national government elections it is part of Blaydon constituency.[18]

Stella Hall

In 1640 during the Battle of Newburn Ford, Lord Conway had his headquarters at Stella Hall.[19]

In the early 18th century, Jane Tempest married William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington,[2] who had the south front largely remodelled.[19] In 1792, it was inherited by John Towneley, whose mother was Mary, daughter of the 3rd Baron Widdrington. Its descent then followed that of the main Towneley Park estate near Burnley, Lancashire, to John's son Peregrine Towneley, and was recorded as a property of 281 acres belonging to him in 1848.[1] Members of the Towneley family were involved in coal mining: the Emma[20] and Stargate[21] collieries, east of Stella, carried their name and the Towneley seam lay at a depth of 315 feet (96 m).[22]

The Hall was later the home of the industrialist and MP Joseph Cowen, and is believed to have been purchased by his father, the newspaper and coal millionaire Sir Joseph Cowen, around 1850.[2] However, in 1878, on the death of Peregrine's son, also called John Towneley, 2,826 acres, probably formerly part of this estate, was distributed between his daughters.[23]

The Hall remained in the Cowen family until Jane Cowen's death in 1948.[24] It was briefly owned by the University of Durham before the house and grounds were sold to a speculative housebuilder; the house was demolished in 1955.[2]

One related structure survives: a two-storey former gardener's cottage from the late 18th century, now called Stella Hall Cottage, on Stella Road near Widdrington Terrace.[25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lewis, Samuel, ed. (1848). A Topographical Dictionary of England. p. 200 – via British History Online.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Image: Demolition of Stella Hall, 1955". iSee Gateshead. Gateshead Council. Archived from the original on 19 March 2007 – via Internet Archive.
  3. 1 2 "Addison Colliery". Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "Stella Coal Co". Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  5. ↑ "1951 Durham Map 20". Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  6. ↑ "No. 40093". The London Gazette. 5 February 1954. p. 806.
  7. ↑ Bourn, William (1896). History of the Parish of Ryton. Carlisle: G & T Coward. p. 63.
  8. ↑ "Path Head Water Mill". Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  9. ↑ Historic England. "Church of St. Mary and St. Thomas Aquinas and presbytery adjoining (1355082)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  10. ↑ "No. 20495". The London Gazette. 8 August 1845. pp. 2381–2383.
  11. ↑ Historic England. "Church of St Cuthbert (1355120)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  12. ↑ "St Cuthbert, Blaydon". A Church Near You. The Archbishops' Council. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "Stella, County Durham". A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  14. 1 2 "Stella CP/Tn". A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Ordnance Survey index map showing parishes: Durham and Northumberland". National Library of Scotland. 1898. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  16. ↑ "Blaydon UD". A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  17. ↑ "Councillors by Ward". Gateshead Council. 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  18. ↑ "Election Maps: Great Britain". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  19. 1 2 "Stella Hall". Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record:1694. Newcastle City Council. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  20. ↑ "Emma Colliery". Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  21. ↑ "Stargate Colliery". Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  22. ↑ "Emma Colliery Shaft Details". Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  23. ↑ Tracing the Towneleys Archived 2012-03-13 at the Wayback Machine at towneley.org.uk, accessed 2010
  24. ↑ "The Blaydon Brick: Joseph Cowen". Newcastle University Library: Special Collections. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  25. ↑ Historic England. "Stella Hall Cottage (1299906)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 December 2023.


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