Killingworth is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, within the historic county of Northumberland.

Killingworth was built as a new town in the 1960s, next to Killingworth Village, which existed for centuries before the new town was built. Other nearby villages include Forest Hall, West Moor and Backworth.

Killingworth is linked to the rest of Tyne and Wear by bus routes. The town is not on the Tyne and Wear Metro network; its nearest Metro stations are Palmersville and Benton.

The town of Killingworth in Australia is named after the British original because of its extensive coal mines.

Culture

left|thumb|Former British Gas building

Killingworth was used as a filming location for the 1973 BBC sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, with one of the houses on Agincourt on the Highfields estate featuring as the home of Bob and Thelma Ferris.

In an episode of the architecture series Grundy's Wonders on Tyne Tees, John Grundy deemed Killingworth's former British Gas Research Centre to be the best industrial building in the North East.

The Doctor Who episode titled "The Mark of the Rani" depicted Killingworth in the 19th century, with the Sixth Doctor in search of George Stephenson, after the Doctor's arch-enemy The Master attempts to hijack the Industrial Revolution.

History

Medieval

According to Jennifer Morrison there is no recorded evidence of early human activity at Killingworth. She asserts that this may be due in part to a lack of fieldwork in the area. Subsequent mining, spoil heaps and landscaping disturbed the stratigraphy and damaged or destroyed artifacts.

Documentary evidence for Killingworth starts in 1242 when it is recorded as part of the land held by Roger de Merlay III. There were nine recorded taxpayers in 1296, falling to eight by 1312. In a survey of the township dated 1373 listed sixteen tenements (land holdings).

Division

Other enclosed land was kept as common land; formed Killingworth Moor. The commoners were the owners of land in Killingworth and Longbenton. Prior to enclosure Newcastle races were held on the moor from the early 17th century. Racing eventually transferred to Newcastle Town Moor.

19th century

The 1841 Census recorded a population of 112 spread through 14 dwellings. The village consisted of two rows of cottages on both sides of the road. By the mid-nineteenth century a terrace had appeared, possibly connected with the developing mines in Killingworth and surrounding areas. To the north farms persisted. This pattern of development with 18th and 19th century stone buildings is identifiable today, though with recent infilling.

Originally named Killingworth Township, the latter part was quickly dropped through lack of colloquial use. Killingworth is referred to as 'Killy' by many residents of the town and surrounding areas.

Around 1964, during the reclamation of the derelict pit sites, a lake south of the town centre was created; spoil heaps were leveled, seeded and planted with semi-mature trees. Today, swans, ducks 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 regularly use it.

Killingworth Colliery

right|thumb|[[Dial Cottage]]

left|thumb| Coal wagon, Killingworth

thumb|right|[[Fishbelly rail with half-lap joint, patented by Stephenson 1816]]

Killingworth was home to a number of pits including the world-famous Killingworth Colliery owned by Lord Ravensworth. Ralph Dodds as Chief Viewer managed or trained several people of note during his lifetime including his nephew Isaac Dodds, locomotive engineer George Stephenson, rack railway inventor John Blenkinsop, and Nicholas Wood who was to succeed him as Chief Viewer at Killingworth.

In 1814 George Stephenson, enginewright at the colliery, built his first locomotive Blücher with the help and encouragement of his manager, Nicholas Wood, in the colliery workshop behind his house 'Dial Cottage' on Lime Road. This locomotive could haul of coal up a hill at . It was used to tow coal wagons along the wagonway from Killingworth to the Wallsend coal staithes. Although <I>Blücher</i> did not survive long, it provided Stephenson with the knowledge and experience to build better locomotives for use both at Killingworth and elsewhere. Later he would build the famous Rocket in his locomotive works in Newcastle.

At the same time Stephenson was 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.

The track gauge of the Killingworth tramway was .

Other names were Killingworth Colliery railway, Killingworth Railway and Killingworth wagonway

Housing

The Garth Estates

Killingworth originally consisted of local authority 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-sacs named "Garths" – all numbered, although Garths 1–3 never existed. The numbering 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 adopting patterns such as trees (Laburnum Court, Willow Gardens), birds (Dove Close, Chaffinch Way), Farne Islands (Crumstone Court, Longstone, Megstone), etc.

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 roofs. They renewed fencing, built new brick sheds and relocated roads and pathways.

The lowest remaining numbered Garth is Garth Four in West Bailey and the highest is Garth Thirty-Three in East Bailey aka Hadrian court. The housing estate formally known as Garth 21 was built as a private estate with detached and semi-detached 3 and 4 bed room homes.

Many Local Authority Homes were purchased by the tenants, some of whom still reside in the houses that were built in the 1960s.

Private Estates

In the early 1970s, construction started on two new private estates. One north of East Bailey built by Fisher, called Longmeadows with streets named after the Farne Islands (Knivestone, Goldstone, Crumstone etc.), and the other, on the North side of West Bailey. This estate, called Highfields, was constructed by Greensit & Barrett with its streets named after notable battles Flodden, Agincourt, Stamford, Culloden and Sedgemoor.

The Towers

<gallery class=center>

Image:Killingworth 1970's.jpg| The Towers in the 1970s

Image:Killingworth Towers 1987 (2).jpg| The Towers just prior to demolition in 1987

Image:Killingworth_Towers_1987.jpg| The Towers again just prior to demolition in 1987

</gallery>

The most eye-catching and radical aspect of the township was the 3-tier housing estate called Killingworth Towers – apartment blocks built in the early 1970s.

Schools

Killingworth is home to Bailey Green, Grasmere Academy and Amberley primary schools and George Stephenson High School. In recent years Killingworth moved from a three-tier education system consisting of, First, Middle and High schools, to a two-tier system.

References

  • Killingworth lake
  • Burradon Camperdown
  • Killingworth Mr Brown's / Puffing Billy Fire 1990 Video