Ponteland

Ponteland (pɒn'tiːlənd ) is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is north of Newcastle upon Tyne. The name means "island in the Pont", after the River Pont which flows from west to east and joins the River Blyth further downstream, before flowing into the North Sea. 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 industrial era, the settlement expanded with the development of Darras Hall. Parts of Ponteland have some of North-East England's most expensive houses; being just outside Newcastle, near the airport and on the edge of rural countryside. The civil parish includes the old village of Ponteland, the Darras Hall estate, and the villages of Kirkley, Medburn, Milbourne and Prestwick. There has been nearly a thousand years of Christian worship in Ponteland. This traditionally concentrated around St Mary's the Virgin, the prominent Church of England church near Ponteland's village green. St Mary's traces its first construction to the Norman period in the twelfth century and is still an active church. Ponteland has parish registries dating from 1602 and has been recorded in Bishops transcripts as an important place of religion since 1762. Christian worship in Ponteland has expanded to other denominations in recent centuries. The Ponteland Methodist Church opened in 1841. An 1848 review appreciated Ponteland also hosted places of worship for Scottish Presbyterians and a Wesleyan chapel. In 1867, an Anglican sister church to St Mary's opened in Milbourne, one of Ponteland's wards. In 1884, a Catholic church was established at St Matthews, now part of the Hexham and Newcastle Catholic diocese. In the twentieth century, a United Reformed Church opened in Darras Hall. In the 13th century, Ponteland narrowly escaped conflict when the Treaty of Newcastle (1244) ensured a last minute peace between Scottish and English forces. The treaty bears the name of Ponteland's nearest city but was actually signed in the village.