Photographs relating to this article, including those in this extract, may be found in Gallery 5.4.3
This area of Prudhoe took its name from the Edge Well, one of the many wells in the area. Old maps show the site of the well as being at the top of Edgewell Road near its junction with Highfield Lane.
The first permanent buildings to be erected on this site appear to be the Miners Cottages on the right hand side going up Edgewell Road. These were built in 1903 with a foundation stone bearing this date being laid by Mrs Emily Liddell of Prudhoe Hall.
On the site where Edgewell Grove stands, there were originally wooden huts built by the Council after World War I for human habitation. Edgewell Avenue and West View were built prior to 1924 while the council houses on Edgewell Road and Milton Grove were built in 1939. The site now occupied by Ottercops and High Shaw was previously three streets of bungalows built prior to 1939, these were Ruskin Street, Tennyson Street and Greener Street. These streets were demolished in 1967/68.
In 1939 a proposal was put forward to build a road from Milton Grove to the Catholic school on South Road but the outbreak of World War II prevented this.
The Gospel Hall, known locally as “Shillings’ Chapel” was opened in 1931. Originally three men, A Shilling, J Herron and J Wallace, began meetings in houses in 1929 for worship. In 1931 they obtained their first public meeting place which was a wooden shop, formerly the Co-op butchers. Due to their efforts the present building was opened.
In 1912 Prudhoe Isolation Hospital, a wooden and red painted corrugated iron building, was in use and situated at the top of Edgewell Bank on the western side. Patients from Prudhoe District could be admitted on payment of 4s.6d per day. The site of the building was used in 1953 for the town’s Coronation Beacon.
However, the Medical Officer of Health was having difficulty in persuading the inhabitants of West Wylam, Prudhoe and Mickley to make more use of the hospital. He said the food was good and ample, and nursing and medical attention was free. He was trying to stress that in a large family it reduced the risk to the rest of the family if the patient went to the Isolation Hospital. Compulsion could be applied but this caused unnecessary cost and friction.
In 1935 Ethel Batey recalls being sent to the hospital with chicken pox. She remembers a wooden building with two wards separated by a passage (the Boys’ ward with 4 beds and the Girls’ ward holding 8 to 10 beds).
Patients were also sent from Prudhoe Hall Hospital. Toys and books were provided for younger children, but Ethel, then aged 11, passed the time by memorising poems since there was nothing there to stimulate older children. The matron and her mother lived at the rear of the building and a small window gave them a view of the girls’ ward.
Edgewell Colliery and Brickworks stood at the top of Edgewell Bank (on the east side) just below Highfield Lane. These are marked on the maps of 1858 and 1899.
At the bottom of Edgewell Bank stands Halfway - so called as the pub there was the halfway point on the route between Gateshead and Hexham. Next to the pub stands a general shop which was once a branch of the Co-op and before that was a grocer’s shop run by the Smithson family.
The first permanent buildings to be erected on this site appear to be the Miners Cottages on the right hand side going up Edgewell Road. These were built in 1903 with a foundation stone bearing this date being laid by Mrs Emily Liddell of Prudhoe Hall.
On the site where Edgewell Grove stands, there were originally wooden huts built by the Council after World War I for human habitation. Edgewell Avenue and West View were built prior to 1924 while the council houses on Edgewell Road and Milton Grove were built in 1939. The site now occupied by Ottercops and High Shaw was previously three streets of bungalows built prior to 1939, these were Ruskin Street, Tennyson Street and Greener Street. These streets were demolished in 1967/68.
In 1939 a proposal was put forward to build a road from Milton Grove to the Catholic school on South Road but the outbreak of World War II prevented this.
The Gospel Hall, known locally as “Shillings’ Chapel” was opened in 1931. Originally three men, A Shilling, J Herron and J Wallace, began meetings in houses in 1929 for worship. In 1931 they obtained their first public meeting place which was a wooden shop, formerly the Co-op butchers. Due to their efforts the present building was opened.
In 1912 Prudhoe Isolation Hospital, a wooden and red painted corrugated iron building, was in use and situated at the top of Edgewell Bank on the western side. Patients from Prudhoe District could be admitted on payment of 4s.6d per day. The site of the building was used in 1953 for the town’s Coronation Beacon.
However, the Medical Officer of Health was having difficulty in persuading the inhabitants of West Wylam, Prudhoe and Mickley to make more use of the hospital. He said the food was good and ample, and nursing and medical attention was free. He was trying to stress that in a large family it reduced the risk to the rest of the family if the patient went to the Isolation Hospital. Compulsion could be applied but this caused unnecessary cost and friction.
In 1935 Ethel Batey recalls being sent to the hospital with chicken pox. She remembers a wooden building with two wards separated by a passage (the Boys’ ward with 4 beds and the Girls’ ward holding 8 to 10 beds).
Patients were also sent from Prudhoe Hall Hospital. Toys and books were provided for younger children, but Ethel, then aged 11, passed the time by memorising poems since there was nothing there to stimulate older children. The matron and her mother lived at the rear of the building and a small window gave them a view of the girls’ ward.
Edgewell Colliery and Brickworks stood at the top of Edgewell Bank (on the east side) just below Highfield Lane. These are marked on the maps of 1858 and 1899.
At the bottom of Edgewell Bank stands Halfway - so called as the pub there was the halfway point on the route between Gateshead and Hexham. Next to the pub stands a general shop which was once a branch of the Co-op and before that was a grocer’s shop run by the Smithson family.