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Widdrington Station and Stobswood is a civil parish in the county of Northumberland, England. It has 2,767 residents (as at 2011)[1] and is 5.8 miles (9.3 km) NNE of Morpeth.[2] It includes the settlements of Widdrington Station and Stobswood.

Widdrington Station and Stobswood
Widdrington Station and Stobswood Location within Northumberland
Population	2,767 (2011 census)[1]
OS grid reference	NZ245941
Civil parish	Widdrington Station and Stobswood
Shire county	Northumberland
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MORPETH
Postcode district	NE61
Dialling code	01670
Police	Northumbria
Fire	Northumberland
Ambulance	North East
UK Parliament	Berwick upon Tweed
List of places UK England Northumberland 55.2408°N 1.6138°W / 55.2408; -1.6138

History

Etymology

As the name suggests, Widdrington Station has a railway station. This is on the East Coast Main Line.

Landmarks

Widdrington Station has four food premises including The Junction restaurant and Sidings Bar which includes in its menu items a traditional speciality dish that is local to the region, beer battered black pudding.[3] The village has its own library, medical centre and a modern mini-supermarket, which is a Co-op.

Geography

The soil is a strong clay, producing fine crops of wheat and beans,[4] and the surface is generally level, rising more steeply to 70 metres (230 ft) AOD to the far west of the parish and with a gentle elevation towards the old village, which commands extensive views in every direction, and the area around which formerly abounded in wood. On the horizon from here is the sea. Fields are extensively farmed, some of which are pasture, and there are remains to the west of a quarry of freestone, active in 1848.[5] The population is spread over a large area with a density of approximately 0.7 persons per hectare which is average across the entire region.[1]

Education

Widdrington's educational provision includes a state-assisted first school, voluntary controlled by the local Church of England ecclesiastical parish, supported by the Diocese.[6]

Localities

Stobswood

Included in the parish name and boundaries is the neighbourhood of Stobswood, 300 metres (980 ft) north-west, across the green buffer of Grange Wood. Stobswood has a population of around 120.^{[citation needed]} The majority of the housing in Stobswood was built in support of the railway and the defunct brickworks that previously operated just to the east of the railway line. Stobswood Miners Welfare is the local pub for Stobswood, which hosts one Saturday football team, Stobswood A.F.C. It also hosts 2 Senior Cricket teams, playing in the Northumberland & Tyneside Cricket League.

Local Government

Widdrington Station and Stobswood lie within the Ulgham ward of the county-wide unitary county, Northumberland. Its county councillor is Cllr David J. Towns (Conservative) and the villages fall within the Druridge Bay Community Forum and the Northern Area Committee jurisdictions of the Council.

Transport

Roads

2 miles (3.2 km) west of the station at the village centre is the A1, at a higher elevation throughout, and 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the station is the A1068 about one third of the distance between Druridge Bay and the village centre. Both are north–south routes, with the dualled route heading north being the A1.

Trains

A morning and evening train stops in each direction allowing commuting if working relatively long days to Morpeth or Newcastle with a journey time respectively of: 9 minutes and 31–35 minutes. [7]

Buses

An express bus route, the X18 connects to the town centres of Newcastle, Morpeth to the south via the village to four to the north: Amble, Walkworth, Alnmouth, Alnwick.

Other bus routes are the:

• 20/X20, from Ashington and Lynemouth via the village to four northern towns mentioned.
• 1 which starts here and connects nearby Cresswell on Druridge Bay, then continuing to the coastal town of Blyth, via Ashington.

All three are operated by Arriva.[8]

See also

• Woodhorn
• Druridge Bay
• Ulgham
• James Bulmer Johnson - local resident who won the Victoria Cross

References

External links

• General description Morpeth Today
• Local Plan Northumbria County Council
• grid reference NZ247939 for Widdrington Station
• grid reference NZ238944 for Stobswood
• GENUKI local and family history (accessed: 10 November 2008)
• Northumberland Communities (accessed: 10 November 2008)

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