Hedley on the Hill is a village in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

, west of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. It is located between the valley of the River Derwent, and the watershed to the River Tyne. Despite being close to a major city, Hedley is typically Northumbrian and rural in character. Situated close to the villages of

Stocksfield Stocksfield is a small, yet sprawling commuter village situated close to the River Tyne, about west of Newcastle upon Tyne in the southern part of Northumberland, England. There are several smaller communities within the parish of Stocksfie ...

and

Chopwell Chopwell is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, west of Rowlands Gill and north of Hamsterley. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 9,395. In 1150, Bishop Pudsey granted the Manor of Chopwell ...

as well as to the rural market town of Hexham it is a small village with views across the Tyne valley.

History

Hedley appears to have escaped rather unscathed in the wars between England and Scotland that occurred before the union. There are no records of any battles in the area. Similarly, there is no record of any activity involving border

reivers Border reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border ...

(tribal leaders and outlaws that fought across the Scottish/English border) in the village. This has enabled it to develop in relative isolation, with mining and quarrying being the prominent industries since the eighteenth century. Hedley on the Hill is also close to Hadrian's Wall a World Heritage Site and located in the far south of "Hadrian's Wall Country". The village is said to have once been home to a

bogle A bogle, boggle, or bogill is a Northumbrian''Rambles in Northumberland, and on the Scottish border ...'' by William Andrew Chatto, Chapman and Hall, 1835 and Scots term for a ghost or folkloric being,''The local historian's table book, of r ...

known as The Hedley Kow.

Culture

The village holds numerous events including the annual barrel race in which contestants, usually in pairs, run up the hill to the pub with a barrel of beer. The barrel race is run every bank holiday Monday, and organised by The Feathers Inn. Competitors carry an empty nine-gallon beer barrel, over a 1.5-mile course. The Feathers Inn in Hedley-on-the-Hill was named the Great British Pub of the Year 2011. It is also popular with gliding enthusiasts, being the closest village to the Northumbria Gliding Club in Leadgate.

Governance

Hedley is in the

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

constituency of Hexham.

References

External links

Brief summary of the village, from the official page of "Hadrian's Wall Country"

Cumberland News , Easter offers a barrel of laughs

Northumbria Gliding Club
Villages in Northumberland {{Northumberland-geo-stub