Chopwell is a village in the
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...
district, in the county of
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The county is ...
, 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 to the first Abbot of Newminster.
Newminster Abbey retained possession of the manor until the
dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536.
Traditionally an area of
coal mining
Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
, Chopwell was nicknamed "
Little Moscow" because of the strong support for the
Communist Party. Chopwell counts "Marx Terrace" (after
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
) and "Lenin Terrace" (after
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
) among its street names, and during the
1926 General Strike the
Union Flag
The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags.
It is sometimes a ...
at the council offices was taken down and replaced with the
Soviet flag. Another notable street, site of the former Chopwell Junior School, "Fannybush Road", was renamed "Whittonstall Road" by the local authority in the 1990s after its street sign was repeatedly stolen.
Chopwell has always been a hotbed of football support particularly Sunderland AFC.
In 1974, Chopwell became part of the
metropolitan county
Metropolitan counties are a Subdivisions of England, subdivision of England which were originally used for Local government in England, local government. There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyn ...
of
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The county is ...
and the
metropolitan borough of Gateshead
The Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It includes Gateshead, Rowlands Gill, Whickham, Blaydon, Ryton, Tyne and Wear, Ryton, Felling (UK), Felling, Birtley, Tyne and ...
, after previously being part of the
administrative county
An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until 1973 in Northern Ireland, 2002 in the Republic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern ...
of Durham.
Civil parish
Chopwell was formerly a
township
A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
in the parish of
Winlaton. From 1866, Chopwell was a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in its own right, until on 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished to form
Blaydon parish; in 1931 the population of the parish had been of 9,784.
See also
*
Chopwell Colliery
References
External links
*
Villages in Tyne and Wear
Former civil parishes in Tyne and Wear
Communism in the United Kingdom
Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead
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