Stocksfield is a small

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

situated close to the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...

, about west of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

in the southern part of

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. There are several smaller communities within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Stocksfield, including Branch End, New Ridley, Broomley, Hindley and the Painshawfield Estate. Other villages in Stocksfield's postal district include Bywell, Newton, Mickley, and Hedley on the Hill.

History

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...

, a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

road, passes through the parish to the south of Broomley, and Roman stone was used in the construction of St Andrew's Church in 803 AD. Bywell gained in importance in the 600 years following the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

as a centre of

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...

. It was in the hands of the Barony of Balliol until 1296 when it passed in turn to the Nevilles, the Fenwicks, and finally in 1809 to the Beaumont family. The

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 ...

of "Stokesfeld" was first mentioned in 1242, and was part of Bywell St Andrew's parish. The origins of the name are uncertain, but it may be derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

for "open land belonging to an outlying hamlet". in 1673 Birches Nook was home to Ann Armstrong, a "notorious witch-finder" whose accusations caused a great sensation throughout the county.

Governance

Stocksfield is in the

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

constituency of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

. Joe Morris of the Labour Party is the Member of Parliament. For

Local Government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

purposes it belongs to

Northumberland Council Northumberland County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Northumberland in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having also taken over district-level functions when the county's distric ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. At a local level it is governed by Stocksfield Parish Council. On 11 January 2019 the name of the parish was officially changed from "Broomley and Stocksfield" to Stocksfield, reflecting developments in the area and changes in population over the years.

Demography

In the 2011 census, the median age in Stocksfield and Broomhaugh was 49 years. 98.6 per cent of the population had white ethnicity and 68.8 per cent were Christian. No other religion exceeded 0.3 per cent with 23.9 per cent having no religion.

Transport

;Railway The village is served by the Tyne Valley Line, with trains running to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

. Stocksfield station was opened on 9 March 1835 by the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. Passenger services are operated by Northern, with the line also being used for

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

. ;Road Stocksfield is linked to

and the A1 by the A695 which passes through the village. It is also linked to Leadgate and Stamfordham by the B6309. The A695 and B6309 meet near the railway station. The village is served by the 10 bus service operated by

Go North East Go North East is a bus operator running both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead No ...

running from Hexham (25 minutes away) to Newcastle (1 hour).

Education

Stocksfield has a school, Broomley First School, which is part of the ''Whittonstall and Broomley First Schools Federation''. Stocksfield lies in the catchment area for Ovingham Middle School and Prudhoe High School. Mowden Hall School is a private prep school near Newton, north of the river.

Religious sites

There are four Christian places of worship in Stocksfield: a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Church,

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

Meeting House,

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Church and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Church. Nearby are the twin churches of St Peter's and St Andrew's in Bywell.

Public services

Stocksfield Community Centre is owned and managed by Stocksfield Community Association (formerly SICA) which is a charitable company limited by guarantee. The Association's objectives are to promote the benefit of the all inhabitants of Stocksfield and its neighbourhood, without distinction by associating with local authorities, voluntary organisations and inhabitants in a common effort to advance education and provide facilities, in the interests of social welfare for recreational and leisure time occupation, with the object of improving the conditions of life for residents. The Community Centre is available for hire by local groups and individuals for events, activities, meetings and private functions.

Sports and Recreation

Stocksfield boasts many sporting facilities including a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

club, tennis club,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

club. and a running club known a
Stocksfield Striders
There are also two play areas and a well-utilised Community Centre. In 2012, Stocksfield was one of the official stop off points for the Olympic torch before it made its way to the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Awards

The parish of Broomley and Stocksfield was officially crowned Calor Northumberland Village of the Year in November 2008. The competition is organised annually by Community Action Northumberland (CAN) with sponsorship provided by LPG (

liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

) supplier

Calor Calor may refer to: Science * Heat (Latin: ), in thermodynamics, or the human perception of: ** Thermal energy, in physics and engineering ** Temperature, the manifestation of thermal energy * Heat (Latin: ), one of the cardinal signs of inflamma ...

Photographs of Stocksfield

Bridge over the Tyne at Bywell - geograph.org.uk - 37255.jpg, Sign for the Dr. Syntax - the other side, spot the differences - geograph.org.uk - 1056715.jpg, Foot Bridge and Ford on Batt House Road - geograph.org.uk - 210158.jpg, 1st Tee Stocksfield Golf Course - geograph.org.uk - 1536439.jpg, The Parish Church of St Andrew, Bywell - geograph.org.uk - 416672.jpg, View over Apperley Bank - geograph.org.uk - 98555.jpg,

Notable people

;Born in Stocksfield * Mabel Atkinson (1876–1958), feminist and socialist * Dame Veronica Wedgwood (1910–1997), historian ;Lives (or lived) in Stocksfield * Rodney Atkinson (born 1948), academic and author *

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms ''Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and in the film series '' Johnny English'' (2003– ...

(born 1955), actor and comedianChronicle.co.uk. ''Stocksfield''.
/ref> * Edgar Bainton (1880–1956), composer * Francoise Boufhal (born 1988), actress and model *

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tr ...

(born 1952), ex Dire Straits keyboard player *

Brendan Foster Sir Brendan Foster (born 12 January 1948) is a British former long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser. He founded the Great North Run, one of the sport's most high profile half-marathon races. As an athlete, he wo ...

(born 1948), ex athletics 10,000 m record holder * Frances Hardcastle (1866–1941), mathematician and women's activist * Richard Harpin (born 1964), businessman *

Graeme Lowdon Graeme Paul Lowdon (born 23 April 1965) is a British businessman and entrepreneur. He served as chief executive officer of the Virgin and Marussia Formula One teams. Career Originally from Corbridge, Lowdon grew up in Stocksfield. He gained ...

(born 1965), businessman and entrepreneur * Alan Milburn (born 1958), politician * Chris Paisley (born 1986), professional golfer * Sir Richard Pease, 3rd Baronet (born 1922), banker * Ethel Williams (1863–1948), physician and suffragist

References

{{authority control Villages in Northumberland