Stella, Gateshead

In the 12th century the Bishop of Durham, William of St. Barbara, granted Stellinglei to the nuns of Newcastle, and it remained the property of the nunnery until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Around 1600 the land was granted to the Tempest family, who built a mansion called Stella Hall, overlooking the river.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Image: Demolition of Stella Hall, 1955 |url=http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.php?t=objects&type=browse&f=PLACE_MADE&s=Stella&record=4 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070319172523/http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.php?t=objects&type=browse&f=PLACE_MADE&s=Stella&record=4 |archive-date=19 March 2007 |website=iSee Gateshead |publisher=Gateshead Council |via=Internet Archive}}

In the 1840s there was a coal pit, and there were makers of coal wagons, railway rolling stock and fire bricks. The Addison mine was opened at Stella in 1864, and in 1894 coal was processed in 180 coke ovens on the site.{{Cite web |title=Addison Colliery |url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/a001.htm |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Durham Mining Museum}} The Stella Coal Company owned several more mines in the neighbouring Ryton and Blaydon areas.{{Cite web |title=Stella Coal Co. |url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/company/s042.htm |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Durham Mining Museum}}{{Cite web |title=1951 Durham Map 20 |url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/maps/1951d20.htm |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Durham Mining Museum}} Mining continued into the 20th century; the Stella Coal Company Ltd entered voluntary liquidation in 1954{{London Gazette

| issue = 40093

| date = 5 February 1954

| page = 806

}} and the final seams in the area were abandoned in 1963.

William Burn's book (1896) describes Stella thus: "It is straggling in appearance, and several of the houses are old and thatched. Nearly the whole of the land is in the possession of the Townley family."{{cite book |last=Bourn |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/historyparishry00whicgoog/page/n81/mode/1up |title=History of the Parish of Ryton |publisher=G & T Coward |year=1896 |location=Carlisle |page=63}}

There is an 18th-century watermill at Path Head, on the Stella bank of the Blaydon Burn, which was restored in the late 20th century as a visitor attraction.{{Cite web |title=Path Head Water Mill |url=https://pathheadwatermill.org/ |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=}}

The Roman Catholic church of St Mary and St Thomas Aquinas, with adjoining presbytery, was built in 1831–1832 to designs of John Green and enlarged in 1848–1849 to designs of John Dobson.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1355082|desc=Church of St. Mary and St. Thomas Aquinas and presbytery adjoining|access-date=25 December 2023}} For the Church of England, a district was created in 1845 from parts of Ryton and Winlaton parishes, those parishes being said to have a large population.{{London Gazette

| issue = 20495

| date = 8 August 1845

| pages = 2381–2383

}} In the same year a church dedicated to St Cuthbert was completed in the south-east of the district, to which was added a chancel in 1862 and a tower in 1869.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1355120|desc=Church of St Cuthbert|access-date=25 December 2023|fewer-links=yes}} Today the church is within the Blaydon built-up area and its parish takes in all of Blaydon.{{Cite web |title=St Cuthbert, Blaydon |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/13679/ |access-date=25 December 2023 |website=A Church Near You |publisher=The Archbishops' Council}}

Stella was anciently a township in Ryton parish within County Durham,{{Cite web |title=Stella, County Durham |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/4285 |access-date=27 December 2023 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=University of Portsmouth}} and was made a separate civil parish in 1866.{{Cite web |title=Stella CP/Tn |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10144760 |access-date=27 December 2023 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=University of Portsmouth}} The Blaydon Burn was the eastern boundary of the parish, separating Stella from Winlaton parish (which at that time included a small settlement at Blaydon).{{Cite web |date=1898 |title=Ordnance Survey index map showing parishes: Durham and Northumberland |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/242859999 |access-date=29 December 2023 |website=National Library of Scotland}}

When Blaydon Urban District was created in 1894, its area included Stella.{{Cite web |title=Blaydon UD |url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10074551 |access-date=27 December 2023 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=University of Portsmouth}} The parish was abolished on 1 April 1937 as part of the formation of Blaydon parish; the population of Stella parish had been 642 in 1931. Changes to local government in 1974 saw Blaydon parish and urban district abolished and replaced by an unparished area, at first within Tyne and Wear, then from 1986 within the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

Stella is part of Ryton, Crookhill and Stella ward, which elects three members of Gateshead Council.{{Cite web |date=2023-12-27 |title=Councillors by Ward |url=https://gateshead.moderngov.co.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0 |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=Gateshead Council |language=en}} For national government elections it is part of Blaydon constituency.{{Cite web |title=Election Maps: Great Britain |url=https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/election-maps/gb/ |access-date=27 December 2023 |website= |publisher=Ordnance Survey}}

In 1640 during the Battle of Newburn Ford, Lord Conway had his headquarters at Stella Hall.{{Cite web |date= |title=Stella Hall |url=https://www.twsitelines.info/SMR/1694 |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record:1694 |publisher=Newcastle City Council |language=en}}

In the early 18th century, Jane Tempest married William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington, who had the south front largely remodelled. In 1792, it was inherited by John Towneley, whose mother was Mary, daughter of the 3rd Baron Widdrington. Its descent then followed that of the main Towneley Park estate near Burnley, Lancashire, to John's son Peregrine Towneley, and was recorded as a property of 281 acres belonging to him in 1848.{{cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp200-205 |title=A Topographical Dictionary of England |publisher= |year=1848 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=Samuel |page=200 |via=British History Online}} Members of the Towneley family were involved in coal mining: the Emma{{Cite web |title=Emma Colliery |url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/e009.htm |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Durham Mining Museum}} and Stargate{{Cite web |title=Stargate Colliery |url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/s011.htm |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Durham Mining Museum}} collieries, east of Stella, carried their name and the Towneley seam lay at a depth of {{Convert|315|ft}}.{{Cite web |title=Emma Colliery Shaft Details |url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/shafts/e009-01.htm |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Durham Mining Museum}}

The Hall was later the home of the industrialist and MP Joseph Cowen, and is believed to have been purchased by his father, the newspaper and coal millionaire Sir Joseph Cowen, around 1850. However, in 1878, on the death of Peregrine's son, also called John Towneley, 2,826 acres, probably formerly part of this estate, was distributed between his daughters.[http://www.towneley.org.uk/downloads/TTv4_web.pdf Tracing the Towneleys] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313172005/http://www.towneley.org.uk/downloads/TTv4_web.pdf |date=2012-03-13 }} at towneley.org.uk, accessed 2010

The Hall remained in the Cowen family until its last member's death, Jane Cowen, in 1948.{{Cite web |last= |date=2018-04-05 |title=The Blaydon Brick: Joseph Cowen |url=https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2018/04/05/the-blaydon-brick-joseph-cowen/ |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Newcastle University Library: Special Collections}}[https://www.newmp.org.uk/article.php?categoryid=100&articleid=1247&displayorder=24 Death of Miss Jane Cowen, aged 91]. North East War Memorials Project. 4th March 1948. It was briefly owned by the University of Durham before the house and grounds were sold to a speculative housebuilder; the house was demolished in 1955. The only remaining part of the Hall is now known as the Grade II-listed Stella Hall Cottage: a two-storey former gardener's cottage from the late 18th century, on Stella Road near Widdrington Terrace.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1299906|desc=Stella Hall Cottage|access-date=25 December 2023|fewer-links=yes}}

• Stella power stations

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120513021806/http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/info.php?page=0&v=1&s=stella&type=all&t=objects&f=&d= Images of Stella and Stella Hall held by Gateshead Council], archived in 2012
• [http://www.stellachurch.co.uk/ Ss Mary & Thomas Aquinas Church, Stella]

Category:Former civil parishes in Tyne and Wear

Category:Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead

Category:Villages in Tyne and Wear