Ovingham
Ovingham is a parish and village which lies on the River Tyne 10 miles east of Hexham. The modern parish covers an area of approximately three square kilometres on a terrace above the north bank of the river. The underlying geology of the parish is limestone.
The name Ovingham is Saxon, and means ‘homestead of the sons of Offa’, but the area we now call Ovingham was home to people many centuries before it was given this name.
In 1294, Gilbert de Umfraville founded the annual Goose Fair, which is still held today.
During the 18th century, a pack-horse bridge was built across the Whittle Dean stream. It carried the main road from Newcastle to Carlisle. There was once a tollbooth somewhere in Ovingham, although the exact position of this building is not known.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Ovingham had a bleach works and a dye works. The chimney of the bleach works still stands at the east end of the village.
The illustrator Thomas Bewick (1758-1828) is buried in the churchyard at Ovingham. He went to school at the vicarage in the village. Although he is best known for his illustrations of wildlife, some of Bewick’s illustrations show daily life in the village in the late 18th century. This includes dye workers and boys playing in the churchyard.
A village school was established in 1816. The school and the adjacent master's house were paid for by public subscription on land donated by the Duke of Northumberland. The original school building is now used by the village scouts.
A cast-iron bridge, linking Ovingham with Prudhoe, was built across the Tyne in 1883. It replaced a ford, and was built after a young Ovingham miner was drowned crossing the river on his way to work. The steel tubes are marked Dorman Long Middlesbrough, the firm which designed and built the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Tyne Bridge. It was joined by a footbridge built alongside in 1974.
Description harvested from Keys To The Past and Ovingham - Wikipedia
See my photos of Ovingham - St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church and The River Tyne: Wylam to Ovingham which is part 4 of my Walking the River Tyne Westwards Project.
Old Photos Of Ovingham
Landscape view of church and churchyard.View from the southeast.
Image from November 1967.
©SINE Project
Landscape photograph of Ovingham 'Packhorse Bridge'.View from the southwest.
Image from July 1985.
©SINE Project
Landscape photo of Ovingham 'Packhorse Bridge'.View from the southeast.
Image from July 1985.
©SINE Project
Landscape photograph of Ovingham (Tyne) Bridge.View from the south.
Image from July 1985.
©SINE Project
Landscape photograph looking along the length of the two bridges which make up Ovingham (Tyne) Bridge.Image from July 1985.
©SINE Project
More information:
- Bridges On The Tyne's page on Ovingham Bridges
- Wikipedia - Ovingham Bridge
- Northumberland Communities - Ovingham
- National Gazetteer (1868) - Ovingham
- Ovingham Parish Council website
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5 comments:
Thank you for all the wonderful photographs on your site, especially the ones of Ovingham. We spent many a summer staying in what would now be called a chalet but in those days was just a fancy wooden hut. Days spent by the river fishing for tiddlers or off through the woods looking at the wild life. Happy days!
You are most welcome.
Ovingham is the most beautiful place to spend some time, lucky you. :)
It is probably more than 15 years since I last visited Ovingham and it looks just the same! my family had one of those "chalets" as well, and I have very fond memories of sitting on the bridge with my sister and my cousins drinking lemonade and eating crisps while our parents were in the Bridge End Inn!
I was born there and lived there for 35 years untill I moved to Alberta Canada.Loved looking at your photos and now thinking of many happy time's.
Thank you :)
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