The Changing Face Of Battle Hill
Battle Hill in Wallsend has undergone massive changes in the last few years, with the demolition of the old shopping centre (as shown below) and the building of a brand new shopping center situated on the opposite side of Battle Hill Drive, where the old Battle Hill flats once stood.
Lets hope the vandals are being targeted by the “right people” as the success of the new Battle hill shopping complex will in part depend on the visits of many potential customers from the Holy Cross.
We will of course keep this page updated when more “significant” improvements have been made.
The slideshow below (photos below that) takes you on a short tour of the small church and the entrance to the well maintained grounds.
We start the slideshow with pictures of the only entrance to Battle Hill from the Holy Cross part of Wallsend which is a underpath under the coast road, which it seems is frequented by vandals and obviously rubbish graffiti “artists”.
Yes .. help yourself for use on your personal blog, but please give us a shout out for the use of 🙂
( personal web/blog use only, businesses should do the right thing 🙂 )
Where Is Battle Hill?
Battle Hill is to the north of Wallsend town centre & stretches from the 1058 coast road through to the Rising Sun country park.
As the name suggests it is built at the highest point of Wallsend, however the only other link we can find, which gives us a hint as to why it is called Battle Hill is that there was once a field appropriately enough called “Battle Hill Field”.
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I wonder if there was a battle there in roman times or somthing and that’s were the battle bit comes from
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When I looked into it all could find was reference to an old farm which was named battle hill, but it is at a high point in Wallsend so your theory could have merit.
I just watched a random piece of BBC archive footage from 1975 interviewing some residents who lived in a plasterboard constructed block of flats in Battle Hill. It’s so interesting reading all the articles above! 🙂 . Thanks, Sue
I don’t know if I can join this thread now – am writing on March 27th 2020, and from the distance of New Haven CT USA {I teach at Yale UNiversity in the States] – but I’ll try. My name is Paul Kennedy [or Paul M Kennedy], author of many history books, including THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS [google], but I was born in Willington Quay in June 1945 and grew up close to Battle Hill [and farm] for many years, went to the St Aidan’s Primary/SEcondary Catholic schools, then St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle, then UNiversity of Newcastle [BA History 1966], then south, to a D.Phil/doctorate at Oxford in 1970, then an academic career..
I lived in Ravensworh STreet [going down to Wallsend Slipway] til 11, then Greenside Avenue from 11 til 21, then to the south.. When I was a lad my parents used to take us for walks every Sunday afternoon, up Churchill Street, a cross the [1930s-built] Coast Road, and into the countryside; there was nothing but old [pre-Stephenson] trolleyway-tracks, the Battle Hill Farm, and the water meres.. great for birders [or shooters], or dodgy “pitch-and-toss” gambing groups in an age before betting shops were legalised. Later I went walking and birds-egg-collecting on my own or with another couple of boys. We disappeared for hours at a time, came back all scratched from the hawthorns, and our parents didn’t seem to mind [girls were differently treated..] I say all this because I have a distinct memory of the field in which horses grazed just to the south-east of the Farm [ie towards the top of Churchill Street] having a very distinct mound or hump to it, and being told that that was indeed the “Battle Hill”, though in fact a small hummock, albeit from the top of it you could look a long way south, over the Tyne cranes..and if you were in a fight with the Vikings best to be standing on it, I thought… Later on, when doing an A-level Geography special paper at St Cuthberts, I wrote on the old railway-lines and trolley-ways of the area [using especially Richardson’s marvellous classic HISTORY OF WALLSEND maps… and my memory was that both the 1801 {?] and 1901 [or 1920] updated Ordnance Survey maps of the Battle Hill Farm area had something like “Battle Hill” [site of battle between Northumbrians and Danes, c. 845a.d.]
Is that a total fancy on my part? I still tease my Scandanavian friends today that they owe me some post-imperial reparations monies.. though it’s possible that the locals won. Nobody could defeat those 1970s town planners, though.
Paul.Kennedy@yale.edu
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Sounds feasible to me .. get that claim in man 😛
Could Battle Hill be named after “Battle Hill Farm”? In the 1920’s, my great-grandmother in New Zealand asked a friend to find the property where her parents had lived in the 1860’s – “Willington North Farm”. The friend sent a letter about her visit to the farm to my great-grandmother – the letter is not dated or signed.
Mrs Bowran, the wife of William Bowran who was the occupier, said: “All income tax and rate papers come to us addressed North Farm, but locally it is known as Battle Hill Farm.”
The land of the West Farm was joined to the land of the North Farm, to become Battle Hill Farm, 310 acres. The farm was close to Willington Stables.
I have stumbled on this by accident. My great grandfather and grandfather farmed here my dad was also born at battle hill farm. I’m a Bowran.
We were the second family to move to battle hill back in 68 my late dad ( Jimmy bryden) worked for bellway homes and bought the house he was working on? Me and my brothers had a fantastic childhood there never far from the “tallers” and the glass tower happy days
Can anybody tell me who opened Battle Hill Shopping Centre ? For some reason I thought it was Malcolm MacDonald or did he just visit it.I think I can remember being there but not sure as I would of been about 7 years old
Battle hill is lifting !!
yes Battle hill is a lifting and delightfull place, a credit to the folk who live in the estate
Hi, can anyone tell me the name of the large club situated near the battle hill estate area, that had great entertainment during the 1970s/80s? I believe it was called something on the lines of Percy Maine/Waynes…have some wonderful memories of the place and people…
Author
Hi Peter
Maybe you are talking about Battle Hill Social Club which was behind the Emperor Hadrian?
Hi the name Battle Hill Estate came from the old mining company when the council bought the land the mining company ask if the name could be kept thats why its called battle Hill Estate and has nothing to do with a Battle or the farm, how do I know this because battle Hill Primary school has done a timeline of the history of Battle Hill and I have seen the actual document which I believe has the sale info of the sale.
People will say know I am wrong but I have seen the evidence to prove that Battle Hill Estate is named after the old mining company that owned the land.
Bottle house? Is that a house made of bottles, in the shape of a bottle or did it make bottles?
Author
I think it is probably because thatch for the cottage roofs was/is usually tied tightly in bundles what used to be/still are called “bottles”. But i look forward to being corrected 🙂
As it happens battle hill is named because it was an old settlement of thatched bottle houses and not because of a battle as so many assume. Originally called bottle hill , other settlements similar include walbottle and shilbottle however spelling has been lost over time,(quite common in those times)
Author
Brilliant. 🙂 thanks for the info Darren
What is the history of Battle Hill and why did it get its name?
Hi the name Battle Hill Estate came from the old mining company when the council bought the land the mining company ask if the name could be kept thats why its called battle Hill Estate and has nothing to do with a Battle or the farm, how do I know this because battle Hill Primary school has done a timeline of the history of Battle Hill and I have seen the actual document which I believe has the sale info of the sale.
People will say know I am wrong but I have seen the evidence to prove that Battle Hill Estate is named after the old mining company that owned the land.