Belsay Parish
The civil parish of Belsay is small in terms of population (497 in 2021 census) covering 46.6 sq.km. It was created from a number of small townships in 1955.[1] The name Belsay has had various permutations since 1166 as recorded in old documents, including Bilesho, Belesho, Bellesso, Billesho, Belsou, Beleshowe, Belleshou, Belso, Belshaugh and Belsey. The term is said to have derived from the description of a ‘heel of ground of Bell’.[2] The character of the parish is primarily agricultural with some important heritage and landscape features, contemporary community facilities and attractions that are well-known both locally and nationally. Located within a band of parishes which can be described as being within a transitional landscape between the town of Ponteland to the east, and the rural uplands of north and north-western Northumberland, Belsay parish is an important cultural landscape made up primarily of gently undulating farmland with many local-stone buildings, scattered trees and woodlands and winding small routes leading from the main, formerly Turnpike route (A696). To the south lies Hadrian’s Wall, the A69 corridor between Newcastle and Hexham, and the River Tyne Valley.
The main settlement in the parish (approximately 35 houses) is Belsay village with the smaller settlement of Wallridge, and extended farmsteads and clusters of houses or hamlets at Bolam West Houses, Harnham, West Newham, Black Heddon, Bradford, Gallow-hill, Trewick, Whalton Park/Foulmartlaw, Sandyford, and Bolam Hall.
Endnotes and sources of information:
[1] Newcastle University, Co-curate https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/belsay-civil-parish/
[2] Mawer, A. 1920. The Place-names of Northumberland and Durham. Cambridge, CUP.