Maddie Swan
The majority of us have lived in Cramlington our whole lives and while some may find it ideal to live here for the rest of their lives, others may be planning their escape from this boring town at their first opportunity. So, what would convince anyone to move here? As much as we love Manor Walks and the VUE, they weren’t always here; so how did Cramlington go from a quaint village to a populous town?
The first record of the Manor of Cramlington was in 1135 from a mention of when the land was granted to a 'Nicholas de Grenville'. The rural village, with several farms, was built around the Manor House and the parish church of St Nicholas was built in 1865. John the Clerk of Cramlington, whose name you may recognise from our beloved Weatherspoons, was the earliest of registered chaplains. A key part of Cramlington’s history is its coal mines - through the 19th century, mining began to change the once rural area of Cramlington. In January 1963, the Minister of Housing and Local Government approved the plan to build what was hoped to be “Britain’s first enterprise town.” This town would have an estimated population of 48,000 people and the cost of the build was predicted to be £60 million. In 1964, the once small town was proclaimed as ‘New Town’ where developers such as J.T Bell and William Leech developed estates now known as Beaconhill, Collingwood, Eastfield, Mayfield, Shankhouse, Southfield, and Whitelea.
To understand why Cramlington became a popular town I asked my grandparents why they originally moved here. They replied, “We were both born in Newcastle West End and have never felt the need to move away from the North East. We were lucky to have family support while we both worked full time. When we [got] married we moved to Cramlington - as did a number of young couples as it was the area in which we could afford. A very different place to today’s Cramlington. The new town was very much in its early stages, manor walks was half the size - no Asda, Sainsburys. Not even Greggs or McDonalds. Instead we had Prestos which you will not have heard of. Bus services were limited and there was no A1 so Cramlington felt as if it was miles away from Newcastle. It offers us everything we look for; coast, country, a number of good theatres, restaurants and of course our family and friends.”
Today our town has many landmarks for us to enjoy. We have everyone’s favourite leisure centre, Concordia, which was opened in 1977 by none other than Queen Elizabeth II herself. We also have Northumberlandia which was officially opened in 2012 by Princess Anne and took £3 million pounds to build. It also took 1.5 millions tons of mine waste to build the 400 metre long sculpture, which was donated from the Shotton Surface Mine. Plessey Woods Country Park, a dog walker staple, as well as Nelson Hill and of course the Giant Spoon are all other iconic landmarks around Cramlington we all know and love.
Whether you love shopping, keeping fit or walking around Northumberlandia’s curves, there’s something in Cramlington that you can enjoy. Maybe the next time we go to complain about our little town, we can look around and find the beauty in the boring.
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