Where is Ryton?
Our Ryton (and
there are others) is on the south bank of the Tyne, fifteen miles upstream
from the river's mouth.
Traditionally it was in County Durham's north-west corner on the border with
Northumberland. Latterly it has become part of the Borough of Gateshead.
The ancient parish
of Ryton was four times as large as at present, extending as far as Crawcrook
to the west, Blaydon to the east and Chopwell to the south.
Most local use of the term Ryton, apart from the old village, refers to the
area administered from 1863 to 1974 by the Local Board and then the Ryton
Urban District Council. This is why most residents of Crawcrook, Greenside
and Clara Vale are quite happy to consider themselves Rytonians.
For our purposes,
Ryton (as opposed to Crawcrook), is taken to be the old Village and immediate
surroundings. Ryton district (the focus of this survey), is taken to be the
area covered by the UDC, plus the adjoining area of Stella.
This is approximately the area mined by the Stella Coal Company whose influence
as much as any helped shape Ryton's present Landscape and Settlement.
Click
here for a brief profile
of the Ryton area.
Who's written it?
Members of the Ryton and District Local History Society, a group that has been providing speakers and publishing information on Ryton history since 1977.
Why?
To reach the new audience of web users and to help Rytonians and others understand how this area became what it is today.
Who's supporting it?
Our work is part
of the Tomorrow's History Project.
This was set up by the North
East Museums Libraries and Archives Council with Heritage Lottery
funding.
It's aims have been to encourage local community groups such as ours to digitise
and provide access to local history resources.
What sort of site is this?
"Ryton-on-Tyne"
is a brief web-based profile of the area and it's roots.
It's visual, light on text and it does not pretend to be a full historical
survey.
Where we can we have tried to suggest "further reading" and we hope
in the future to link in further useful detail ourselves .
Please do bear with us: some links may not work immediately as we are developing
our work all the time.
How's it arranged?
There are two
main approaches to this site.
Use the photo-collage on the home page to find out about each the eight settlements/villages
in the Ryton area.
Alternately click on the "Topics" button for information on say
"Coal-mining" or "Housing".
General information on topics is linked to village sites and vice versa.
Can you help?
The
Society is always interested in comment?
Do you have any photographs of old Ryton?
Is any of our information incorrect?
Can you add to it? (We don't pretend to know it all!)
Ryton
Local History Society
C/O Ryton Library
Grange Road
Ryton NE40 3LT
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