Stella
Although
outside the Ryton district, no portrait of the area can exclude Stella.
Stella Staithes was the landing point on the Tyne for Ryton's coal industry.
The track still exists in parts up through Stella's woodland to the Stargate
area and beyond.
The
flat lands below Stella were the site of the power station that dominated
the skyline in the post war years (it was demolished in 1991) as well
as the Blaydon races and the Battle of Newburn.
Early maps will show the river and haughs looking quite different - an
indication of the degree to which man has changed this landscape.
At present Stella consists of an older settlement around the Catholic Church (historically Stella was an important centre of Catholicism) and a newer estate build on the lands of Stella Hall (demolished 1955).
Further east we reach the old settlement of Path Head and the Blaydon Burn, once an area of heavy industrialisation.
