Interesting Facts About Cramlington

Cramlington is often described as a 1960s new town, but there was a village here for centuries before the housing estates arrived, and a coalfield before that. These are fifteen facts about the town, from the Middle Ages to the present day. We have given the source for each one, and where sources disagree, we say so.

Village, chapel and coal

1. There was a chapel here by 1270. Northumberland County Council's community history of Cramlington records a chapel in the village by 1270, long before the coal industry or the new town. (Northumberland County Council)

2. The miners paid for the church clock. St Nicholas' Church was built in 1868 by the Newcastle architects Austin and Johnson, adapting an earlier design by John Dobson, and is Grade II listed. Its tower clock followed in 1873 at a cost of £1,000, paid for by the workmen of Cramlington Colliery. (Historic England list entry 1371416; Northumberland County Council)

3. Coal multiplied the population tenfold in 30 years. The chapelry had 330 people in 1821 and 3,367 by 1851, as new pits opened. (Co-Curate, Newcastle University)

4. Several pits had women's names. Around 1900 the Cramlington Coal Company was working pits including the Betsey, and nearby Shankhouse had the Amelia Pit. In 1930 Cramlington Pit employed 509 men underground and 180 on the surface. (Northumberland County Council)

5. Cramlington coal had its own railway to the Tyne. The Cramlington Colliery waggonway opened in 1823 to carry coal to the Cramlington Staiths at Northumberland Dock on the Tyne. It was later extended to Shankhouse in 1847, Dudley in 1854 and East Hartford in 1866. (Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record 1056)

6. The station is older than the town centre by more than a century. Cramlington station opened in 1847 on the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, now the East Coast Main Line. (RAILSCOT)

Best for: Every one of these coal-era facts predates the new town by at least a century.

Strikes, airships and aeroplanes

7. Cramlington miners derailed the Flying Scotsman. On 10 May 1926, during the General Strike, striking miners removed a rail from the main line near Cramlington, derailing the Flying Scotsman express from Edinburgh. The engine that day was "Merry Hampton", not the famous locomotive now in the National Railway Museum. Eight miners, who became known as the Cramlington Train Wreckers, were jailed for a combined 48 years. Most accounts report only minor injuries. (People's History Museum; South Tyneside Council)

8. The North East's first Royal Flying Corps station was at Cramlington. It opened in late 1915 to defend the region against Zeppelin raids. Sources differ on the exact date, giving either 24 November or 1 December. From 1925 to 1935 the airfield was home to the Newcastle Aero Club, which then moved to Woolsington, the site of today's Newcastle International Airport. (North East Land, Sea and Air Museums)

The new town

9. It is a new town, but not a government one. Northumberland County Council chose Cramlington in 1964 as the site of a new township. Unlike Washington or Peterlee, it had no government development corporation: private housebuilders, among them William Leech and J T Bell, built most of the estates. (Northumberland County Council; Wikipedia, citing CIHT and Hansard)

10. The Queen opened the leisure centre. Concordia Leisure Centre opened to the public in March 1977. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh officially opened it on 16 July 1977, during her Silver Jubilee tour. (Sports and Leisure Legacy)

11. Around 29,000 people live here. At the 2021 Census the Cramlington built-up area had a population of 28,845. The town council's parish covers a slightly larger area and had 29,285. (ONS, Census 2021 built-up areas)

The Lady of the North

12. Northumberlandia is the world's largest human landform. Visit Northumberland describes Northumberlandia, the reclining female figure designed by the landscape artist Charles Jencks, as the world's largest human landform. She is about 400 metres long and 34 metres high. (Visit Northumberland)

13. She is made of a mine's spoil. The figure was built by the Banks Group from about 1.5 million tonnes of rock and clay excavated at the neighbouring Shotton surface mine, on land belonging to the Blagdon Estate. Accounts of the cost vary between £2.5 million and £3 million. (Wikipedia, citing BBC News)

14. A princess opened her. The Princess Royal officially opened Northumberlandia on 29 August 2012, and the park opened fully to the public on 20 October 2012. It is now cared for by Northumberland Wildlife Trust. (Wikipedia, citing BBC News)

Best for: Paths run over and around the figure, so you can walk up to her head.

Modern Cramlington

15. A first for emergency care. The Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital opened in Cramlington on 16 June 2015 at a cost of £75 million. NHS England described it as the first purpose-built specialist emergency care hospital in England. (NHS England; ITV Tyne Tees)

And one more: Cramlington Learning Village, with more than 2,000 pupils, is being rebuilt under a £50 million Department for Education contract with Bowmer + Kirkland, replacing nine ageing buildings. (Construction Enquirer)

Further reading

For the story in more depth, see our Cramlington history page and the guide to historic churches in Cramlington. To see Northumberlandia for yourself, our guide to things to do in Cramlington has visiting details. For more on the aerodrome and the pits, see our guide to the lost buildings of Cramlington, and for the Zeppelin raids and the men on the war memorial, read Cramlington in the World Wars.