Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It lies within the historic county of Northumberland.
Killingworth was built as a new town in the 1960s, next to Killingworth Village, which existed for centuries before the new town was built. Other nearby villages include Forest Hall, West Moor and Backworth.
Killingworth has bus links to the rest of Tyne and Wear. The town is not on the Tyne and Wear Metro network; its nearest stations are Palmersville and Benton.
The town of Killingworth in Australia is named after the British original because of its extensive coal mines.
Culture
Killingworth was used as a filming location for the 1973 BBC sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, with one of the houses on Agincourt on the Highfields estate featuring as the home of Bob and Thelma Ferris.
In an episode of the architecture series Grundy's Wonders on Tyne Tees, John Grundy deemed Killingworth's former British Gas Research Centre to be the best industrial building in the North East.
The Doctor Who episode titled "The Mark of the Rani" depicted Killingworth in the 19th century, with the Sixth Doctor in search of George Stephenson, after the Doctor's archenemy The Master attempts to hijack the Industrial Revolution. Filming of the episode took place in the 19th-century mining village at Blists Hill Open Air Museum in Ironbridge, however.
History
Medieval
According to Jennifer Morrison there is no recorded evidence of early human activity at Killingworth. She asserts that this may be due in part to a lack of fieldwork in the area. Subsequent mining, spoil heaps and landscaping disturbed the stratigraphy and damaged or destroyed artifacts.
Documentary evidence for Killingworth starts in 1242 when it is recorded as part of the land held by Roger de Merlay III. There were nine recorded taxpayers in 1296, falling to eight by 1312. In a survey of the township dated 1373 listed sixteen tenements (land holdings).
Division
Other enclosed land was kept as common land; formed Killingworth Moor. The commoners were the owners of land in Killingworth and Longbenton. Prior to enclosure Newcastle races were held on the moor from the early 17th century. Racing eventually transferred to Newcastle Town Moor.
19th century
The 1841 Census recorded a population of 112 spread through 14 dwellings. The village consisted of two rows of cottages on both sides of the road. By the mid-nineteenth century a terrace had appeared, possibly connected with the developing mines in Killingworth and surrounding areas. To the north farms persisted. This pattern of development with 18th and 19th century stone buildings is identifiable today, though with recent infilling.
New town
Construction of Killingworth, a new town, began in 1963. Intended for 20,000 people, it was a former mining community, formed on of derelict colliery land near Killingworth Village. The building of Killingworth Township was undertaken by Northumberland County Council and was not formally a 'New Town' sponsored by the Government. Unlike that town, Killingworth's planners adopted a radical approach to town centre design, resulting in relatively high-rise buildings in an avant-garde and brutalist style that won awards for architecture, dynamic industry and attractive environment.
This new town centre consisted of pre-cast concrete houses, with millions of small crustacean shells unusually embedded into their external walls, 5 to 10-storey flats, offices, industrial units and service buildings, which often consisted of artistic non-functional characteristics, shops and residential multi-storey car parks, interconnected by ramps and walkways. These made up a deck system of access to shopping and other facilities, employing the Swedish Skarne method of construction.
Originally named Killingworth Township, the latter part was quickly dropped through lack of colloquial use. Killingworth is referred to as 'Killy' by many residents of the town and surrounding areas.
Around 1964, during the reclamation of the derelict pit sites, a lake south of the town centre was created; spoil heaps were leveled, seeded and planted with semi-mature trees. Today, swans, ducks and local wildlife live around the two lakes, which span the main road into Killingworth. The lake is kept well stocked with fish and an angling club and model boating club regularly use it.