Bedlington, Northumberland
Bedlington Court House
Last Updated:
8 Mar 2021
Bedlington, Northumberland
This is a
Court House
60 W End Front St, Bedlington NE22 5UB
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
Site is now the Bedlington Community Centre
'By 1860, Bedlington Old Hall was now in the ownership of the Bedlington Coal Company...Further along Front Street West is shown the court house, now the community centre...A new combined police station and court house was built...[in 1888]..and the old court house near the Market Place became the Mechanic's Institute.'
'The Court House, situated near the centre of the village, is a substantial and suitable building, containing a lockup, consisting of two apartments. Robert Drummond, superintendent constable for Bedlingtonshire district, is court keeper. Petty sessions are held here once a month.'
Retrieved from Prison History
Listing Description (if available)
The Ordnance Survey map to the top of the page shows the Court House situated above the Cross on the high street. In this era Bedlington was a small village with a growing industrial base and locomotive building industry on the banks of the River Blyth, which produced the iron rails for the Stockton & Darlington and locomotives for global export.
In the second edition of 1898, the village is still relatively small but dominated by the Doctor Pit to the north. The Court House has closed and is at this point the Mechanics Institute.
The building lies in the corner of each Ordnance Survey (making it a bit difficult), but this edition shows the Doctor Pit and the gas works making up most of the area to the north of the village, as well as miners terraces developing up the road to Bedlington Station.