Longbenton

Longbenton
Longbenton
 Longbenton shown within Tyne and Wear
Population 10,617 (2011 Ward)[1]
OS grid referenceNZ2668
Metropolitan boroughNorth Tyneside
Metropolitan county Tyne and Wear
RegionNorth East
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Postcode district NE12
Dialling code 0191
Police Northumbria
Fire Tyne and Wear
Ambulance North East
EU Parliament North East England
UK ParliamentNorth Tyneside
List of places
UK
England
Tyne and Wear

Coordinates: 55°00′N 1°34′W / 55.00°N 1.57°W / 55.00; -1.57

Longbenton is a district of North Tyneside, England. It is largely occupied by an extensive estate originally built as municipal housing by Newcastle City Council in the 1950s and 1960s. It is served by the Tyne and Wear Metro stations Longbenton Metro station and Four Lane Ends Metro Station. Nearby places are Killingworth, Forest Hall, Four Lane Ends, West Moor, Heaton and South Gosforth, in Newcastle upon Tyne. Longbenton and Killingworth Urban Area has a population of 34,878.[2]

Education

Two secondary schools are located in the township, Longbenton Community College and St Mary's Catholic Comprehensive School, along with three primary schools. The three primary schools are Benton Dene Primary School, Balliol Primary School and St. Stephen's Primary School.

Longbenton Football Club are an F A affiliated team and as of 2012/13 season play in the Northern Alliance Division 2. Longbenton Football Club. Their home ground is situated behind the Oxford Centre.

Churches

Longbenton is served by St. Mary Magdalene (Church of England) on West Farm Ave, the Methodist church at one end of Chesters Ave and The King's Castle (independent) at the other end of Chesters Ave.

Business

Longbenton is the site of BT's Newcastle call centre. Balliol Business Park is located in Longbenton where a Greggs production site and, until recently, two large Sitel call centres were located.[3] The UK production site for the Findus frozen food brand was based in Longbenton until mid-January 2009 when, through cost-cutting and fire damage, the factory was closed, with the loss of around 400 jobs. Following the award of a grant from Regional development agency One North East the factory was repaired and reopened as Longbenton Foods in 2010.Countrystyle foods took over the site in 2012 and now has roughly 200 staff working there.

Notable residents

Footballer Peter Beardsley grew up in Longbenton and attended Longbenton High School (now Longbenton Community College).[4]

Thomas Addison, 19th century physician and scientist and discoverer of, among others, Addison's Disease and Pernicious anaemia was born and educated in Longbenton.[5] He is widely regarded as one of the leading lights of 19th century medicine, and was famous for his brilliant lecturing style, compassion and empathy for patients (not common among doctors at the time) and devotion to furthering medical science. He has a bust in his old place of work, Guy's Hospital, London.

Writer and poet Michael Roberts lived nearby in Jesmond in the 1930s, and he included Longbenton in his poem Hymn to the Sun.[6]

Government agencies

HM Revenue & Customs and Department for Work and Pensions share a major base on the Longbenton/City of Newcastle upon Tyne border, known as Benton Park View. The site employs around 7,500 workers and is a significant employment source in the area.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.