Member Article

Roman roads at new Tyneside development

Pupils from Bridgewater Primary School in Scotswood have put their name on the map, by selecting a street name for one of the new roads at The Rise in Scotswood.

Having been provided with a list of options - all of which were names of North East Roman camps chosen by Scotswood residents - the students voted for Featherwood.

This will be one of the first six street names to be adopted at the development where the first phase of 377 homes is now under construction.

Head Teacher Sam Robson said: “As work on The Rise has begun and the landscape around where they live has changed, the children’s curiosity has increased. They were delighted to be involved in selecting the name for one of the new streets.

“They researched and gathered information about each of the old Roman settlements suggested and ‘Featherwood’ was a unanimous favourite – due to the word’s similarity to the name Scotswood. The camp’s interesting walled structure and design also appealed to the children.”

The concept of a Roman theme was thought up by local community representatives who selected a further five street names – Chester Pike, Bellshiel, Birdhope, Cawfield and Walwick Fell.

Alma Wheeler, who with her neighbours has been closely involved with the redevelopment project, said: “We put forward the idea of using such names at one of our joint working group meetings as we thought it apt to acknowledge the rich Roman history that this region has.

“I did some research into the Roman camps and discovered that many of them had beautiful sounding names which, once agreed by the group, were put forward as suggestions. The Romans were ambitious builders too, so it seemed appropriate to use the historic names that they chose on a new and exciting development located right beside the Hadrian Way.”

Another Scotswood resident, Margaret Cooney, added: “We thought about naming the roads after types of tree or resurrecting the names of streets that were previously here but the Roman theme caught everyone’s imagination. The new names are unique and recognise an important piece of North East history and heritage.”

Work on The Rise began in August and the 66 hectare site will eventually provide 1,800 new, affordable and sustainable homes constructed. The project – the biggest housing led regeneration initiative in the North East – is being delivered by The New Tyne West Development Company, a public/private partnership between Newcastle City Council, Barratt Homes and Keepmoat.

Duncan Bowman, Development Director with NTWDC, said: “This project is about the community as much as the houses and so we are delighted that local residents across the generations have been involved in naming the first streets.”

Bridgewater Primary School was recently graded as outstanding in all four Ofsted inspection areas – ranking it within the top 20% of schools in the country. Soon to undergo refurbishment work that will almost double capacity from 350 to 500 pupils, the school has been supported by NTWDC which has provided funding for additional teaching assistants in recent years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .