Wideopen
| Wideopen | |
|---|---|
 Wideopen
|
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| Wideopen shown within Tyne and Wear | |
| OS grid reference | NZ241728 |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE |
| Postcode district | NE13 |
| Dialling code | 0191 |
| Police | Northumbria |
| Fire | Tyne and Wear |
| Ambulance | North East |
| EU Parliament | North East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Wideopen, also occasionally spelled Wide Open, is a village located in the administrative borough of North Tyneside, north of Gosforth and six miles north from Newcastle upon Tyne city centre.
Wideopen adjoins the settlements of Seaton Burn, Brunswick Village and Hazlerigg. The village straddles the historic Great North Road, formerly the A1 trunk road, but is now bypassed by a new alignment of the A1 immediately to the west. The village lies in an area with a strong mining history and had its own colliery. Weetslade Country Park, to the east of the village, is reclaimed from an extensive area of coal mining activity.
In 2012 work commenced on the building of a new housing estate by Bellway homes. It is located to the east of the Great North Road, between Lockey Park and Weetslade Country Park. The name refers to the distance from the centre of Newcastle – similarly there is a Three Mile Inn to the south, and a Six Mile Bridge to the north.
The village is present on an 1860s Ordnance Survey map as 'Wide Open', with the settlements of 'East Wideopen' to the east, and 'West Wideopen' to the south. The village name is nowadays written as one word in widespread use and appears on signage at either end of the village, but the alternative form of Wide Open is still occasionally found on maps and elsewhere. This leads to an inconsistency in contemporary addresses.
The pit shafts for the colliery were sunk and opened by Perkins and Thackrah in 1825. The colliery produced its first coal in May 1827. It was sketched by Thomas Harrison Hair in 1844 as part of his collection. There was for many years a scrapyard on the site, but this closed in 2011 to make way for new housing.
To the south of the village is the 19th-century Sacred Heart RC Church, a Grade II listed building notable for its stained glass windows, which bear designs by Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and William Morris.
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Wikipedia