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Ovingham

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Ovingham

Ovingham /ˈɒvɪŋəm/ is a village and civil parish in the Tyne Valley of south Northumberland, England. It lies on the River Tyne 10 miles (16 km) east of Hexham with neighbours Prudhoe, Ovington, Wylam and Stocksfield.

The River Tyne provided an obstacle between Ovingham and Prudhoe until 20 December 1883, when a toll bridge (Ovingham Bridge) was finally opened, taking the place of the ferry. The steel tubes are marked Dorman Long Middlesbrough, the firm which designed and built the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Tyne Bridge.

Ovingham is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham and forms part of the Bywell electoral ward for Northumberland County Council.

There was a dyehouse at Ovingham, and in 1828 William Bullock was the foreman. Both Thomas Bewick from nearby Cherryburn and George Stephenson from nearby Wylam had relatives who were dyers. One of Bewick's woodcuts is entitled the Dyers of Ovingham, showing two men who are carrying a large tub on a pole. Mabel Stephenson, George's mother, was a daughter of an Ovingham dyer named Richard Carr. There were weavers in Ovingham, as well as a local tidewaiter, or customs inspector.

The vicarage was, in medieval times, a cell for three Augustinian canons of Hexham, and was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. It was formerly the residence of the late Frank Atkinson, who did so much to establish the Beamish Museum in County Durham, and also the Bewick Trust at Cherryburn. Bewick received his education in the vicarage and the church.

The Ovingham 'pack-horse' bridge over the Whittle Burn consists of two segmental arches with a width of five feet between the parapets, so that it could not be used for wheeled traffic. It is likely that the Ovingham mill dam on the Tyne raised the level of the water. The bridge is Grade II listed and required repairs to the mortar after the severe flood of 2015. The adjacent ford was replaced by a concrete road bridge in the 1960s, although this is low lying and is overtopped by the Whittle Burn during times of flood.

Whittle dean is a deep woody dell which stretches southwards & joins the Tyne east of Ovington. The waters of this dean (peculiarly soft & clear) are the most celebrated in the north of England for whitening linen cloth. Mr. William Newton's bleach green, situated on this stream at the confluence of the Tyne is known and famed throughout all these northern parts. (Mackenzie 1825). The Whittle Burn can be traced back to the present day Whittledean Water Works on either side of the line of Hadrian's Wall near Welton Hall.

The first three trees of the Ovingham Community Orchard were planted in the old grazing field next to the allotments by children from Ovingham First School on Friday 23 November 2018. The following morning about 40 villagers turned out to plant the remaining 21 trees. Each tree will produce a different variety of apple.

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