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Windy Nook is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It is bordered by Carr Hill to the west, Leam Lane Estate to the east, Felling to the north and Sheriff Hill to the south. It lies on steep, sloping land south of Gateshead, south of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and north of the City of Durham. According to the 2001 UK census, the population was 2,628. By 2011 the village had been absorbed into the Gateshead MBC ward of Windy Nook and Whitehills. The total population of this ward was 9,781.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gateshead MBC ward of Windy Nook and Whitehill popuiation 2011 )〕 Formerly part of Heworth, it was constituted in 1843 and was formally incorporated into the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead by the Local Government Act 1972 which took effect on 1 April 1974. It is governed locally and nationally by the Labour party. It has a long industrial history, with evidence of milling and pottery in the area. The principle industry, however, was stone quarrying, and the initial settlement grew as this industry flourished. By the turn of the 20th century, several quarries operated in Windy Nook and the largest, Kell's Quarry, provided the sandstone and grindstone used to build St Alban's Church, a Grade II listed building and principle landmark in the village, which was consecrated on 25 August 1842. The decline in industry during the 20th century saw the population fall to pre-industrial levels. Though today an urban suburb, there are no large commercial areas and the new Tesco store is comfortably the largest employer. There remains large areas of green space, however, and it is a popular and high-demand place to live. Residents compare favourably with others in the borough in terms of income, employment levels and educational qualifications. Residents can enjoy Windy Nook Nature Reserve at Stone Street, which is a protected wildlife area, as well as one of the largest environmental sculptures in Europe. Perhaps the most notable resident of the settlement was Mary Elizabeth Wilson; a serial killer known colloquially as 'the merry widow of Windy Nook', though Joseph Hopper, founder of the aged mineworkers scheme, and John Oxberry, one of Gateshead's most prominent historians, both hailed from the village. ==History== The name ''Windy Nook'' derives from "the lofty and exposed nature of the situation it occupies".〔MacKenzie and Ross, 1983: 26〕 In 1784, Richard Kell began quarrying at Heworth Shore. His business expanded quickly and, by the turn of the 19th century, Kell and his family had established a second quarry at Windy Nook which was known as Kell's Quarry. This, along with a number of pre-existing, smaller quarries, provided work for the early settlers and by 1820 there existed a "modern but populous village".〔Surtees, 1820: 66〕 The quarries of Windy Nook became renowned, described as equally important to the more vaunted quarries of Yorkshire and producing sandstone and 'Newcastle grindstone' of sufficient quality that stones from Kell's Quarry were used to build St Alban's Church and other local buildings.〔〔Watson, 1911: 135〕 As the quarries prospered, the village continued to grow. In 1834 an account described Windy Nook as "a populous hamlet ... chiefly inhabited by workmen employed in the adjoining quarries. Here are three public houses, one farmstead, a corn-mill and several mechanics".〔MacKenzie & Ross, 1834: 26〕 In 1842, a National school was built by subscription, and within six years the building of two more mills and a pottery saw the population increase to around 2,009 inhabitants.〔Lewis, 1848: 613〕 The quarries continued to produce high quality grindstone; in 1860 stone from Kell's Quarry was used to build the Exchange Building in Newcastle upon Tyne.〔 In spite of this industrialisation, residents were still able to enjoy "wildly romantic scenery".〔 Ordnance survey maps of 1862 show that Windy Nook remained isolated from the neighbouring villages at Carr Hill and Sheriff Hill. The principal road, Windy Nook Road, had been established and at the junction between this road and Carr Hill Road, the church of St Alban and the national school are evidenced among a cluster of residential dwellings but there was little else save the quarries which dominated during those formative years.〔'England - Durham: 007', Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 - Epoch 1 (1862)〕 By 1870 there were 430 houses for 2,653 inhabitants〔J.M. Wilson, 1870–72: 522〕 which by 1887 had increased again to 3,554.〔Bartholomew, 1887 available at (A Vision of Britain through time website ) (retrieved 29 June 2012)〕 However, by the turn of the 20th century, the quarries slowly fell into disuse and by the 1960s all of the remaining industrial areas had closed and the quarries infilled, though the sandstone properties at St Alban's Place and Co-Operative Terrace stand as a reminder to Windy Nook's industrial history.〔〔GE13, 2008: 2〕 The decrease in employment opportunities led to a steady decline in population and although some housing developed along Stone Street and Coldwell Lane, the urban sprawl that enveloped most of the outlying settlements of Gateshead during the early 20th century never reached Windy Nook, so that in 1945 it remained largely unchanged in location and size.〔Ordnance Survey of Great Britain New Popular Edition, Sheet 78 - Newcastle upon Tyne, 1945〕 Despite some terraced housing being built in at Crossfield Park and Coltsfoot Gardens in the 1970–80's, the character of the suburb today remains suburban; the land is split 50/50 between residential properties and open green space and only 11.3% of the residential properties today are council housing.〔〔GE13, 2008: 1〕〔ESTH, 2008: 57〕 The result is that Windy Nook is a high-demand area for privately owned and social housing.〔NPE, 2008: 8〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Windy Nook」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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