Ash House, Ponteland's Former Post Office

Just as you enter Ponteland along the Newcastle Road, there are two interesting blocks of old buildings on the southern side of the road between the Methodist Church and what is now The Station. One is built out of sandstone while the other is a brick building which is now known as Ash House.

Despite their contrasting appearance, these two buildings were built around the same time, between 1842 and 1858.

At least from 1870’s, the brick buildings look to have been occupied by members of the Jameson family, one of the leading families of Ponteland. John Jameson appears here as Shoemaker and Grocer in the 1871 census with his father (also John) listed as living next door. It was around the 1870’s that the shop became the village post office which operated here until around 1900. By the 1881 census, the building is listed as the Ponteland Postal Telegraph Office. This came about with the nationalisation of the telegraph providers in the UK and their merging with the Post Office. The almost instantaneous communication it provided had a similar effect on business life to what we have experienced in recent times with the internet.

The 1895 Ordnance Survey Map shows greenhouses to the rear of the property and there are references to it being used as a nursery at this time.

By the 1901 census, the shop premises have been taken over by John Jameson’s three daughters who running it as a shop and the Post Office has relocated in Ponteland. They lived together in what was described as a 10 roomed house which suggests that what is now the two properties was occupied as a single residence at that time.

The business most associated with the premises by older residents is when it housed Arrowsmiths, one of the village’s sweet shops. This was in the 1950’s and the day in 1953 when sweets were taken off rationing after the war and could be freely purchased at the shop is fondly remembered.

In recent times the two buildings have been used as offices with the former shop premises being used as an Estate Agents and before that, John Marshall Accountants. The first record of an Estate Agent’s located here is in 1967 which is also the first mention of the property being known as Ash House. This was for Archbold & McConnell Wood. The 1960’s was when Hight Street Estate Agents began to become a feature on almost every High Street in the UK. Their use of former shop windows to display and list the houses they had on offer was a critical part of their marketing strategy before they were displaced by the internet.

The current occupier, Rook Matthews Sayer, began here in 1990 as Rod Matthews. The firm merged with Richard Sayer in 1997 to become Rook Matthews Sayer.