From First School to Henderson Court

Now replaced by Henderson Court, this was the site of Ponteland’s First School up to its closure in 2008.

The school was built in 1914. It became necessary with the building of the Cottage Care Homes up the road in 1903. The Care Homes had their own small school but this had only four classrooms and was just used as in infant’s school. The older children at the Home were sent to Ponteland’s Coates Endowed School which used to stand where the green in front of the church now is. This led to severe overcrowding and the Newcastle Board of Guardians, who controlled the homes, reached an agreement with the County Council to build a new school with the Guardians paying three-quarters of the cost of the new school.

The site chosen for the school was a greenfield site just off the North Road, behind Eland Grange. The County Council look to have used their inhouse architects for the school as it very closely resembled similar schools built at this time in Northumberland. One unusual feature however was a large bay window which looked onto the playground. On the school’s first day, there were 30 local village pupils and 95 from the Homes. The Homes children had to walk to the school and back twice a day as they had to return to the Homes for their lunch.

It continued as the village school for 93 years, with a change of name with the introduction of the comprehensive and the three-tier system into Ponteland around 1973, this became Ponteland County First School and eventually closing in 2008.

The site was acquired by McCarthy & Stone, a company specialising in retirement housing. This reflects a wider demographic trend where an aging population has increased demand for healthcare, social care and retirement housing, and reducing demand for schools.