Eland Green Farm and Newcastle's Larder
Eland Green Farmhouse, to the north of Ponteland is a good example of how important it was, before the development of the railways, for cities such as Newcastle to have a productive agricultural hinterland to supply their markets with food. The first mention of Eland Green in local newspapers dates back to the Newcastle Chronicle of 1779 when a Gilbert Cargey offered stints of his landholding at Eland Green for pasture. As well as being a farmer in Ponteland, he operated as a butcher in the Meat Market in Newcastle.
Eland Green Farm — audio guide
The Manor of Ponteland which included this farm, was sold around 1774 to George Silvertop of Ministeracres. There is an old sundial in the garden of the farmhouse dated 1776 with the initials GS on it which presumably refers to this George Silvertop.
In 1803 the farm was bought by George Stephenson, whose family still own the farm to this day. He and his unmarried sister lived at the farm together until his death in 1861. In the 1880’s, more than 20 years after his death, “old Laird Stephenson” was still remembered in the markets in Newcastle for the quality of the cattle which he bred and raised on this farm.
In 1852, when George Stephenson was 67 years old, the farm was broken into when five robbers burst into Mr. Stephenson’s bedroom seized the old man out of his bed and ransacked the house getting away with between £600 and £700, an astonishing amount of money at that time. The burglars were later apprehended and sentenced to be transported to Australia for the rest of their lives.
George Stephenson died in 1861 and the farm passed to his relative Robert Stephenson. The farm was then said to consist of 105 acres. The current farmhouse has a prominent date stone of 1889 when the farmhouse was rebuilt. The building work was carried out by the Donkins who were a prominent family of builders and stonemasons in Ponteland.
The farm was a working farm under successive generations of the Stephenson’s at least until the 1970’s. In recent years it and the outbuildings have been adapted as holiday lettings.