The Fire Station and Lane House Farm

Until its demolition in 2020, this site down Callerton Lane was where Ponteland’s Fire Station stood. Before the Fire Station was built, there was a farm called Lane House Farm on the site.

When the fire station was built in 1977, its opening caused some embarrassment for the County Council. When the fireman tried to drive the fire engine inside at the opening ceremony, they found the doors were too small for the engine to drive through. The approach had to be dug-up and lowered a few inches to accommodate the engines.

The station was manned by 12 part-time fireman who all lived and worked in the immediate vicinity and were supplied with radio bleepers. The goal was that the station could be manned within four minutes of being alerted.

In the 1980’s, rather than having the building being unused for long periods of time, the station’s recreation room was adapted to be used as a day care centre for the elderly three days a week.

In 2019 the site was required for access to the development of the new Community Hub of the High School, Leisure Centre and sporting facilities and the fire station was demolished to be replaced by a new one further down the road.

As to the farm which was the original occupier of the site, there is not a great deal of information available about it. It was offered To Let in 1816 and was described as having 72 acres. The 1860 Ordnance Survey Map shows a house with a garden, a small pond and a range of outbuilding to the north of the house with a gin-gang attached. In the 1841 Census, John Fletcher and his family lived there. In the 1851 Census Thomas Thompson. In the 1911 Census, the house was described as having four rooms and William Murray was listed as Farmer and General Carrier with his daughter as the Dairymaid. He had moved there from Benton in 1906. By the time it got to the 1970’s and the council wanted to purchase the land, the farm was owned by Jacob Gilhespy and farmed by his tenant Mr. Robert Meek.