Ladywell Cottage: From Home to Café

Tucked away between St Matthews Catholic Church and the entrance to the Meadowfield Estate to the west of Ponteland is this charming cottage. When built, it was the most westerly house in the village. In the 1896 Ordnance Survey Map, there is a “P” next to the building indicating it may have been used as a police house at that time, or more likely a pump in the yard.

Ponteland will have got its own police constable following the establishment of Northumberland County Constabulary formed in 1857 and the first one listed in the 1861 census was Constable Mark Young. The house is shown on the 1859 Ordnance Survey Map, but speculation that the house was built for the police constable is unlikely as Constable Young was unmarried and only 25 years old in 1861 and lodged in a house with an old agricultural labourer and his family. The concept of a police office, separate from where the policeman lived was not in place in the 19th century, so this building was almost certainly built as an agricultural cottage, but may have later been used as a police office.

In the 1930’s and 40’s, the quaint cottage with roses growing around the door, was used as a café, Ions Café which was a popular venue for the many cyclists visiting the village.

The name Ladywell is derived from a well which stood a few yards down from the cottage on the opposite side of the road.