Orchards: A Lost House and a Long Dispute

This is the site of one of Ponteland’s “lost” buildings, a site that in recent years has been embroiled in controversy.

It was called Orchards and was built probably at the end of the 1920’s for T. Bell Scott, a successful baker and café owner in the village. It was a substantial property which stood behind Main Street, just beyond the footbridge where it crosses the river.

The house was a Canadian timer-framed construction clad in shingles. Although a bungalow, there was a huge loft accessible by a wide loft-ladder with ropes on each side instead of a balustrade. Up this ladder there was a full-sized billiards table.

In its later years, it was the home of Professor William Fisher Cassie of Newcastle University where there is still a college building named after him.

The property seems to have been badly damaged by fire in the mid 1970’s but continued to be lived in. The final family that lived in the house was the Brown family. They moved out after severe flooding in 2000. The houses is still visible on aerial photographs from 2006 but was demolished shortly afterwards leaving the site vacant.

In 2022 Rialto’s restaurant, which fronts the site, submitted plans to develop a large new retail and leisure hub but this has met with considerable local opposition.