West Houses Farm, West of Ponteland

West Houses Farm is down a narrow lane on the western edge of Ponteland, just to the north of Darras Hall.

It has a rather beautiful sandstone farmhouse which is a Listed Building and said to date from around the 1840’s. The farm was part of the Collingwood Estate who owned the nearby Dissington Hall and was tenanted. It is first mentioned in a lease dating from 1771.
At the beginning of the 19th century it was tenanted by William Maughan who spent most of his working life here until he retired in 1843 to live more centrally in one of the houses in Bell Villas. The farm was then taken over by William Reed who moved here from West Belsay.
There were three generations of William Reed’s who worked this farm until the retirement of the original William Reed’s grandson in 1966. The farm was then taken over by Alan Henry whose family still run the farm today.

It is a classic example of a South Northumberland farm with its south facing, three bayed, detached farmhouse. The farm buildings to the north with three ranges which used to enclose a farmyard which is now enclosed to form a modern barn. Attached to the western range was a gin-gang which we know from an advertisement, was sold in 1871. This was powered by four horses walking around a central driveshaft to drive a threshing machine before steam engines became common place on farms. Just to the north of the outbuildings there was a small duckpond which has now been filled in.

The original east wing of the farmyard is largely intact along with the eastern part of the protruding north range. There is a small, modern agricultural cottage alongside.