Currock Hill

Currock Hill is a hill in Tyne and Wear, England, which at 259 m (850 ft) is the highest point in the county, and in the metropolitan borough of Gateshead.[1][2]

Currock Hill
Currock Hill Farm
Highest point
Elevation259 m (850 ft)
ListingCounty Top
Coordinates54°55′39″N 1°50′03″W 
Geography
Currock Hill
Currock Hill in Tyne and Wear
LocationChopwell, England
OS gridNZ 10717 59214
Topo mapOS Landranger 88

The name ‘currock’ comes from the Celtic word for a cairn or a stack of stones, a development of the word for a rock, carroc, and is still widely used in the North East.[3]

Geography

It is situated between the villages of Chopwell and Hedley on the Hill, on the border with Northumberland to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne. The hill forms part of the watershed divide between the catchments of the River Tyne to the north and the Derwent to the south.[4]

Currock Hill water tower

The panorama from the hill is considered to have "commanding views towards the Pennines and Tyne Valley to the West, the Cheviot Hills to the North with Tyneside and North Sea Coast to the East."[5]

Flying

There has been a long association with flying on Currock Hill: during the First World War an area on the southern flank of the hill was designated as a relief airfield or landing ground for No.36 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, which was based at Cramlington. It was a Home Defence squadron, and patrolled the coastal area around Newcastle to prevent attacks by German Zeppelins.[6][7]

More recently, the northern part of the hill has been used as the location for the Northumbria Gliding Club. The club has a variety of aircraft including three dual seat gliders, a single seat Astir CS77 and a Piper Pawnee tug aeroplane, all of which use the grass runway at the site.[5]

See also

List of English counties by highest point

References
  1. Simon Edwardes (2001). "Historic County Tops". The Mountains of England and Wales. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  2. Muir, Jonny (2011). The UK's County Tops: Reaching the top of 91 historic counties. Cicerone. ISBN 9781849655538.
  3. Watson, Godfrey (1970). Goodwife Hot, and others: Northumberland's past as shown in its place names. Oriel Press. ISBN 9780853620907.
  4. Ordnance Survey (2012). 88 Newcastle. OS Landranger Map Series. Ordnance Survey. ISBN 9780319229989.
  5. "Northumbria Gliding Club". northumbria-gliding-club.co.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  6. "Royal Air Force Historic Squadrons: 36 Squadron" Archived 2016-11-21 at the Wayback Machine. Royal Air Force. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  7. "North East Aviation Research – Currock Hill Landing Ground". nelsam.org.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
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