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Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the south by the River Wansbeck. Many inhabitants have a distinctive accent and dialect known as Pitmatic. This varies from the regional dialect known as Geordie.
Ashington railway station opened in 1878, and services to Newbiggin and Tynemouth were operated by the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The nearest station to Ashington on the East Coast Main Line was Longhirst, to the north west of the town, which opened in 1847 and had services to both Newcastle and Edinburgh. By 1896, the town had grown sufficiently to warrant the creation of Ashington Urban District.
In 1913 the original Ashington Hospital was built. It was about 1/4 mile from the town centre. The hospital was expanded in the 1950s and 60s with large new wings.
Traditionally, the area to the east of the railway was called Hirst and that to the west was Ashington proper. Although collectively called Ashington, both halves had their own park: Hirst Park (opened in 1915) in the east and the People's Park in the west.
The colliery-built houses followed a grid plan. The streets in the Hirst End running north to south were named after British trees, such as Hawthorn Road, Beech Terrace, and Chestnut Street. The east-west running streets were numbered avenues, starting with First Avenue near the town centre, finishing at Seventh Avenue towards the southern end. After the 1920s houses in Ashington were built by the council and were most often semi-detached houses, such as Garden City Villas. These occupied much of the fields in the Hirst area. New estates were built in different areas. The biggest building programme was in the late 1960sKirkup Mike, 2003 Hirst-Recollections of an Ashington Community and saw Ashington extend south from Seventh Avenue opposite the Technical College towards North Seaton and south eastwards towards the A189. Some of the houses at the north end of Alexandra Road were private homes. During this building programme several new schools were built, for example Coulson Park, Seaton Hirst Middle. Community shops and a social club (the Northern) were built off Fairfield Drive. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw construction of Nursery Park opposite the North Seaton Hotel. The late 1980s and 1990s saw the building of the Wansbeck Estate between the River Wansbeck and Green Lane as well as the large Fallowfield Estate.
In 1981 the Woodhorn Pit closed and its chimney was demolished. In the late 1980s this became a museum. In 1988 Ashington Pit was closed and is now occupied by a business park. In the early 2000s maisonette flats in various parts of Hirst were demolished and parts of the Moorhouse and Woodbridge estate opposite Woodhorn Pit were demolished.
The railway was used until recently by the Alcan Aluminium plant, to transport coal to its adjacent power station in the nearby town of Lynemouth. The plant closed in late 2015. The line was put in use again from mid-2017 to transport materials to Lynemouth, for the conversion of the coal-fired power station to produce power from biomass.
In October 2008, plans to opencast 2m tonnes of coal in Ashington were approved. UK Coal's plans which were first submitted in 2005, would create 60+ jobs.
The town is roughly square in shape, lying north to south. The town centre is in the north of the town. South of this are residential areas. Farmland is on both east and west flanks. The south part is residential bordered by the River Wansbeck to the south. To the east of the town is the coastal town of Newbiggin and to the west is the small village of Bothal, also on the River Wansbeck. South of the town is the small village of North Seaton which once had its own pit. North of the town about 2 miles is the village of Linton and north east of the town is Lynemouth.
To the north of the town is Queen Elizabeth II Country Park which contains a lake surrounded by pine woodland plantation. The original Ashington Colliery was on the north west of the town and the smaller Woodhorn Pit was on the north east.
Hirst Park provides two good quality bowling greens as well as tennis and basketball courts. Ashington A.F.C. now play at Woodhorn Lane having moved from Portland Park to make way for the new Asda superstore in 2008. Rugby football is played at a ground on the north west edge of the town and cricket is played off Kenilworth Road not far from the town centre.
In recent years a new community facility has been created from the former Miners Welfare centre on Alexandra Road. The Hirst Welfare Centre is a multi-use community facility with training facilities, office space, a cafe, community hall, gym and dance studio. The Centre also has an external all-weather, floodlight synthetic football pitch with additional grass pitches.
The People's Park near the leisure centre off Institute Road is a large green field suitable for recreation. Hirst Park is located off Hawthorn Road; locally, it has traditionally been known as The Flower Park, due to its summer floral displays. It has bowling greens, basketball and tennis courts, play areas and is sheltered by tall trees. To the north of the park is a large sports field, where historically, the town hosted fun fairs.
At Woodhorn is the Queen Elizabeth II Park. This is surrounded by pine wood, including the Ashington Community Woods, connecting the park to Ashington, and has a large lake with a narrow-gauge railway connecting the main car park to the Woodhorn Museum. Walks from here head out towards Linton and eastwards towards the seaside town of Newbiggin following the old railway line.
Ashington enjoys a good location within Northumberland allowing good access to the countryside. The town is situated near the coast, enabling short journey times to beaches such as Druridge Bay and Cresswell. Northumberland National Park is close by.
Northumberland College (formerly, Ashington Technical College) is the main further education provider in the town, and offers , , vocational courses and various evening classes.
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Newcastle on 95.4 FM, Capital North East on 105.3 FM, Heart North East on 101.8 FM, Smooth North East on 97.5 FM, Hits Radio North East on 97.1 FM, and Koast Radio, a community based station which broadcast from the town on 106.6 FM.
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees. Television signals are received from either the Pontop Pike or Chatton TV transmitters.
Ashington elects six County Councillors (One with part of West Newbiggin) to Northumberland County Council as of 2014, these seats are held by Labour Party candidates. Ashington Town Council is made up of six wards each electing three councillors, as of 2014 seventeen of these are held by the Labour Party.
The former site of Ashington Colliery became part of a regeneration project and saw the development of Wansbeck Business Park. This park now houses a number of companies with local, national and international profiles. These include Polar Krush NICC Ltd, Thermacore Ltd and Sugarfayre Ltd. The park includes a variety of wildlife with a large pond at its centre.
Ashington's close proximity to Newcastle upon Tyne makes it an ideal commuter town for people working in the city.
The book The Pitmen Painters by William Feaver, recording the development of the Ashington Group, 1934 to 1984, has been made into a stage play by Lee Hall, well known for Billy Elliot. The play premiered at the Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 2007 and subsequently was produced at the Royal National Theatre, London in 2008 and 2009. A German translation by Michael Raab premiered at the Volkstheater in Vienna, Austria, in April 2009. In 2011 Oscar/BAFTA award-winning Film Director Jon Blair made a film for ITV1's Perspectives Arts series, entitled Robson Green and The Pitmen Painters giving an insight into the lives and work of the Ashington Group including rare film footage of the group in their Hut including interviews with Oliver Kilbourn and Harry Wilson.
Ashington has appeared in various films and TV programmes, such as Spender starring Jimmy Nail, Our Friends in the North in 1996, The Fast Show on BBC2 and the Alcan chimneys were seen in the movie, Billy Elliot.
The mining workers of Ashington gave a 'Hooky mat' to their friends in Ashington, West Sussex, where it is now displayed in the village hall.
Cricketing brothers Steve Harmison and Ben Harmison are from the town, as are fellow cricketers Mark Wood and Simon Smith. The first-class cricketer Jack Clark was born in Ashington.
Golfer Kenneth Ferrie, who has played on the PGA Tour, is from Ashington.
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