IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
WYLAM, NE41 8AJ

The building facing was at one time another of Wylam's several public houses, The Bird Inn. The property is joined to the Ship Inn which is still in business Image A building plan illustrates the propsed re-building of 'The Bird Inn' at Wylam for Newcastle Breweries Ltd in 1897 and was approved by Hexham Rural District Council on the 8th June 1897 https://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/008865.htm On the right is the Spar grocers, now including the post office business which was previously across the road Image

A panorama stitched from 4 photos using a cylindrical projection. There is a more conventional view here Image

The Ship Inn is shown here Image

The tall building in the distance is Wylam Institute Image The brick buildings on the left include a storage building and beer-garden shelters associated with The Ship Inn Image The dilapidated two storey building on the right is within a former builder's yard. The ground floor walls are concrete blockwork and the upper floors of ship-lap boarding on a wooden frame. The roof is of corrugated asbestos-cement sheeting. Just behind the wall on the left is the rounded gable of a Nissen hut, possibly a building associated with a prisoner of war camp based in the village during World War 2. There were two sites near this location occupied by German and Italian prisoners. The Germans, over a period of just eight days in 1947, built a 3 foot high Bavarian castle in the gardens around their Nissen huts. It was built using using stones from the river with roofs made from tins and had four towers, electric lighting and elaborate home-made furniture, and a ball room with tapestries and carpets. The front door could be opened and closed automatically and the castle even had its own ornamental fountain. A discreet panel above the front door read ‘Built by German prisoners’ and it was intended as a lasting reminder of their stay in Wylam. It attracted hundreds of sightseers over the next two years, but in May 1949, a lorry appeared on the site, the castle was lifted from its foundations and it is reported to have fallen into pieces. An outline planning application has been approved for development of the site. After further research added this to the Heddon Local History Society blog in November 2021: http://heddonhistory.weebly.com/blog/wylam-from-above https://web.archive.org/web/20211122162819/http://heddonhistory.weebly.com/blog/wylam-from-above

The former Post Office building Image is now owned by Wylam Parish Council, who bought it in 2011 with a £500,000 grant, to save it from closure. Run as Steve's Emporium, the Post Office business was controversially moved in 2016 as part of a programme of modernisation to make it easier for customers to use the services. The Post Office now operates from the Spar grocers across the road who offered 7 days a week and long opening hours. Hexham Courant, 14 January 2016: http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/prudhoe/Seven-day-service-could-force-village-PO-to-move-4a60ab0e-4bd6-4566-9263-320fc51c3333-ds

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