Like many other Newcastle suburbs, Wallsend was named after Wallsend in England. The English Wallsend is a small town in Durham, Northumberland. It is situated at the end of Hadrian's Wall which stretched across England, hence it was aptly named Walls End. Built by the Roman Empire across the width of Great Britain to prevent military raids by the tribes of Scotland to the north. Hadrian's Wall was built following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 122.
The first church in Wallsend was the Baptist Church, built in 1863 in Nelson Street. Rev. J. Ingram was its first minister.
Thirty years later, in 1893 it moved across Nelson Street to No. 122, the building it occupied for the next 67 years. A unique feature of this building was that it was completely made of wood (oregon) - no stone was used even though it has the appearance of stone.
The original 4 feet (120 cm) picket fence was replaced with the brickwork front garden area in the early 50's.
The old church site was sold to the Bank of NSW (Westpac Bank) who combined their existing premises (No. 124) with No. 122. (The bank subsequently sold the property which is the current site of Robert Knox Pharmacy.)
In 1960, the church moved to its present modern building at the corner of Cowper Street and Newcastle Road.
The present church and the adjacent council carpark (& telephone exchange etc.) are built on the site of the original coal rail line that linked the Wallsend Colliery with the main northern line at Waratah.
You can do a Heritage Walk of Wallsend, download the Newcastle City Council brochure below:
Wallsend Heritage Walk Brochure (473.98 Kb)
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