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Birtley is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead town and is physically linked to Chester-le-Street across the County boundary in County Durham. Until 1974 Birtley and the adjoining areas of Barley Mow, Vigo and Portobello were part of the old Chester-le-Street Rural District. Since 1974 these neighbouring areas have been considered part of 'greater' Birtley. Birtley was a civil parish with a parish council (which also covered the adjoining neighbourhoods) until April 1, 2006 after a local referendum agreed to abolish it. ^[1]

Birtley lies within the historic county boundaries of County Durham and uniquely among settlements in Gateshead, Birtley retains County Durham postcodes and its postal town remains Chester Le Street.

Antony Gormley's famous 'Angel of the North' is situated on high ground to the north of Birtley and overlooks the area.

The main road through Birtley is the non-primary A167 which runs from Topcliffe, North Yorkshire through to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and is the same road which runs across the Tyne Bridge. This was an original route for the Great North Road and the A1 until a bypass was built in the 1930s.

Birtley is the home of the Royal Ordnance factory and the Komatsu Heavy Engineering Company which operates from the previous premises Birtley Iron Works (1827-, which became premises of the Caterpillar Company in the mid 20th century).

Contents 1 Schools and Education 2 Religion and Churches 3 History 4 References

There are several primary schools in Birtley and one large Senior School, Lord Lawson of Beamish, which is situated on a hill overlooking Birtley. This school is currently being replaced with a new building on the same site and due to open in late 2007^{[citation needed]}.

There are altogether three mainstream Churches in Birtley; these consist of:

1. St Josephs (RC)^[2]
2. St John the Evangelist (CofE)^[3]
3. A Methodist Church (name unknown)^[4]

• Birtley also has a large Cemetry with a Chapel and Crematorium.

A unique piece of Birtley's history occoured during WW1. A large number of Belgian refugees (around 5000) came to Birtley to work in the Ordnance factory and were housed in a settlement at the north end of the town, adjacent to the factory. This area was called 'Elisabethville' after the Belgian Queen (spelt the Belgian way with an 's'). This settlement was a self contained Belgian community, it had its own Church and priest, its own section in the Cemetry, its own police force, jail, hospital, shops and school. After the war, most of the Belgians were repatriated and Elisabethville was firstly used to house ex-soldiers being retrained in local industry, and later as local authority housing. The area was cleared and redeveloped as a new council estate in the late 1930's. The school remained in use until it was closed in 1970.