Place:Falstone, Northumberland, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Falstone is a small village in a very large civil parish in Northumberland, England, just south of Kielder Water. The village is 8 miles (13 km) from the border with Scotland. It had a population of 257 in the UK census of 2011.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Falstone from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"FALSTONE, a village and a parish in Bellingham [registration] district, Northumberland. The village stands on the North Tyne river, adjacent to the Border Counties railway, 8 miles NW of Bellingham; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Hexham. The parish includes the townships of Wellhaugh, Plashetts, and Tynehead. Acres: 57,600. Real property: £5,621. Population in 1851: 562; in 1861: 1,016. Houses: 141. The increase of population arose from the opening of the railway. The parish was formed out of Simonburn in 1811. The property is not much divided. The surface includes some valley-land, but is mainly moorish and mountainous. Game abounds; coal is plentiful; and there are several mineral springs. Numerous traces exist of strongholds of the ancient Britons; and there is a complete specimen of a border peel. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value: £320. Patrons: the Governors of Greenwich Hospital. The church is good; and there is an English Presbyterian chapel. A man lived here in last century, who was born without hands or feet."

Falstone was a chapelry in Simonburn until 1811 when it became an ancient and a civil parish. It lost its status as a civil parish in 1866 when it was divided between the newly formed civil parishes of Plashetts and Tynehead and Wellhaugh which had previously been townships of Falstone. It was reinstated as a civil parish in 1955 or 1958 (sources differ) from the same parishes which, by then, had been reduced in size. From that time until 1974 Falstone was part of Bellingham Rural District. In 1974 rural districts were abolished and the parish became part of the Tynedale District until 2009 when Northumberland became a unitary authority.

The parts of Plashetts and Tynehead and Wellhaugh which did not return to Falstone in 1955 were transferred to the newly created civil parish of Kielder which covered the Kielder Forest.

Research Tips

• Northumberland Archives previously known as Northumberland Collections Service and Northumberland County Record Office. Now based within Woodhorn Museum in Ashington and providing free access to numerous records for local and family historians alike.

Full postal address: Museum and Northumberland Archives, Queen Elizabeth II Country Park, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9YF; Phone: 01670 624455

There is a branch office in Berwick upon Tweed.

• Northumberland and Durham FHS covers both Northumberland and County Durham. The Family History Society have a research centre in Percy House in central Newcastle upon Tyne (full address on website), open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. Browse the website to see what else the society can provide.
• Further information from GENUKI
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1832 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time. This map includes the boundaries of the various Wards (or "hundreds") in existence at that time.
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Northumberland 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, particularly helpful in large towns and cities.
• Unfortunately, there is no Victoria County History for Northumberland.