Catalogue description PONTELAND ST. MATTHEW PARISH RECORDS

Ponteland, St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church, Northumberland

NRO 4656

• Ponteland, Northumberland
• Religion

The manor of Cheeseburn Grange belonged to Hexham Abbey in pre-Reformation times. It later passed successively to the Swinburne, Widdrington & Riddell families who maintained a succession of Jesuit, Benedictine, Dominican, Franciscan & secular chaplains who served Roman Catholics in a wide area. The mission at Cheeseburn is said to date from 1725 with the earliest surviving register dating from 1775, (for a transcript of this see CRT vol. 3). The chapel attached to the house was registered in 1792. Mass was first said in Ponteland in 1884 in a hired room & in 1901 it was reported that the church comprised a brick cottage, 12 feet square & the congregation numbered only 8-15 adults. A new church dedicated to St. Matthew was opened on 15 June 1903 on a site provided by Archibald Dunn. This was a wooden structure and was replaced by the present church in 1949.

Items marked Cheeseburn Grange appear to relate solely to the mission there, the remainder of items appear to relate to both Cheeseburn Grange & Ponteland.