Birtley, Tyne and Wear

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Birtley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead town, close to the Washington area of the city of Sunderland,

The town was a civil parish with a parish council until April 1, 2006 after a local referendum agreed to abolish it. [1]

As with all of Gateshead, it is traditionally regarded as part of County Durham. Although now the border with Durham is now situated to the south, but uniquely in Gateshead, Birtley retains County Durham postcodes.

The main road through Birtley is the non-primary A167 which runs from Topcliffe in Yorkshire through to the north of Newcastle, 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 of the Caterpillar Company

Although there are many primary schools in Birtley their is only one large Senior School, Lord Lawson, which is situated on the hill overlooking Birtley