History

Henshaw Parish, set within the South Tyne Valley in Northumberland, is a peaceful rural community close to the line of Hadrian's Wall. Other nearby landmarks include the 194-acre National Trust property Allen Banks & Staward Gorge, rich in flora and fauna, and the Vindolanda Roman Fort - a former Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian's Wall, noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. There was also the Sycamore Gap tree, alternatively known as the Robin Hood tree after it featured in a prominent scene in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Unfortunately it was illegally felled in 2023, but has since sprouted from the stump.

At the heart of the parish’s spiritual and architectural heritage is the Church of All Hallows, a Grade II listed building constructed in 1888-89, built on land donated by Sir Edward Blackett and funded through local effort.

The 20th century brought significant change with the development of coal mining. What became Bardon Mill Colliery - originally known as Henshaw Colliery - began in 1938 and operated until 1972. The colliery provided employment and shaped community life for several decades, but its closure marked the end of the large-scale industry in the parish. Today, a preserved coal wagon at the village hall site serves as a memorial to the area’s mining heritage.

We now have the Bardon Mill & Henshaw Village Hall - a modern earth-sheltered structure built into the hillside on the former colliery site in 2013. It is noted as the UK’s only earth-covered village hall.