Sunniside

Sunniside is a small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, England just south of Whickham, and is the northern terminus of the Tanfield Railway. Prior to the creation of the county of Tyne & Wear in 1974, it was part of Whickham Urban District, which itself formed part of County Durham. It has a busy Front Street with a collection of pubs, shops, and amenities, and is well served by public transport, with eight buses an hour to Newcastle on weekdays courtesy of Go North East's "Northern 6" (via the Metrocentre) and "Toon Link X30/X31 / Northern X70/X71" (via Gateshead) services. The village is surrounded mainly by farmland, with plantations of trees to the east, and neighbours the villages of Marley Hill and Byermoor, as well as the large village of Whickham on the border with County Durham. The village is mostly housing, with older terraced properties mainly situated near the shops, and large housing estates built from the 1960s onward radiating from this area. It has a large park to the north, adjacent to Burnthouse Lane, although the play apparatus was taken down in the late 1990s due health and safety restrictions, as was the play equipment situated in the area between the rear of Neill Drive and Laburnum Grove, which was known as "the little park". The nearest parks with play equipment are now Marley Hill Park and Chase Park in Whickham. The village has no school, with children mainly attending Clover Hill Primary School, Fellside Primary School and secondary schools in Whickham and Lobley Hill. The nearest Catholic schools are the Sacred Heart primary school in Byermoor, and St. Thomas More secondary in Blaydon.