Size matters

Given the fact that today Prestwick Carr is something of a backwater the importance of the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth century is something most would not realise. At the time the lake that was Prestwick Carr was one of the principal lakes in Northumberland and anybody in Newcastle who had money or the ability to travel would have known its location and have used it for recreation. This would likely involve boating, fishing and hunting when the area was flooded but also included horse racing, presumably using the flat soft land remaining when the waters receded.

Looking at Fryer's map of 1822 above we can note the scale of Prestwick Carr in relation to the River Tyne indicated to the south and that in the printing of the map, the font size implies a greater significance as a feature than Ponteland. This can be compared with todays O.S. map where the major towns and roads are given a much higher priority.

It was for its wildlife that the area was most noted being descibed by J Wallis as one of the main breeding stations of wild birds in the north and one of the most famous of nature's nurseries.

Hancock also wrote of Prestwick Carr, Rich as it was in botanical and entomological specimens, it was not less remarkable for its ornithological features. I know of no locality of the same limited area where so many species of water fowl were to be found breeding as bred yearly at Prestwick Carr. Perhaps the phrasing here suggests more of the hunter than naturalist in Hancock as do the many specimens in his now sadly renamed museum attest.