Newcastle Town Moor

The Town Moor is a large area of common land in Newcastle upon Tyne. It covers an area of around 1000 acres or 400ha, and is larger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath combined, and also larger than New York City's Central Park (843 acres). Like them it is not on the edge of the city, but has suburbs all around it. It stretches from the city centre and Spital Tongues in the south out to Cowgate /Kenton Bar to the west, and from Gosforth to the north and Jesmond to the east. At the south-eastern corner lies the Exhibition Park, but the rest of the Town Moor is not laid out as a park and is mostly treeless. Freemen of the city have the right to graze cattle on the moors, the rental income is distributed through the Town Moor Money Charity. The ornithologist and landscape architect John Hancock, after whom the nearby Hancock Museum is named, produced a planned layout for the Town Moor in 1868, which was only partly realised. In 1873 a political demonstration in favour of full male suffrage took place on the moor which attracted 200, 000 people, the largest recorded mass gathering to have taken place there. The Hoppings, said to be Europe's largest travelling fun fair, is held on the Town Moor during the last week in June.

The Town Moor is a large area of common land in Newcastle upon Tyne. It covers an area of around 1000 acres or 400ha, and is larger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath combined, and also larger than New York City's Central Park (843 acres). Like them it is not on the edge of the city, but has suburbs all around it. It stretches from the city centre and Spital Tongues in the south out to Cowgate /Kenton Bar to the west, and from Gosforth to the north and Jesmond to the east. At the south-eastern corner lies the Exhibition Park, but the rest of the Town Moor is not laid out as a park and is mostly treeless. Freemen of the city have the right to graze cattle on the moors, the rental income is distributed through the Town Moor Money Charity. The ornithologist and landscape architect John Hancock, after whom the nearby Hancock Museum is named, produced a planned layout for the Town Moor in 1868, which was only partly realised. In 1873 a political demonstration in favour of full male suffrage took place on the moor which attracted 200, 000 people, the largest recorded mass gathering to have taken place there. The Hoppings, said to be Europe's largest travelling fun fair, is held on the Town Moor during the last week in June.