In the 12th century the Bishop of Durham, William of St. Barbara, granted Stellinglei to the nuns of Newcastle, and it remained the property of the nunnery until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.

[4][5] Mining continued into the 20th century; the Stella Coal Company Ltd entered voluntary liquidation in 1954[6] and the final seams in the area were abandoned in 1963.

"[7] There is an 18th-century watermill at Path Head, on the Stella bank of the Blaydon Burn, which was restored in the late 20th century as a visitor attraction.

[10] In the same year a church dedicated to St Cuthbert was completed in the south-east of the district, to which was added a chancel in 1862 and a tower in 1869.

[14] Changes to local government in 1974 saw Blaydon parish and urban district abolished and replaced by an unparished area, at first within Tyne and Wear, then from 1986 within the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

[2] However, in 1878, on the death of Peregrine's son, also called John Towneley, 2,826 acres, probably formerly part of this estate, was distributed between his daughters.