Bellingham is a 30 minute drive from Hexham along the B6320 through the villages of Acomb, Wall, Humshaugh and Wark. The 680 bus (Go North East), runs Monday to Saturday, taking around 45 minutes to Hexham. The bus runs every two hours during off peak times and more frequently during commuter hours.

Bellingham has a Co-op supermarket on Parkside Place which opens 7am-10pm daily and a greengrocer, Jennings. Bellingham News and Post Office is another community hub that stocks meat and pies from Cranstons butchers (deliveries come in Wednesdays and Fridays). Fishing enthusiasts can also pick up fishing permits for the Tyne from here.

Bellingham Country Store is a dependable hardware store selling everything from seed potatoes to snow shovels and there’s a petrol station which doubles as a convenience store.

There’s a local library staffed 12 hours a week inside Bellingham Town Hall and there’s a GP practice and fire station. The closest hospital is Hexham General.

As a visitor destination, particularly for cyclists and walkers, Bellingham has a good selection of pubs and cafes.

Fountain Cottage Café is very popular with locals and visitors alike, especially cyclists.

The Fountain Cottage owners also run The Travelling Chippy, a trailer serving up traditional fish and chips for Bellingham and the local area on different evenings.

Bellingham Heritage Centre has a unique tea room in the form of an old 125 railway carriage, the Bellingham Belle. Tea on the Train is open every day for refreshments including afternoon tea; jacket potatoes; soups; sandwiches and fresh bakes.

Rocky Road café  and LUNCH in Bellingham also offer a good range of options.

Indian takeaway, Reezek, serves pizzas and kebabs but for fancier fare, there’s the Riverdale Hall Hotel   which has a restaurant open to non-residents.

Bellingham also boasts three pubs and its very own microbrewery. The Cheviot, is a traditional pub with rooms and a varied menu;  The Black Bull also serves food and has accommodation and The Rose & Crown does not serve food but is big on television sport. The First and Last Brewery is based at the beginning and end of the Hareshaw Linn waterfall walk and is open Thursday through Sunday. It also runs events about brewing with locally foraged botanicals.

St Cuthbert’s  Church dates back to 1180 but little of the original building remains as it was repeatedly destroyed by Border Reivers – marauding raiders, from both north and south of the Scottish and English border who caused chaos in these parts between the late 1200s and late1600s.

St Cuthbert’s was rebuilt entirely in stone as a deterrent and when it was restored in the 1800s three cannonballs were discovered in the roof where they are thought to have been since 1597 when Bellingham was attacked by the Duke of Buccleuch’s men.

The fabled ‘Lang Pack’ in the churchyard, a long stone cut in the shape of a pedlar’s pack, is said to mark the resting place of a would-be burglar who was shot after he was disguised in a long parcel in order to infiltrate a local residence. You can read the folk tale here.

Baptisms in the church use water from ‘Cuddy’s Well’ which you can visit. Legend has it that the well, named after St Cuthbert, has healing properties.

Hareshaw Linn is a beautiful waterfall set in a leafy gorge with walkways and bridges. The walk is three miles (4.8km) and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Keep your eyes peeled for red squirrels, dippers, woodpeckers and bats.

Bellingham Heritage Centre is a must for history buffs with a wealth of information about Border Reiver family names, farming life and a permanent exhibition about Victorian photographer Walter Percy Collier.

Kielder Water and Forest Park is just 18 miles from Bellingham and a fantastic location for nature watching and outdoor pursuits. The Kielder Marathon attracts athletes worldwide. Bellingham is within Northumberland International Dark Sky Park, has very little light pollution and is in easy reach of Kielder Observatory

Bellingham is host to a number of community events, the biggest being Bellingham Show, a fantastic country festival attracting visitors from far and wide. BAAfest is an annual acoustic music festival popular with folk fans.

Bellingham has a primary and a middle school which traditionally feed into Haydon Bridge High School Parents can also apply for their child(ren) to go to Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham although it is not the catchment school. Both have sixth forms.

Bellingham Primary School and Bellingham Middle School , which are on the same site, share the same values of ‘kindness, courage, respect and excellence’. They have a designated Forest School area within the grounds.

North Tinies is a day nursery, also on the school site, which offers day care from nine months.

The nearest independent school is Mowden Hall at Newton near Stocksfield which caters for children up to 13.