Bensham

The name of Bensham is first attested in 1249, as Benchelm. This name is generally thought to come from the Old English words benc ("bench", perhaps used metaphorically of a topographical feature such as a ledge or bench-shaped hill) and helm (used in north-country place-names to mean "cattle-shelter"). If so the name once meant something like "cattle-shelter at the bench-shaped hill".^[1][2][3] However, the earliest serious researcher of the name, Allen Mawer, viewed it as "a difficult name", emphasised uncertainty about the second element, and also suggested that "the first element may be" a personal name, "Be(o)rnic, a diminutive of Be(o)rn", or that the element might come from the regional name Bernicia.^[1]

Like nearby Saltwell, the area is home to a sizeable community of Orthodox Haredi Jews. The Gateshead Talmudical College, founded in 1929, is one of the largest yeshiva for Jewish education in Europe.^[4][5][6] The area has affectionately earned the nickname "Little Jerusalem" by locals.^[7]

The most recent chief rabbi, Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, served between 2008 and 2020.^[8]

The roof of a flat in Bensham was torn off by extreme winds during storm Malik as it battered the North East of England in January 2022.^[9]

The data below shows that 51.0% of the population in the Lobley Hill and Bensham electoral ward are male, and 49.0% are female. This compares similarly with both the average in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, as well as the national average.^[10][11][12]

A total of 6.1% of the population were from a black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) group in Lobley Hill and Bensham. This figure is higher than that of the average in Gateshead (3.7%), but lower than the national average (14.6%).^[10][11][12]

Data from the Office for National Statistics found that the average life expectancy in the Lobley Hill and Bensham electoral ward is 75.0 years for men, and 80.3 years for women. These statistics compare less than favourably for both men and women, when compared to the average life expectancy in the North East of England, of 77.4 and 81.4 years, for men and women respectively.^[13]

A total of 55.9% of households in Lobley Hill and Bensham have access to at least one car. This figure is significantly lower than both the average in Gateshead (63.5%), as well as the national average (74.2%).^[10][11][12]

Lobley Hill and Bensham is a local council ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. This ward covers an area of around 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²),^[14] and has a population of 10,638.^[15]

As of September 2020^[update], the ward is served by three councillors: Catherine Donovan, Eileen McMaster and Kevin Dodds.^[16]

The village is located within the parliamentary constituency of Gateshead Central and Whickham, and is served by Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Mark Ferguson.

• Deckham
• Lobley Hill
• Saltwell
• Saltwell Park