AFTER nearly a century at the heart of a prominent North Tyne country home, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of the Charlton family has passed away, aged 98.

Mamie Charlton died peacefully on May 7 at her home, Hesleyside Hall, where she was brought up and lived most of her married life.

The Charltons have owned land in the North Tyne since at least the mid-13th century, and their ancestral home, Hesleyside Hall, was built in the 18th century.

Mrs Charlton, the daughter of William Henry Charlton and Bridget Angela Purcell, came to the house aged two with her parents.

An only child, she had a happy childhood in the Bellingham home, where she was looked after by her nursemaid, Teresa Telfer, who she called Nana, and was often visited by her cousins.

It was during one of these visits that she met her future husband, John, her second cousin. They married on March 4, 1944, at St Oswald’s Church in Bellingham, but unusually, the bridegroom later had to change his surname, to maintain the Charlton name at Hesleyside.

He was sent to France almost immediately following their wedding, only a week after the D-Day landings.

When war broke out, Mrs Charlton became a nurse at Hexham Hospital for a year and then joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), serving on HMS Calliope in Newcastle, where she was a driver for admirals.

Following her marriage, Mrs Charlton became an Army wife, first at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, and then in Thame and Wrexham, before a spell in London.

When her father became ill and died, her husband left the Army and they moved up to Hesleyside with their two daughters, Jenny and Kate, then aged three and one.

Major Charlton took over the running of Hesleyside, while Mrs Charlton kept busy with helping on the farm, running the house and having three more daughters, Hinny, Tot, and Joss. They renovated each cottage on the estate and re-let them.

The couple were known for hosting wonderful children’s parties, with games and treasure hunts, and the St Oswald’s Church fete was sometimes held at Hesleyside.

In 1976, Jenny and Kate were killed in a train crash in Mexico.

And it was Jenny’s eldest son, William, who took over at Hesleyside with his wife, Anna, after Major Charlton died in 2010, at the age of 95, after 66 years of marriage. The couple live there with their three children, Matilda, Kitty and Henry.

Mrs Charlton’s children called her a “wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother, known as Mumma to all the children.”