A unique collection of listed Edwardian cottages will be restored and converted to create new housing on the former Northumbria Police headquarters site in Ponteland.

The housing site, named Listed at Ottermead, is a range of Grade II-listed properties, offers exterior period features and is set in a crescent around an area of green open space.

Originally known as Ponteland Cottage Homes, the buildings were built in 1903 by John Leeson having been commissioned by the Newcastle Board of Guardians to provide accommodation for 300 orphans and children of very poor families. The cottage homes complex closed in 1959 and was later used by Northumbria Police.

The Listed will provide 22 new homes, including four and five-bedroom houses, as well as five two-bedroom apartments within the converted Superintendent’s Home, while the original water tower is also being converted into a house.

Emma Chesterton, head of sales for Bellway North-East, said: “The Listed at Ottermead gives people a very rare chance to own a home which combines the charm and history of a period property with all the comfort and convenience of a new-build house.

“We have preserved many of the surviving original features of these Edwardian cottages, which include bay windows, gabled half-dormers, brick cornice chimneys and Welsh slate roofs.”