Killingworth Wagonway, branch line to High Pit

HER Number:
1098

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
Killingworth Wagonway, branch line to High Pit

Place:
Killingworth

Map Sheet:
NZ27SE

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Tramway Transport Site

Site Type: Specific:
Wagonway

General Period:
POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period:
Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
This waggonway, serving Killingworth High or Old Pit north of the 90 Fathom Dyke, was opened around 1808. It was a branch line from the Killingworth to West Moor Waggonway of c. 1805 (route 59). The High Pit was owned by the Grand Allies and was the scene of some of George Stephenson’s early engineering works. An archaeological evaluation in 2005 by Tyne and Wear Museums with pupils from George Stephenson High School, Killingworth, recorded the track bed of the waggonway directly beneath the modern path surface. A service pipe had disturbed the coal ballast deposits which may once have contained the impressions of stone sleeper blocks. The clay foundation of the track bed and the trackside drainage ditches were recorded.

Easting:
428550

Northing:
570240

Grid Reference:
NZ428550570240

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1098 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1865, 6 inch scale, Northumberland 89 C. R. Warn, 1976, Wagonways & Early Railways of Northumberland, 1605-1840 p.49; F. Garrett, Tyne and Wear Museums, 2005, Killingworth Waggonway, North of Great Lime Road, Killingworth - archaeological evaluation; Alan Williams Archaeology, 2012, Waggonways North of the River Tyne: Tyne and Wear HER Enhancement Project 2011-12; Greenwood 1828: Map of Northumberland; Bell 1847-1851: Maps of the Great Northern Coalfield, Northumberland