Ballast Railway/Harton Coal Company Railway

HER Number:
2427

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
Ballast Railway/Harton Coal Company Railway

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

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:
A Ballast Railway from St. Hilda's Colliery (HER ref. 2355) to a ballast hill on The Bents (HER ref. 2452). The western end of this line was at Cooksons/Swinburne's Glassworks (HER ref. 2340) which it reached via a tunnel. A wagonway was built c.1832 with a stationary steam engine working the lower section and horses working the upper section. As well as ballast it carried glass making waste from the works and coarse sand to the works. Locomotives were introduced in 1879 and the line became part of the Harton Colliery system in the 1890s, by 1895 linked to the South Shields, Marsden and Whitburn Colliery Railway (HER ref. 2466) by a spur (HER ref. 2467). It became part of the electrified Harton Railway in 1908, having been extended to the new Harton Low Staiths (HER ref. 2456) in 1904, and worked until 1989

Easting:
435970

Northing:
566940

Grid Reference:
NZ435970566940

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 2427 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 4 N.T. Sinclair, & I.S. Carr, 1990, Railways of South Shields, p.4,17-21 J.H. Price, 1980, The Harton Electric Railway Modern Tramway, January 1980