Grand Lease Wagonway

HER Number:
1665

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Grand Lease Wagonway

Place:
Whickham

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE NZ26SW

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Tramway

Site Type: Specific:
Wagonway

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C17

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The well-known Tanfield Way (HER REF. 1023) was partly built upon the Whickham Grand Lease Way from Dunston Haugh to Lobley Hill. The Whickham Grand Lease Way, as the world's first successful railway, is a matter of great historical importance. It is arguable that its construction, probably early in 1621 (extended in 1647), was Tyneside's most important contribution to industrial technology. Though rail transport had been invented in the Midlands around 1600, all earlier attempts to implement it had collapsed for economic reasons; only the Tyne worked on a sufficient scale. It is not only the first but the best documented and most visible of those railways built before 1660, though its course west from the Tanfield Line is not certain. A number of branch lines are known to link with Grand Lease Pits (HER REF. 1664) now hidden by Whickham Hill Plantation.

Easting:
2124

Northing:
6042

Grid Reference:
NZ21246042

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1665 >> E. Clavering, A.R. Rounding & G.C. Bennett, A1 Trunk Road, Gateshead Western Bypass, Improvement Objection Industrial Archaeology Submission G. Bennett, E. Clavering & A. Rounding, 1990, A Fighting Trade - Rail Transport in Tyne Coal, 1600-1800 vol 2, p8 J.U. Nef, 1927, The Rise of the British Coal Industry, Vol I p 26 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Public Records Office, C2 Jas1/D1/29M Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Public Records Office, Durh2 2 Selby v Surtees R.L. Galloway, 1898, of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, volume 1, p 373 p 128 T.J. Taylor, 1858, The Archaeology of the Coal Trade, p 39 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Public Records Office, Stac8 245/6 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic/ PC, JI vol III 60, 271-2 Ellison, 18th century, Gateshead Library Local Studies, 5/1-3 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Rawlinson, MSS C784 J.U. Nef, 1927, The Rise of the British Coal Industry, Vol II, pp 246, 273 and 415 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Stac8 56/10 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Stac8 163/18 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, APC JI 437, 505 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, C2 Chas1/H19/35 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, C2 JasI/L8/46, JasI/A9/24 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Durh1 1 ff 107-10 Publications of the Surtees Society, vol 142 p 256-7 M.J.T. Lewis, 1970, Early Wooden Railways, pp 93-5, fig 31 Publications of the Surtees Society, 111 (321) Durham Records Office, Sa/D 1245 Durham Records Office, St D5/3/88 Publications of the Surtees Society, 184 p 132 Durham Records Office, CG 7/554 Gateshead Library Local Studies, GPL 76/13 185 Durham Records Office, CG 7/554 38 Newcastle University Library, MSS Misc 85 202 Durham Records Office, CG 30/10-11 Gateshead Library Local Studies, GPL CP/1/passim Publications of the Surtees Society,184 Dunstan Staiths and Waggonways, Gateshead Library Local Studies, c.1810 GPL BP 1/83 1723, Northbanks and proposed Tanfield Ways, 28 April 1723, Gateshead Library Local Studies GPL CP/1/140 A. Williams, 2004, A Fighting Trade - Review and mapping of routes, unpublished document for Tyne & Wear Heritage Environment Record; Alan Williams Archaeology, 2013, Waggonways to the South Bank of the River Tyne and to the River Wear; Turnbull, L, 2012, Railways Before George Stephenson (entry 56) 10-11, 155, 169