Holywell Reins Wagonway

A map of around 1770 (Watson 24/29) superimposes the underground workings and surface features of the Earl of Carlisle’s Hollywell Reins Colliery in Newbiggin. Approaching from the south-west, the waggonway serving the colliery is shown branching to the dispersed Brunton, Anne, Unity, Liberty and John Pits. A number of other pits and four pumping engines (The west engine, old west engine, the little engine and the great engine) lie in the area. The waggonway took a curving line, on a fairly gentle slope, down to the River Tyne at Lemington. It is shown on a 1767 plan of the Duke of Northumberland’s Newburn Estate (NRO: ZanBellM17/197/A plan 24). The colliery, much equipment and four miles of waggonway were advertised and sold in September 1780 (Turnbull 2009, 129).