Team Hemp Ropery

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Ian Farmer Associates in advance of the construction of a motor part store. The site was occupied by the Team Hemp Ropery of R.S. Newell & Co. which was in existence in 1840 and the Team Gut Staiths which formed the terminus of the Team Colliery Waggonway as early as 1670 but were removed by 1897. The firm of R.S. Newell amalgamated with Dixon and Corbitt by 1887. The long ropery building remained derelict until the late 1980s when it was cleared for the Gateshead Garden Festival of 1990. The trenching exercise recorded the lower sandstone-built courses of the ropeworks building and a coal and ash floor. The industrial remains were left in-situ, avoided by the raft and piled foundations of the new store.