Windmill Hill and Redheugh Way (Saltwellside Way)

Description (Windmill and Redheugh):
The waggonway is recorded on the Waggonways on South Bank of the Tyne plan of 1728 after Stella Grand Lease. It was laid out no later than 1647. The plan shows a very short line, less than three quarters of a mile long, serving the colliery on Windmill Hill on the Bensham estate and running to the Pott House which stood at the east end of Pipewellgate. Its staith must have stood near the southern abutments of the High Level Bridge.

Description (Carr Waggonways in Gateshead and Redheugh):
Sir Ralph Carr, predecessor of Sir Henry Liddell, was the great man of coal in Gateshead. He worked the extensive Fieldhouse and Saltwellside collieries and probably used the Windmill Hill waggonway to staiths at Stinking Burn and South Shore. In 1707 he took over the top end of the Windmill Hill Way and relaid the waggonway across Robson’s closes, Town Fields, Stinking Burn and Bradley Head.

Description (Saltwellside):
Possibly the work of Sir George Vane. Saltwellside was probably a very considerable colliery by 1670 and Vane had keelrooms at Team Staith. These could not have handled the output of a major colliery however, and the alternatives were an outlet through Fieldhouse, or a way down to the east bank of the Team and then along into Redheugh. Early Ordnance Survey maps show some evidence of such a way. Saltwellside Way probably existed on the east bank of the Team from around 1670 to about 1720. When both Team and Dunstan became overcrowded after 1725 they were relieved by an overflow branch from Team to Redheugh staiths and this might have been a reinstatement of the lower end of the Saltwellside Way.