East Winlaton Way

The origin of the East Winlaton Way is unknown and may have been laid by one of a number of modest partnerships that arose in Winlaton the last 20 or 30 years of the 17th century. The East Winlaton Way is first mentioned in a dispute involving Sir James Clavering and dates to a year or so before his death in March 1702. The waggonway had been recently constructed on the west bank of the Derwent, through closes at the south-east corner of Axwell Park. A plan dating between 1732 and 1748, of waggonways from the Hagghill Turn to the staiths at Derwenthaugh, shows the route of the 1701 waggonway was followed 25 years later by the third Western Way. The East Winlaton Way is also shown on a sketch of the second Western Way’s crossing of the Derwent and was probably destined for Winlaton Mill. It is probably also the waggonway mentioned in litigation of 1727 where it was claimed that in 1719 there was a waggonway almost a mile long laid in Winlaton manor. The East Winlaton Way is one of several waggonways known to have carried industrial freight other than coal. The Crowley Iron Works took over the former Tempest coalmill in 1691 and exported its finished products by this waggonway.