Axwell Park, serpentine lake

HER Number

7905

District

Gateshead

Site Name

Axwell Park, serpentine lake

Place

Axwell Park

Map Sheet

NZ16SE

Class

Gardens Parks and Urban Spaces

Site Type: Broad

Water Feature

Site Type: Specific

Ornamental Lake

General Period

POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence

Structure

Description

Described on the Ordnance Survey first edition as a "fish pond" but it was in fact a 1km long ornamental serpentine lake, with a boat house (HER 7904) and sluice (HER 7906). The lake began life as a millpond created in 1638 by William Selby III of the White House to power a mill to pump water out of his coal workings. See HER 13587.

The lake was used for curling by the Newcastle and North Shields Curling Club. The club formed in Percy Main in 1843, and played matches at Clousden Hill and Fenham before moving to Axwell Park. In 1864 the club moved to an artificial pond in Pelaw.

Easting

419490

Northing

562200

Grid Reference

NZ419490562200

Sources

Ordnance Survey first edition map 1850; G. Stobbs, Tyne and Wear Museums, 2005, Axwell Park, Blaydon, Tyne and Wear - Archaeological Assessment; N.G. Rippeth, 1990, Blaydon in old picture postcards; Eric Clavering and Alan Rounding, 1995, Early Tyneside Industrialism: The lower Derwent and Blaydon Burn Valleys 1550-1700, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 5, Vol XXIII, pages 249-268; Alan Rounding, 2011, Winlaton Waggonways >1633-1720, Winlaton/Brockwell I >1633-c1720, East Winlaton I >1633-c1655 (unpublished text for HER); https://sites.google.com/a/curlingplaces.info/cp3/places/4094-axwell-park-newcastle; Newcastle Curling Club, Jubilee Banquet in The Newcastle Courant, Saturday February 25, 1893, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B92iT6R7LDN-Q254TGgtOFlZUVU/edit;