Blaydon Burn, coal screens

Shown for the first time on the 2nd edition OS of 1896, and described by Bourn as being ‘lately erected by Cowen & Co. as part of Blaydon Burn Colliery (Bourn 153). The screens were greatly enlarged by 1919 [OS 3], probably a result of absorbtion of Blaydon Burn into Priestman Collieries c.1900, and survived until at least the 1950s. The site is called a coal/clay drop in HER 1649.

The 1940 OS map shows a building on the site (first recorded in 1896) and some of the structures which survive in this vicinity may relate to this, although a detailed match would require a more comprehensive metric survey. At the western end of the screens are a number of brick structures which form a series of 'rooms', along the back of which run a small brick tunnel adjacent to the rear retaining wall; this is brick lined and soot blackened (Plate 23). These structures were largely constructed of firebrick, with some later red housebrick incorporated in the upper courses, laid in English bond. The walls stood 2.5m high on top of which was a 0.20m thick concrete floor, re-enforced with iron rails. The brick structures were built against a sandstone retaining wall similar to (15) and (16)