Blaydon Burn, kiln back

The remains of one of a bank of Newcastle kilns associated with Cowen’s Low Works, constructed before 1900, with the shell of a sandstone rubble building to the north.

The surviving structure comprises the base of a Newcastle kiln chimney visible as part of a group of buildings at the north western end of a sandstone rubble retaining wall (96). This group showed a number of phases of modification including blocked window and door openings.

The kiln back protrudes some 0.5m in front of the retaining wall and was defined by a set of alternating quoins on the north side (not present on the south side). The building was constructed of roughly squared, randonmly coursed sandstone with some rubble infill. At ground level a recess with an arch of firebricks contains a cast-iron pipe projecting from the rear wall, function unknown.

To the north of the chimney was a later building constructed of sandstone rubble and featuring a least one block window and door. The buiding was original two storeys high but later reduced to a single storey outshot during which phase the openings were blocked and a cat slide roof added. The line of the former floor level can be clearly traced on north facing internal wall which also formed the side of the brick kiln chimney.

The outshot abuts an earlier building to the rear which is of a similar build to the Kiln back and probably part of the same structure. The surviving wall of this building includes at least one blocked window opening.