Waggonway from Middle Pit to East Pit

After the closure of Heaton Banks Colliery in 1745, there was a gap of around 45 years before coal mining came back to Heaton, this time to the eastern part of the royalty, as Heaton Main Colliery. Rights to the coal seams, deeper in this area than to the west, were leased to a George Johnson. Mining was by the late 18th century a very different business to that of the first half of the century with great advances in sinking, draining and ventilating pits, and in transporting coal long distances below ground from working faces. Only three pits were sunk to work the whole colliery.

Heaton Main was served by waggonways which ran south-east between the three widely-spaced pits and on to Lawson’s Main Colliery. This line formed the middle part of the route between Middle Pit and East Heaton Pit, joined to the north by a waggonway from High Pit (route 100) and to the south by a waggonway to Lawson’s Main Colliery (route 114) which linked the Heaton pits to the existing Lawson’s Main route to St Anthony’s in Byker. The line is shown on Watson 27/13 This route closed in 1811 and was replaced by a line running more directly to St Anthony’s (HER 15340) from East Heaton Pit