West Brunton, Engine House

The Brunton and Shields Railway, forerunner of the more well-known and extensive Seaton Burn Wagonway was built in 1826 to a design by Benjamin Thompson. It was built to transport coals from Brunton colliery to the River Tyne at Whitehill Point, and used inclines, the first of which was at West Brunton to carry the coals over undulating countryside. The engine house at West Brunton was demolished circa 1892 when the Fawdon Railway was built and the line became a standard gauge track operated by locomotives. By the 1920s a separate spur ran over the site of the former engine house. The Brunton incline has been established as a public footpath. The remains of a "kip" on to which wagons would have run at the top of the incline survived into the modern era as a raised platform to the south of the engine house site. The structure is thought to have been used in the 20th century as a loading platform related to the short spur which ran over the site of the house, used for bringing in supplies needed by the local community and for taking out agricultural produce.