The High Main, Splint, Three Quarter and Brockwell coal seams outcropped in Throckley, within The Duke of Northumberland’s Newburn Lordship. Active from the early 18th century, Throckley Colliery was fully developed by the partnership of Matthew Bell and William Brown from 1751. Three maps made over the 1760s and 70s show the dispersed pattern of coal pits in the colliery, typical of eighteenth-century mining, with waggonways branching to active pit heads within fields north-east of Throckley village and around Throckley Fell House (NRO: ZAN Bell M17/197/A (plan 24); NEIMME: Watson 23/21; Turnbull 2009, 125). The earliest of these maps, prepared for the Duke of Northumberland in 1767, shows a scatter of named pits with a waggonway forking and running to the Rose and Engine Pits. The two later maps (1770s) show a different arrangement of waggonways, with lines branching to Success, Pink, Rye, Wardle, New Engine, Queen and Rose Pits with many other, presumably disused, pit heads scattered across the fields. The waggonways were relatively insubstantial and relocated as needed in what must have been an active landscape. Both maps also show the ‘new engine’ draining the colliery, with a water channel running to Walbottle Dene. From the working area of the colliery, the waggonway ran down the western side of the dene, crossed the burn at Throckley Bridge and ran on for a distance before branching to run into staiths at Lemington. This line closed in 1780 when the colliery fell into disuse, although the lower part was taken up by other collieries. A number of pits in Throckley were opened again in the mid 19th century and a new route for the south part of the line (HER 4227) was established running to the river west of Lemington. This is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey.

Historic map evidence shows the position of West Engine Pit (Coal).

East Engine Pit (Coal) is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan, but not shown on the 2nd edition plan, indicating that it was out of use by 1895, by which time the site has been lost within Throckley Colliery.

Cat Pit (Coal) is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan, but not shown on the 2nd edition plan, indicating that it was out of use by 1895.

This Coal Pit is marked as ‘Old’ on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan, suggesting that it was probably out of use by 1857.

Historic Ordnance Survey map evidence shows the position of High Lane Mill (Corn).

Historic Ordnance Survey map evidence shows the position of a Brick Yard in Birtley.

Historic Ordnance Survey map evidence shows the position of a Smithy in Birtley.

Birtley Iron Works. The works were founded in the 1820s. They supplied material for the High Level Bridge. During the Second World War the Birtley Iron Company made armoured car bodies, field gun suspension and Bailey Bridges.

Shop Houses is annotated at this location on historic Ordnance Survey map evidence; the name suggests that this might be colliery workers’ housing.