Garesfield Wagonway

HER Number:
3465

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Garesfield Wagonway

Place:
Derwent Haugh

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW NZ15NW

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Tramway

Site Type: Specific:
Wagonway

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The northern terminus of the Garesfield Wagonway was probably at Garesfield Staith (HER ref. 3461), but on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan it appears to stop just short. Its southern end was at Garesfield Colliery A Pit (HER ref. 3372). The line was first opened in 1801 by the Bute, Hertford and Simpson Agents. It was redesigned in 1819 by George Stephenson and George Hill, at which time it only reached as far west as the Garesfield Number 4 pit (HER ref. 3374). It was extended to High Spen in 1850 and Chopwell in 1891, having been sold to the Consett Iron Company in 1889. A new stretch of line from Winlaton Mill to Derwenthaugh opened in 1902 (begun 1897). In 1960 working at Chopwell ceased and the line was thereafter in use only between Winlaton Mill and Derwenthaugh for Derwenthaugh Coke Works. Precursors of this line were Ridley's Thornley Wagonway (1717) and the East Winlaton Wagonway (1700). Remains of the line survive at various points, such as at circa NZ 1526 5988 in the woods east of High Spen, where a wagonway cutting survives, now used as a public footpath.

Easting:
2036

Northing:
6327

Grid Reference:
NZ20366327

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 3465 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 2 Bennett, G, Clavering, E & Rounding, A, 1989, A Fighting Trade, Vol 1, p 181-3 Tyne and Wear Industrial Monuments Trust, 1978, Dunston and Swalwell Plan Area Durham Records Office, D/CG 6/1652-3, 6/1304 Northumberland Records Office, ZRI 21/13 Victoria County History of Durham, vol II Durham Records Office, D/CG 6/1406, WG 30.5.66 Northumberland Records Office, NEIMME Buddle XIV 435-40 Northumberland Records Office, NEIMME Buddle XIV 8, 18 Northumberland Records Office, 725/F/17 Reid, 1863, Handbook to Tyneside, p 193 1977, Industrial Railway Society Handbook, L, p 3-11 W. Casson, 1801, Plan showing Collieries and Waggonways on the rivers Tyne and Wear -Gateshead Library Local Studies, GPL CAB A1/4 R. L Galloway, 1898, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, Vol 1, pp 373-4 Waggonways and Railways of North-West Durham, Durham Records Office, D/CG 6/1435 1768, Proposed Garesfield Colliery, Northumberland Records Office, ZAN M17 197C, LRO DDTo E/15 Dept. Pal. & Dip. Durham, 1808, Garesfield Waggonway Terminus, DUPD, Gibson, 124 A. Williams, 2004, A Fighting Trade - Review and mapping of routes; unpublished document for Tyne & Wear Heritage Environment Record; Alan Williams Archaeology, 2013, Waggonways to the South Bank of the River Tyne and to the River Wear; Turnbull, L, 2012, Railways Before George Stephenson (entry 62g) 156, 171; Hair, T. H, 1844, Views of the Collieries p39