Heworth Chemical Works

HER Number:
12721

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Heworth Chemical Works

Place:
Heworth

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Industrial

Site Type: Broad:
Chemical Production Site

Site Type: Specific:
Chemical Works

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
A list of chemical works published by the British Association in 1863 lists 'Dr. Hutchinson, Felling, early in the present century' and 'Mr. J. Allen, Felling, 1828'. In the heyday of the Heworth Chemical Works there were two separate sites - one at Heworth Shore (the Low Works) and one at the upper end of Brewery Lane (the High Works). In 1828 John Allen had started alkali manufacture at Heworth Shore with Thomas Coultherd. Production was on a small scale. Around 1818 Francis Hutchinson had acquired a site at the top of Brewery Lane where he manufacturered chemicals (epsom salts and alum) but not alkali. In 1830 chambers were erected for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, which was needed for the manufacture of epsom salts and alum. Hutchinson started to make alkali, but he went bankrupt. On 26 July 1836 John Allen and his partners bought the High Works. The two works were now known as Heworth Chemical Works. A plan of the High Works of 1836 shows that it included a filtering and crystallizing house, saltcake and blackash furnaces, two workers houses, a seven-roomed house for the manager, a cooperage, a smith's workshop and a plumber's shop. In 1847 the lease on the works expired and the partnership between Allen and Coultherd was dissolved. Allen moved much of the equipment to his new factory at Wallsend (HER 2088). The Heworth Works were bought by Coultherd for £16,000.

Easting:
2811

Northing:
6287

Grid Reference:
NZ28116287

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Department of Extra-Mural Studies, 1961, The Old Tyneside Chemical Trade, chapter X, pages 27-29