Swalwell, medieval staiths

HER Number:
13577

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Swalwell, medieval staiths

Place:
Swalwell

Map Sheet:
NZ16SE

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Water Transport Site

Site Type: Specific:
Staith

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C16

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Accounts of 1582 show that the principal partner at Winlaton Colliery was coal magnate James Lawson's daughter Barbara Blunt-Scrivener. While most Winlaton coal went to Blaydon Staiths, she had a river port of her own on the River Derwent at Swalwell Ford. Her staiths were located on the Swalwell side. Total output for 1581 was given as 23,602 fothers, over 100 wainloads a day, making 7,867 Newcastle chaldrons, some 20,800 tons. The Whickham Grand Lease had staiths immediately those of Barbara Blunt, which brought coal from their Axwell and Swalwell pits to the Derwent.

Easting:
198

Northing:
623

Grid Reference:
NZ198623

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Eric Clavering and Alan Rounding, 1995, Early Tyneside Industrialism: The lower Derwent and Blaydon Burn Valleys 1550-1700, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 5, Vol XXIII, pages 249-268