Cullercoats Waggonway

HER Number:
15332

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
Cullercoats Waggonway

Place:
Cullercoats

Map Sheet:
NZ37SE

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Tramway

Site Type: Specific:
Wagonway

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C17

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
This branching waggonway ran from Cullercoats to coal pits at Whitley Park and forked to the north-west to pits over the Monkseaton Road. Warn (76, 47 route 4) says it was opened by 1621 or 1677 (the earlier date is unlikely) and closed between 1706 and 1772. Turnbull says it had opened by 1676 and was closed by 1724. The line was set up by a consortium of businessmen led by Newcastle merchant John Rogers who owned mines in the Whitley and Monkseaton area (Turnbull 2012, 11 route 7). There is no contemporary map source, but the course of the abandoned waggonway was drawn and described in the notebook of Matthias Dunn (Forster 1/13/63) in the 1800s. Although the full length of the western branch is not shown on Dunn’s sketch it probably ran to coal pits exploiting the relatively shallow Yard Seam further to the north-west. The coal was used for heating salt pans at Cullercoats and some exported.

Easting:
3484

Northing:
7244

Grid Reference:
NZ34847244

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Alan Williams Archaeology, July 2012, Waggonways North of the River Tyne - Tyne and Wear HER Enhancement Project; North East Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineering, Forster 1/13/63; CR Warn, 1976, Waggonways and Early Railways of Northumberland (route 04); DS Timoney, 1982, Waggonways of Tyne and Wear - unpublished typescript for Tyne and Wear County Council, p 97 (route 39); Les Turnbull, 2012, Railways Before George Stephenson (route 7)