Tyne and Wear HER(2753): Monkwearmouth, Sheepfold Lime Works - Details
2753
Sunderland
Monkwearmouth, Sheepfold Lime Works
Monkwearmouth
NZ35NE
Industrial
Chemical Works
Lime Works
Post Medieval
C18
Documentary Evidence
Burleigh and Thompson's 1737 'Plan of the mouth of the River Wear' shows a battery of lime kilns and an associated slipway. Lime kilns are also shown on Raine's Ete Plan of 1790, linked to the turnpike road by a track up the bank on a steep gradient. This was later replaced by a waggonway from Fulwell Quarry (HER 2692), first shown on Robson's map of 1827. Sheepfold Lime Works are shown on the OS first edition map of 1855. They remained in use until the late 19th century and were demolished in the early 20th. There are no surviving remains, but there is evidence of localised quarrying along the adjacent escarpment. Lime was used as an agricultural fertiliser and was the main component of lime mortar. The lime quarries at Monkweearmouth were first leased by the Dean and Chapter of Durham to the Williamson family in 1714. Over the following one hundred years large batteries of kilns were built at both Sheepfolds and Carley Hill.
3943
5748
NZ39435748
1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 8; Burleigh and Thompson, 1737, Plan of the mouth of the River Wear; Raine's Eye Plan of Sunderland, 1790; Robson, 1827, map of Sunderland; MM Meikle and CM Newman, 2007, Sunderland and its Origins: Monks to Mariners, p 161; Northern Archaeological Associates, 2018, Sheepfolds, Monkwearmouth: Archaeological monitoring report;