Crawcrook and Rise Moor Way

HER Number:
3321

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Crawcrook and Rise Moor Way

Place:
Crawcrook

Map Sheet:
NZ16SW NZ16NE

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Tramway

Site Type: Specific:
Wagonway

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C17

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
It is possible that Crawcrook, lying much closer to the River Tyne, had a waggonway before Chopwell. Under the ownership of Robert Anderson there may have been a waggonway here before 1640, although no positive evidence has been found to prove this. By the early 18th century, the way is not shown on the 1728 plan, although there is evidence it was open at this time; it is possible it was subsumed under another waggonway. The site of the 17th century Crawcrook Colliery was probably the same as that of the 19th century one, still visible south of South View as an area of spoil heaps. The waggonway took a north-easterly course through the later Emma Colliery at Bar Moor. From there to the Holburn Dene it course is followed by the Corbridge road. It reached Ryton Haughs along the east side of the dene where the remains of an embankment still stand. This embankment has, in the past, been erroneously regarded as a defensive measure built to protect English soldiers at the Battle of Newburn. The original staiths were on the Tyne, nearly opposite Newburn Church, above Crummel Ford. Rise Moor Colliery was opened around 1685. It was worked by wains and any serious development depended on Chopwell’s waggonway. By 1710 it had gone out of production but was leased in 1736 by John Humble of Ryton and in 1737 he built a waggonway. He used the old Crawcrook waggonway by extending it to the valley of the Stanley Burn and intended to work coal from this low point. The old waggonway had already been extended as far as the Bradley Burn, past the Rising Sun Inn. Humble’s extension from the Bradley Burn over the Stanley Burn is clear on the ground. It appears on an early 19th century map crossing the Stanley Burn under the name “Mill Moss Waggonway”, despite it having been lifted in 1781, and the relaying of 1787 is thought to have ended at Crawcrook. It had a wayleave to use the old waggonway to Boggle Hole as well as new staiths on the Hassocks at Stella, with a mount (an embankment built to allow the coal still to be shot into keels from above where the river banks were low). Another crossing, across the Red Burn in Guards Wood, entailed a battery and culvert and it remains today. The waggonway ended just beyond the lane bounding Dukes Hagg Wood. In 1743 another extension was built from the Red Burn deep into Prudhoe. It closed 20 years later when two copyholders each built a wall across it. In 1763 another colliery was opened at Rise Moor and the waggonway was extended from Dukes Hagg Wood, where it can be seen overlying the old way, for nearly 1½ miles to the west, removing the newly built blocking walls. At the head of the incline at Dukes Hagg Wood the way split, one branch heading south to Leadgate and the other westward to Airey Hill. A plan of 1767 shows a diversion at Stella Boggle Hole with a new timber bridge on gears over the stream. This latest Rise Moor Colliery lasted until 1781, when it was worked out, and the copyholders rebuilt their walls across the waggonway and it was lifted. In 1787 its Hassock staiths was an empty site. By 1789 the way was lifted in three places either side of Whitewell Lane. By 1820 the wooden waggonway was no longer in use and it was not relaid. By the middle of the 18th century, Crawcrook Way was re-routed to the south by the partnership of Wrightson and Walters, cutting through Chopwell Estate which it had previously avoided. The line was also extended with branches to pits on Mickley Moor and Labourne Fell, both areas beyond Tyne and Wear.

Easting:
1355

Northing:
6328

Grid Reference:
NZ13556328

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 3321 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 5 G. Bennett, E. Clavering and A. Rounding, 1990, A Fighting Trade - Rail Transport in Tyne Coal 1600-1800 M.J.T. Lewis, 1970, Early Wooden Railways, 118 Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, Durh4 ii/193 Northumberland Records Office, M17 197C Dept. Pal. & Dip. Durham, DUPD Gibson, 140 W. Bourn, 1896, History of the Parish of Ryton, p 48 and 76 Publications of the Surtees Society,178, 76-7 Gateshead Library Local Studies, GPL G/EA 35/6 Durham Cathedral Library, DCath Hunter Transactions of the Institute of Mining Engineers, 81 i 87 Northumberland Records Office, NCB 1/SC 791 Sheffield Central Library, ShCL Bagshawe 3307 Northumberland Records Office, NEIMME XXIIIa 27-31 Northumberland Records Office, NEIMME Forster XIX Neasham, 1893, p 270 Publications of the Surtees Society,197 Gateshead Library Local Studies, GPL G/CG 18/121 Northumberland Records Office, Bell 15/89 Lancashire County Record Office, LRO DDTo E Northumberland Records Office, 309 N21 Northumberland Records Office, NEIMME Buddle XIV 3-4 T.V. Simpson, Old mining records and plans Transactions of the Institute of Mining Engineers, 81, 1 81 1826, Greenside Colliery and Waggonway c.1826 -Durham Records Office, NCB I/RS 770 1820, Part of Stella Estate c.1820 -Durham Records Office, DX 35/14, 35/15 1738, Rise Moor Way wayleaves, -Northumberland Records Office, M17 197C 1767, The Old and New Waggon-Ways at Stella, privately owned 1795, Coomb Hills Farm at Ryton Woodside, -Durham Records Office, EP/Ryt 2/6 Dept. Pal. & Dip. Durham, 1785, Howburn [Crawcrook] Waggonway c.1785, DUPD Gibson, 140 1789, Crawcrook Freehold Waggonway Ryton -Northumberland Records Office, 309 N21 W. Casson, 1801, Plan showing Collieries and Waggonways on the rivers Tyne and Wear - Gateshead Library Local Studies, GPL CAB A1/4 R. Galloway, 1898, A Map of the Railways in the Newcastle on Tyne Coal Field in 1812, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade 1898, Vol I, 373-4 1743, Intended Mickley Moor Battery -Northumberland Records Office, NEIMME Watson S/23A/31 1787, Mickley Moor Waggonway Terminus, -Northumberland Records Office, ZAN Bell 11/4 1770, Mill Moss Waggonway of the 1770s, - Durham Records Office, NCB 1/SC 791 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; Bennett et al 1990, vol 1: 49, 148 vol 2: 20; Turnbull 2012, (entry 70B) 155, 171; NRO: PSAN/BEQ/5/3/12/4