Monkseaton, saw pit

Tomlinson describes a plain-fronted stone house built in the early 19th century by Robert Lyon on the site of an old saw pit. This industrial part of Monkseaton village, combrising of whitewashed cottages and the Seven Stars Inn, set back from Front Street, was called The Fold or Fau'd. Other small-scale industry in The Fold included a skinnery, tin worker, cooper and umbrella repairer. Robert Lyons house is shown on map of 1833, the tithe map of 1845 and the Ordnance Survey first and second editions. By the third edition it had been rebuilt or divided into two. As the saw pit was already described as "old" at the beginning of the 19th century, it could potentially have early originals, maybe even the medieval period.