Tyne and Wear HER(2172): Backworth, Abbey Shot Factory - Details
2172
N Tyneside
Backworth, Abbey Shot Factory
Backworth
NZ37SW
Industrial
Metal Smelting Site
Lead Works
Early Modern
C19
Documentary Evidence
Abbey Shot Factory, on the site of the former Earsdon Colliery, Duke and Dutchess Pit, (HER 1111) and was served by the Backworth Colliery Railway, Church Pit Branch, (HER 2171). Opened during the 1890s. Lead shot is made by pouring molten lead through a sieve and letting it fall far enough so that the metal cools and forms into spheres which are caught in sand. There was no shot tower here, instead the old mine shafts were used. The works had their own sidings to supply coal to the melting furnaces and to take the finished product away. The works probably closed during the depression.
3101
7188
NZ31017188
<< HER 2172 >> 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map, 1898, 6 inch scale, Northumberland, 89, NW; John Elliott & Derek Charlton, 1994, Backworth - An Illustrated History of the Mines and Railways