Cullercoats Waggonway

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.