The Pelaw Main Wagonway. At its northern end this joined the Ouston and Pelaw Wagonway, (HER 2222), towards the south it ran out of the county. Tomlinson records that this line was formerly called the Bewicke Main Waggonway. On this line there was an inclined plane at Whitehouse, which was 1,600 yards long, and started work on 15th March 1810. This inclined plane used the weight of the loaded wagons to put the empty ones up the hill. The first ever fixed engine used for hauling wagons was erected on Birtley Fell in 1808 (HER 3915) by Samuel Cooke, one of the owners of the Bewicke Main or Urpeth Colliery, when forming a wagonway to the River Tyne. It began working on the 17th May, 1809, drawing four chauldron wagons up the plane. Until 1816 when the colliery was closed, the Urpeth coals went northwards along the west side of the Urpeth Burn, eastward over the Team Valley branch, towards Birtley Station, where a footbridge had been built over the line. It crossed the Newcastle and Durham turnpike road (HER 4125), then ran up the fellside to Black Fell engine, and northwards to Eighton Banks. In 1815 a new line was built south of the engine, including the Birtley and Blackhouse planes, to Ouston Colliery. A section of the wagonway between Blackhouse Plane and the foot of the Eighton Bank Plane was worked by horses, until 1821 when Mr. Benjamin Thompson of Ouston Colliery, added two stationary engines. The Eighton Banks engine used a rope nearly a mile and a half long (the longest manufactured at that time) to pull six wagons and a tailrope from the Blackhouse engine.

The Trench. Part of a scheme by Sir Thomas Liddell to drain several hundred acres of the Team Valley and Ravensworth. It was a leat, following the 225ft contour which powered three water wheels which in turn drove a battery of pumps in interlinked shafts, with enormous timber transmission shafts and cog-and-rung gearing. The deepest shaft was c.460ft, 128m. The whole system was recorded in 1672 by George Sinclair. The Trench also provided water for Cowclose Mill (SMR 3775). The locations of the shafts and wheels are not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping {2}. The Trench was a long and circuitous leat, constructed for Sir Thomas Liddell, to provide sufficient water to power the pumps at the coalmill (SMR 1663). The leat channelled the water to a series of three interlinked waterwheels. The Trench is approximately 3km in length and was fed from the Black Burn, which bounded the Ravensworth estate to the north. It now serves as a field drain for most of its length and has been partly recut. It enters a rectangular holding pond, which is now mostly dry {3}.
A portion survives at NZ2271159850 and was added to the Gateshead local list in 2023. The local list description reads:
'Earthwork ditch running through the north part of Ravensworth Park via Coxclose Wood, Coxclose Dene and north of Trench House. It was built by Sir Thomas Liddell in the 1670s to power the coalmill which forms part of the Scheduled Monument NHLE 1015922 (900m to the south-east).'

Weavers Row. This is possibly a row of weavers cottages, but this is not made clear on the 1st edition OS mapping.

A Clay Pit the location of which is unclear on the 1st edition OS mapping, but it probably lay within a 100m radius of this grid reference.

A Coal Shaft, marked as Old on the 1st edition OS mapping, so was out of use by 1858. The coal shaft was sunk in around 1805 and closed by 1859. An inclined plane (SMR 4906) linked the shaft with the riverside.

A Gravel Pit. This is not shown on the 2nd edition OS mapping, so was probably out of use by 1895.

The lead works started as a partnership 'Walker, Fishwick and Ward', which was set up in 1778 to manufacture white lead. This was a significant development in the region, since there were no other white lead manufactories on or near the Tyne, despite the large quantities of metallic lead being exported through the Tyne. The demand for white lead in the north east was presumably being met by the manufactories in Hull and London at this time. Initially a 2 acre site was leased, which was split into two parts, one half for the manufactory, contained within a stone wall measuring 100 x 36-38 yards, the other for a partner's house and worker's accommodation. Other structures built on the site at this time included a stack house, a melting house, a wash house, a brewhouse and a windmill. Paint manufacture started in 1779. Expansion of the site began with the lease of a further two fields in 1785. Red lead and lead shot production both began by 1786 and sheet lead production (rolled rather than cast) was begun in 1788. The lead manufactory continued to expand during the 19th century, with further purchases of land around the site, and survives, through a number of name changes, to the present day. The Elswick shot tower (NZ 2420 6312) was begun in 1796. It went into use in 1797 and remained in use until 1951. Although listed, it was demolished in 1968-9 after becoming unsafe. It is possible that a pit may have existed beneath the tower, although this seems unlikely in view of its height. The site appears to have been extensively rebuilt, expanded and redeveloped between 1802 and 1827, to the extent that the only structures to survive this rebuilding appear to have been the shot tower, office (SMR 4899) and the worker's cottages (SMR 4896). There is a gap in the otherwise very complete documentary records for the site during the same period, and it is conceivable that a fire or other catastrophic event may have necessitated the rebuilding of the site, and also led to the destruction of a substantial part of the company records. The mid-19th century extent of the site is derived from the buildings shown on the OS 1859 map, as this seems to show the fullest extent before further redevelopment between 1859 and 1894. An annotated plan of the site, provisionally dated to 1850 (NCLLSS Bell/9/16), gives much detail of the site, including names for many of the structures on the site. These include white lead stacks and associated facilities for washing and packing white lead, as well as red lead houses, three engine houses, a rolling mill, a number of silver refineries and a pipe shed. There are two riveted iron or steel cylinders at NZ 2419 6315 and NZ 2423 6317 which are likely to be the remains of boilers from one of the 19th century steam engines used on the site. They are unlikely to be in situ. A pond, 9.5m in diameter, built between 1827 and 1844 and removed between 1859 and 1894 was situated at NZ 2428 6316. It appears to have been part of the water system for the industrial part of the site. {3}

Elswick Iron Works.

Elswick Gas Works were brought into use in 1859 when two smaller works at Manors and Sandgate were closed down. Production of town gas at Elswick was large but not enough to prevent claims of poor supply to some parts of the town. A further complaint about the site, dating from 1871, was that "an abominable stench arises from the gas works". Despite these problems the invention of the mantle in the 1880s saw gas used for lighting in the streets and houses until the Second World War. However, the increasing availability of electric lighting in the 1940s brought about the closure of many gas works, including that at Elswick {2}. The buildings weren't actually demolished until 1974. There are substantial sandstone boundary walls shown on Oliver's map of 1844. Retaining walls and trackway likely to be associated with the gas works are shown on the 1897 OS plan. A large gas holder and a smaller one still exists.

Elswick Iron Foundry including Elswick Forge.