Newcastle is built on glacial deposits which are over 100ft deep. As these flowed down to the Tyne gorge, deep valleys were cut into the surface. The Pandon Dene was wide as well as deep - 140 yards wide near the east end of Northumberland Road. Pampedenburn (1270-80, 1324, 1425), Pampedenburne (1430), Pandon Borne (1558). The lower section of Pandon Dene up to Pandon Gate was culverted after 1649. From around 1840 the culverts were used for sewage disposal. Pandon Dene beyond the town walls was the last major section of the valley to be filled. Bourne had previously described it as "a very romantick place, full of hills and vales". Waste material from the Victoria Tunnel was dumped in the dene in 1842, then material from Manors Station construction was added. In 1881 material from St. Michael's Mount was added. By 1886 the Pandon dene was almost all infilled. In 1977 during President Carter's visit to Newcastle, part of the infill of Pandon Dene south of the Civic Centre, subsided under the weight of the crowd {1}. Excavations in 1986 found that a breach was made into the culvert of the Pandon Dene and a new pipe laid to divert the burn into a sewer beneath Broad Chare. The culvert was vaulted and had a V-shaped sandstone pavement. Possibly C17 or later. There is evidence in Corporation leases from the end of C17 (TWAS 589/6) of tenants being allowed to enclose the burn. The medieval waterfront reclamation of Newcastle has been explored in several archaeological excavations amongst which the most informative have been those in the estuary of the Pandon Burn. The earliest reclamation so far identified was in the lower reaches of the Pandon Burn, which was 130 to 160 feet wide and 3-5 feet deep. Here in the late 12th century, south from Stockbridge and west of the street called Pandon, stone revetments were built to retain dumps of stone, cobbles and flood material to create a platform for buildings and reducing the width of the burn. This procedure continued, one revetment succeeding another, each further out into the river, through the 13th century and beyond.

Starts as three streams. One runs from a pond at Benfield Road/Shields Road junction, east and parallel with Shields Road for 1/4 mile, east and south to Fossway to join another stream which rises east of Scrogg Road and runs south of it and parallel with Fossway. The two combined streams run east to join a third burn which runs down Stott's Road from just north of Fossway, forms a short stretch of the Newcastle/Wallsend boundary to join the other two streams at the railway.

Starts as two streams. From north of Cragside, then parallel with and south of Cragside over Benton Road and south-east to Etherstone Avenue. The other route runs from a pond east of Benton Road, south parallel with Benton Road to Etherstone Avenue. From there one burn runs south over Coast Road, east-south-east to cross Benfield Road, south-south-east and then east to Willington Cut. This forms the boundary between Newcastle and Wallsend.

Rises on Moor east of Grandstand Road, flows via a pond parallel with Claremont Road to lake in Exhibition Park. Two possible lines shown between there and Jesmond Road - north of lake over North Road, parallel with Clayton Road and then south, and south of lake to paddling pool and east. Another route from north of Jesmond Road, south, then east under railway to Sandyford Road/Chester Street junction, the south-east to join Ouse Burn north of Warwick Street. Newcastle is built on glacial deposits which are over 100ft deep. As these flowed down to the Tyne gorge, deep valleys were cut into the surface. At Lambert's Leap (junction of Sandyford Road and Grantham Road) the Sandyford Dene was 36 feet deep and 45 feet wide (Barke & Buswell 1980).

Rises south-east of Kenton Road/Grandstand Road junction on the Moor, flows east via a pond to cross North Road, the allotments, then south parallel with and west of railway for 1/4 mile, then east-south-east over Osborne Road to Jesmond Road south of junction with Jesmond Dene Road, and south-south-east into the Ouse Burn.

Flows east along north edge of Nun's Moor and Duke's Moor to join the Ouse Burn east of the foot of Matthew Bank.

The Ouse Burn runs for nine miles from its source at Callerton Pond, eastwards past Kingston Park before turning south. "Owse-Burn… is at present a large Village, occasioned by the Coal-works of Richard Ridley and Matthew White, Esq; etc… it takes its Name from the Burn that runs through it. The Banks of this Burn are in many Places terribly high, in all Places beautifully Romantick" (Bourne, 1736, p 153). Description by Robert Gilchrist 1825 and MacKenzie 1827, who calls it a pleasant retreat. This is the only stream that flows into the Tyne at Newcastle that still runs in the open air. The stream was a means of transport for the industries of the lower valley and provided water power via millraces to mills. Part of the Ouse Burn was culverted and the dene infilled in the area of the City Stadium in the twentieth century.

Rises just north of Northumberland Road, runs east of and parallel with Northumberland Street and Pilgrim Street until it turns east at City Road to join Pandon Burn. Means stream with an island. Ayrykborne (1322), Arikburn (1466), Ayrekburn (1518). Culverted by 1733. In order to build Dean Street the valley had to be infilled with bricks, clay, stone and rubbish on top of the culvert. At the junction of Dean Street and Mosley Street over 30 feet of fill was dumped.

Rises on Barrack Road, midway between Stanhope Street and Corporation Street, then in Darn Crook area and under Newgate Street to join Lort Burn just east of Grainger Street.

Rises in Leazes, between Barrack Road and Richardson Road, then runs across Richardson Road just north of junction with Queen Victoria Road, down north side of St. Thomas Street and bends south just after junction with Percy Street and so on beneath Grey Street and Dean Street. Denburn (1311), le Denburn (1331), Lorteburn (c.1361), Lorteburn (c. 1292, 1394), Lorteburne (1394-5), Lortburn (1414, 1505), Lorkburn (1425), Lorburn (1512), Lortborn (1513). Lort means 'dirty'. There was a tenement on Lort Burn called le Payntithall (1361) and le Payntydhalle (1364) - related to Painter Heugh? The burn was crossed by the High and Low Bridges. Painter Heugh was said to have been the highest upstream point which was navigable by small boats, painters being mooring ropes. By 1580 part of the Lort Dene was being infilled and by 1646 the lowest section was being culverted. The section in the Side was finished in 1696. The Lort Burn was fully covered in 1784 because was deemed "a vast nauseous hollow… a place of filth and dirt". To create Grey Street, 250,000 cartloads of material were dumped in the Lort Dene above the culvert to level the site. The Lort Burn was a barrier which prevented east-west movement across the medieval town. It ran from the modern Eldon Square, between the market street and Pilgrim Street, through Sandhill to the Tyne.