North East Heritage Library

Wonderful morning retracing my ancestry at Cloughton and attending the church service. An intact railway station plus an ace garden centre with Bardon Mill pottery, all the way down on the Yorkshire Coast!

Rob Langham is going great efforts to have them listed, so do like his page on Facebook to follow updates: www.facebook.com/share/1EeciZ...

Great care has been taking in recent decades to look after it, but its future is difficult to predict given there is no legal protection. This is especially the case given vandalism and small fires started in the tops.

They appear to have gone out of use by the 1850s, labelled as old on the Ordnance Survey maps of the same decade. Despite this, they remained stubbornly despite years of industrial processes growing and dismantling around it, most notably East Castle Colliery a few metres north.

After disuse they were bought up by the Derwent Iron Company in 1842, with the product moved to Consett either by cart or loaded into wagons nearby.

The Stanhope & Tyne went out of business after only a few years, which is partly why these kilns are in great condition. Use was uninterrupted for no more than 6 or 7 years, and even then the kilns were rotated.

Quicklime could then be used most notably as mortar and for metal working - an integral asset to the company to line brick shafts and build huge industrial complexes. It was (and still is) important in agriculture as a fertiliser too.

This stone structure is almost 200 years old, and dates from the actual inception of the Stanhope & Tyne Railroad in the 1830s. This area was surrounded by pits and drifts, and they all fed these kilns coal to burn the limestone to produce quicklime as an additional site to the kilns at Crawleyside.

One of the Stanhope & Tyne’s most important landmarks are the Bantling Castle limekilns. Somehow they’re not listed, and given their importance it is bewildering they haven’t been given protection.

Utility cover watch - Scarborough edition.

First time I’ve ever seen some Pease & Partners metalwork. They were one of the most important companies in the North East, hosting a whole supply chain from collieries to ironworks.

This one probably produced at Normanby.

A new generation for the project as we head into the production phase of this years North East History Compendium.

Our fourth edition will be available for pre-orders next month. In the meantime, we've had a little freshening up of the site!

www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk

Yes of course pal but you might need to remind me!

A new generation for the project as we head into the production phase of this years North East History Compendium.

Our fourth edition will be available for pre-orders next month. In the meantime, we've had a little freshening up of the site!

www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk

Morning!

A little reminder we're hosting our summer social over at the Tyne Bar on the 27th August. Come along, have a drink and a proper natter on the Tyne - absolutely everyone is welcome.

RSVP here: www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/event-detail...

Here’s a job advertisement from 1833 for laying of the Stanhope & Tyne at Annfield Plain before the village was even laid.

I didn’t know TE Harrison was the engineer and lived nearby. Harrison designed all the bridges along the Newcastle to Berwick Railway + the Victoria Viaduct

From there, it stood disused until smaller tanks were placed at the site in the 20th century.

It was down to mining - the Consett Water Company alleged the nearby pits of Burnhope and South Pontop caused subsidence which rendered this place useless. In fact the owner of the pits, Mr U Ritson, was nearly taken to the House of Lords by the CWC and the local Common Surface Owners Association.

I say all this but.... it was never used. The full thing was made and designed by Mr G Lambton, their engineer, but it was damaged before they could even use it.

The surrounding wall still exists which the report in the Consett Guardian of 09/05/1876 references, stating it was "enclosed by a stone wall, seven feet high, having pilasters every 12ft apart, and finished with a neat projecting stone coping and ashlar stone pillars".

The reservoir, which was intended to cover this entire plot, was entirely covered in with concrete laid upon a "substratum of clay puddle" to cleanse it where necessary.

This would enable the company to furnish the eastern side of their region, so Stanley and Burnopfield but afar as Chester le Street and Durham, with an abundant supply of pure water. It was said the pressure would be such "as to discharge a column of water over the highest part of the cathedral".

This was the site of the Loud Reservoir, opened by the Consett Water Company in 1877. This was intended to be a large service reservoir capable of holding 14 million gallons of water covering an area of 6 acres.

In the mid to late 19th century, private water companies started popping up as the region started urbanising at rapid pace. They were ultimately for a profit, answering the ever increasing question of inadequate clean water supplies.

We talk about them far too little IMO, but I put that down to not being a common sight in towns and cities anymore. Previously though, they were very local - similar to the village pond on a bigger scale.

Still in Annfield Plain, but edging towards Leadgate on its western outskirts now. This is Loud Bank, which the Stanhope & Tyne once climbed up to reach the smoggy horizons of Consett.

Something a bit different this time - reservoirs (with a twist)!

We also need to talk about how batshit the Stanhope & Tyne was in this area. Annfield Plain & Leadgate were connected by a rope-hauled railway literally on the West Road, with an engine house at the peak.

The line was on the road for about 3/4 mile. Any other examples of this?

The pits were disused by the 1930s, and it was all repurposed for recreation use and housing. When these houses were built, I do wonder if the tenants realise they were moving into hallowed ground, given the importance to the wider area.

When you consider over 600 people worked here directly (and presumably hundreds more indirectly), it had vast influence over the woes and fortunes of those in the village. 1200 tons of coal were mined out daily in the 1890s.

The working instigated the expansion of Annfield Plain, especially the rows and squares south of the village like Lizzie Square and the Wood Rows.

The colliery featured two pits: the Willie Pit and Hutton Pit which were either side of the Bankfoot Coke Ovens, which in turn created coke from coal for metal working purposes.