Gateshead, Rabbit Banks Road, retaining walls

Retaining walls to High Level Road and Rabbit Banks Road. Eight phases of wall were identified between the High Level Bridge and the western extent of the Boiler Shops in the 2001 assessment - none were positively identified on the First Edition OS plan (1956). Some of the walls form part of the Boiler Shop and Pattern Shop structures. One wall contains window sills and fragments of cast-iron down-corners from the 1871 boilers shop building. Another wall was noted as containing a block of sandstone with a deeply incised + cut into its face. It is possible that this is a representation of the episcopal cross and that the stone was a marker on the boundary - the 'head dyke' - between the Bishop of Durham's park and the lordship of Pipewellgate.