Rainton and Seaham Railway

HER Number

2976

District

Sunderland

Site Name

Rainton and Seaham Railway

Place

Warden Law

Map Sheet

NZ35SE

Class

Transport

Site Type: Broad

Railway Transport Site

Site Type: Specific

Railway

General Period

POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence

Documentary Evidence

Description

The Rainton and Seaham Railway line, built by the Marquis of Londonderry, opened in 1831 and was worked entirely by inclines. The line closed in 1896, but the section from near Copt Hill to the North Hetton Branch, along with that branch, was taken over by the Hetton Coal Company and worked until 1917. The western end was where it split into the Adventure and Framwellgate branches (HER ref. 3195 and HER ref. 3200, respectively) at Nicholson's Pit (HER ref. 3201).

Easting

437450

Northing

549650

Grid Reference

NZ437450549650

Sources

<< HER 2976 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 6 inch scale, Durham14
C.E. Mountford, 1970, The Development of Colliery Railways in Co. Durham, p.13,16; East Rainton Women's Institute, no date, History of East Rainton (typescript); Pre-Construct Archaeology, 2019. Land at Hetton Road, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear