Harraton, (Humble's) Wagonway

HER Number

3010

District

Sunderland

Site Name

Harraton, (Humble's) Wagonway

Place

Harraton

Map Sheet

NZ25SE

Class

Transport

Site Type: Broad

Tramway Transport Site

Site Type: Specific

Wagonway

General Period

POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence

Documentary Evidence

Description

Also known as Humble's Wagonway. Established in 1741 to transport coal from pits on Birtley Common to a staith at Fatfield. In 1754, the line was taken up by Thomas Donnison to move coal from South Birtley Colliery. It became a major main way with branches to North Birtley, Black Fell (HER 17097), Harraton Boundary Moor (HER 14891) and Harraton Outside (HER2547). Marked as 'Old' on the 1st edition OS mapping, so was out of use by 1858. Shown on Bell 1843 extending to Boundary Pit (HER 3002). In 2009 three phases of timber waggonway were archaeologically excavated at the junction of this waggonway with the Fatfield Waggonway (HER 3018) and waggonway HER 3010 on the Dunlop Tyres site by Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd. A section of the waggonway was recorded in 2014 by ASUD at the Portobello Industrial Estate. The waggonway was identified as two parallel ditches interpreted as drainage. The western ditch (4m+ x 2.7m, 0.3m deep) and the eastern ditch (4m+ x 2m, 0.35m deep) were both cut into natural subsoil. Between the ditches were the remnants of a raised area which may have formed the basis for the track bed.

Easting

429190

Northing

555040

Grid Reference

NZ429190555040

Sources

<< HER 3010 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 13; John Thomas William Bell, 1843, Plan of part of the Tyne and Wear coal districts in the County of Durham; Tithe map of Harraton in the Parish of Chester-le-Street, 1847; Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd, 2008, An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment: The Former Goodyear Dunlop Tyre Factory, Wear Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne and Wear; Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd, 2009, An Archaeological Evaluation at The Former Goodyear Dunlop Tyre Factory, Wear Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne and Wear; Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd, 2010, An Archaeological Excavation at The Former Goodyear Dunlop Tyre Factory, Wear Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne and Wear; Archaeological Services Durham University, 2014, Portobello Industrial Estate, Birtley, Gateshead - Archaeological Evaluation; Alan Williams Archaeology, 2013, Waggonways to the South Bank of the River Tyne and to the River Wear; Turnbull, L, 2012, Railways Before George Stephenson (entry 77/77a) p172; Archaeological Services Durham University, 2019, Former Ayton School, Washington, Tyne and Wear, Desk-based assessment report 5138.