Fatfield Waggonway

HER Number

3018

District

Sunderland

Site Name

Fatfield Waggonway

Place

Fatfield

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

Part of Humble's waggonway 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, Harraton Boundary Moor (HER 14891) and Harraton Outside (HER 2547). The Fatfield section ran from near to the North Eastern Railway, Pontop and South Shields Line (HER ref. 2290), where it joined the south end of another Wagonway (HER ref. 3010) to the Fatfield Staiths (HER ref. 3037).

Easting

429500

Northing

554370

Grid Reference

NZ429500554370

Sources

<< HER 3018 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 13; William Colling Hobson, 1839, Map of the county palatine of Durham; 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; 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