Little is known of the scale of river trade before the construction of the quay that served the first Castle in the late 11th century. Grey mentions ships beaching at Sandhill at the confluence of the Lort Burn. A better natural location would have been the inlet of the Pandon. Excavations at the Crown Court and Stockbridge have shown no material evidence of significant riverside facilities before the reclamations of the late 12th century. Newcastle was designated a Customs Port and Staple Port (wool and hide dominated) in 1275. It was one of the ports where royal taxes were levied between 1275 and 1547. In 1275 a 'cockettum' or custom house is mentioned. The Enrolled Accounts give summaries of excises on wool, cloth, wine, waxm tin and pewter. The Particular Accounts were collected by the king's controllers. For Newcastle, they are published for 1294-7, 1300-99 and 1454-1500. The Chamberlains' Accounts of 1508-11 is the earliest Newcastle manuscript survival. It details the town's revenue, expenditure and the port's external relations. The first references to coastal shipping refer to supplying the garrison in 1204 with corn from Lynn. Quayside facilities were well developed by the early 13th century. Newcastle had become a regionally important market centre and port. It was inferior only to London, Southampton, Boston, Lincoln, Hull and York. By 1334 Newcastle was fourth in the country behind London, Bristol and York. Newcastle specialised in inferior-quality wool, particularly lamb fells. They were traded mostly to Bruges, Middleburg and Antwerp. Hide export dwindled. Most hides were sold to local manufacturers. Newcastle's main export was coal. The first shipments came from pits close to the riverbank at Whickham. Once surface coal close to the river was exhausted, pits were opened further inland. Growth is known in the 1520s and 30s at Benwell, Elswick, Ravensworth, Stella, Chopwell, Denton and Heworth. Coal exported from Newcastle may have supported the medieval industries in Bruges and Holland. It was put to domestic and industrial use in France, London and the south coast. Coal was used for drying dye madder (textile industry) in Zeeland. It was used for smoking and drying fish and for breweries in Holland. Significant exports of coal were being shipped from Newcastle from the second quarter of the 14th century to Flanders, Holland and some to the Baltic. Industry on Tyneside was largely organised and financed by local Newcastle merchants. Coal exports provided a ballast substitute for sea-borne trade. By the 16th century keels were used to link the mines upstream to the colliers at the quayside. Newcastle coal was cheaper than land-bourne coal elsewhere in the country.

Observed by Knowles in 1906 when excavations were carried out to create the basement of the county council office (now the Vermont Hotel). Earlier observations and deductions by G.B. Richardson in 1855 and Longstaffe in 1860. The Great Hall was located within the outer bailey and nestled against the curtain wall. It was protected by the eastern slope of The Side and the Lort Burn. Visually impressive - it was aisled, supported on columns, with a main entrance in the north wall, and doors into the buttery, pantry and kitchen. An inquisition of 1334 refers to a 'Panetrie', 'Botellerie' and 'Qwysine' and the king's chamber or solar. The Hall was 13.41m wide. The central aisle was 6.76m wide and the side aisles 2.62m. Moulded bases for cylindrical columns were located. There were probably 4 of these. The Hall arcade is comparable with the bishops' palaces at Oakham Castle, Lincoln and Auckland. Knowles calculated that the whole building measured 20.12m x 13.41m. An inquisition of 1334 for the King's Great Hall refers to a new vault and works to windows. In 1292 John Balliol, king of Scotland, paid homage to Edward I here.

Built in the 1930s or 1940s as a garage. It was later bought by the Tyne Brewery and used by the company's engineers. Later it was converted to be used as a visitors centre and museum of brewing at Newcastle. Upstairs was a gym for the brewery staff. The centre was brick built, with sandstone and concrete lintels and sills and painted cement-rendered panels between the windows on each floor. It had a flat roof. Recorded in 2008 ahead of demolition.

Church constructed in 1874 initiated by Colonel Briggs. The Briggs family had bought the land from the Hyltons in 1739. The church was built for £2500 to serve the rapidly growing population and was intended as a memorial to the memory of Colonel Briggs' parents. The church was consecrated on the 28th November 1874. the church held a central role for not only the Castletown community but for the estate as a whole. In 1890 the church hotsted the wedding of Colonel Briggs' daughters Annie and Ada in 1890 and 1892. The cost of the upkeep of the building and falling attendance caused congregation problems during the 1970s. The church was deconsecrated in February 2003.

Middle Street School opened 11th January 1932 with two departments - a Central Technical School (Headmaster Mr F L Mills) and a Central Commercial School (Headmaster Mr G Welch). Middle Street School was the first school in Newcastle to use oil fuel for heating purposes and while the classrooms were designed on an open air principle they were designed with sufficent safeguards against the stresses of bad weather. The main building incorporated three enclosed courtyard areas and both departments, each accomodating 480 scholars, comprised a hall, eight classrooms, science lab, science demo room, art room, domestic subjects room and needlework room, while the commercial school also had a commercial room. The school gym was highlighted in publicity material as being an early example of a purpose built structure detached from the main school building and served the dual purpose of changing facilities for pupils using the gym and also pupils from other schools who used the playing pitches. C.1960 the school amalgamated with Heaton Technical School to become Manor Park School. Middle Street School has since become Walker Technology College.

A gappy hedgerow running north-south appears to be a remnant of the boundary between two fields on an 1835 estate map. The regular alignment of the boundary and the field system to the south strongly suggests that this is a post-medieval (probably 18th century) date.

Henry II instigated the rebuilding of the castle in stone in 1167-8. Part of an original north gate south-east of the Black Gate is attributed to this late 12th century phase. At the same time, the ditch (see HER 17266) was cleaned out. The North Gate was located on the inner edge of the ditch. Undisturbed Norman clay was interpreted as the entrance passage. A wing wall was located on the west side of the North Gate. The Gate was likely to have been inserted into the earlier clay rampart as a separate free-standing structure. The excavators suggested that there must have been a north curtain wall, founded on the Norman bank. According to Harbottle (1982, 411), the outer abutment was possibly earlier than the inner abutment, stair and parallel walls, and that the space between the parallell walls was a pit for the rear half of a turning bridge of free-standing bascule type.

The Castle was founded in 1080 by Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conquerer, after he returned from a campaign against the Scots. The Norman Castle was built on a sandstone spur overlooking the river. The land drops steeply to the east and south. The slope of The Side creates a triangular plateau so that only the western landward side needed defending. In 1095 Robert Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, held the Castle when it was beseiged and captured by William II (Rufus). The Castle fell to the Scots during the 12th century contest between Stephen and Matilda. In 1157 it was recaptured by Henry II. Archaeological evidence appears to represent a clay and stone bank formed from the upcast from a ditch outside the bank. The rampart and external ditch ran from the head of The Side to Long Stairs, roughly following the line taken by the later medieval Castle ditch, possibly utilising and enlarging an earlier ditch, perhaps the boundary of the Roman fort. The ditch may have been lined with clay. The sloping side was up to 7m deep. Either the bank did not continue along the north side of the Castle or it was removed when the late 12th century fortifications were built. The profile of the bank is not known. The clay bank has been interpreted as part of a ringwork (similar to Elsdon, Mote Hills, Sewingshields Castle and Green Castle in Northumberland). There are documentary references to knights' accommodation on guard at Newcastle. And another to a postern, later built over by a baron's house. Walls and other features were observed when the railway was cut through the Garth before 1847 and discussed by Longstaffe in 1860. An excavation in 1906 revealed partial plans of the hall and east curtain. The Castle has undergone archaeological excavation in 1974-5, 1977-8, 1980-1993 and 1995.

Burial ground adjoining chapel of ease (1826). The burial ground was consecrated in 1832.

Rockcliffe first depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey Plan, 1897. Still extant in 1976 but now demolished.