Excavations in 1982 by Dr. Stafford Linsley revealed the remains of walls and foundations and kilns. To be preserved within Blaydon Burn Country Park. This was a water-powered mill, possibly built in the 18th century and used for grinding corn until the early 19th century when it became a forge (Figure 20). The presence of two wheel pits, one much narrower than the other, suggests either modification to the power source, perhaps associated with change of use, or that this was a ‘double’ mill. A large extension building containing wagon porches was added before 1838 [PMA 202].

It is possible that this is one of the two ‘well accustomed water-corn mills’ which were advertised to let in the Newcastle Journal in 1767. The advertisment describes the premisis as ‘a new-built barley mill, with large granaries and all necessary conveniences’ [HER 1641].

A significant change of use occurred, possibly as early as 1808, when the mill became a forge. In that year the Silvertop estate rental for Dockendale includes ‘Emerson & Co. Blaydon Burn’ who were assessed for £20 [NRO ZCO IV. 35]. Edward Emerson was born in 1771 to the family firm of Geoffrey and John Emmerson, Ironmongers in the Side, Newcastle. Between 1795 and 1801 Emersons had become iron-founders, and In 1821 [Pigot] Edward is described both as a Fire Brick Manufacturer and Ironfounder with an office at 16 Side. The same year Thomas Milner is described as an Iron Merchant, and the firm of Emerson and Milner are listed as Steel manufacturers, also at the Side.

Two years later in 1823 George Silvertop claimed ‘Dockendale Steel Forge, Messuage & Grounds’ of Messrs Emerson & Co., and received £1.1.0d. From Falconar & Co. for ‘a dam Head in Blaydon Burn’. [NRO 404/241]. White in 1828 lists Emerson and Milner, iron founders, steel and fire brick manufacturers’ and Mackenzie and Ross refer to ‘a steel forge and brick manufactory’ carried on by Messrs Emerson and Milner. Pigot (1829) gives ‘Edward Emerson, Stella Foundry’ [Pigot 1829, 202].

The year 1837 saw the dispersal of Dockendale Estate. In February that year Peregrine Edward Towneley had granted George Hepple Ramsay, a fire brick manufacturer at Derwenthaugh, wayleave over various farms near Blaydon, and in April George Silvertop leased to Ramsay the ‘coal mines, seams, as well as lagger clay’ under Dockendale for £500 per annum, the lease however excluded the

‘Forge and part of a field or close called …Carriers Close…being part of an estate called Dockendale and also the clay…and coal…with lease to use the runner of water known by the name of Blaydon Burn’

for which Emerson & Milner of Newcastle, Ironmongers, were granted a further 31 year lease that August [NRO Buddle Atkinson, p.28, p.154]. The new lease may have encouraged the company to invest in its mining interest, since in November 1837 there is a record of a boning ‘At Mr. Milner’s Pit’ which located several seams of coal.

The subsequent ownership of the site is confusing. In 1838 [ASC Tithe Winlaton] it was described as ‘Forge, Foundry and Firebrick manufactory’ occupied by William Cochrane ‘and others’, though in 1841 the firm of Milner & Sons of Blaydon Burn is still listed as ‘Iron & Steel Manufacturers’ and also ‘Brick makers’ [Commercial Directory]. An undated valuation of Dockendale farm, probably c.1850, gives the tenant as William Cochrane Carr, paying £20 for clay mines, as well as George Hepple Ramsay paying £100 for coal mines and Messrs Cowen & Co. £40 for a ‘Steel forge and cottage’. William Cochrane Carr continued to use the ‘E & M’ trademark on his bricks after 1850, even after moving his works across the river to Low Benwell.

Smith, Patterson & Co’s, Pioneer Foundry and Engineering Works began as a foundry here, and brick ovens, probably reverbatory, were built against the base of the dam. The firm made chairs for railways, cast iron segments for tunnels etc. [HoB, 85]. The foundry was abandoned and in ruins by 1896, and the final stage of use was as animal shelters.

Curiously, no-one named Massey has been found in connection with this site, which was partly excavated in 1982, when black-lead crucibles were found. It is possible that these were for making crucible steel - converting blister steel into a more homogenous iron which could be cast and forged. There is a remote possibility that there was a cementation furnace here, though there is nothing in the surviving remains to suggest this [David Cranstone pers com.].

The extensive visible remains include walls of the mill building (81a) (Plate 77) which were constructed of roughly squared and coursed sandstone with stressed alternating quoins at the arris. Only the rear (southwest) wall remains and part of an adjacent structure to the northwest which including a sloping, tiled roof.

Evidence of at least one wheel pit (81b) also survives (Plate 78) this is located at the southwest corner of the complex and abuts the dam wall. The iron pipe protruding from the dam structure at this point (Plate 75) fed water to the wheel the bearing of which can be clearly seen on the northeast facing elevation of the surviving structure (Plate 77).

A number of features also survive associated with the dam and Burn at the front of the forge. These structures were of a very high quality including an ashlar retaining wall (81c) (Plate 79). The Burn at this point had been paved with flat stone slabs (Plate 80) on the south side (adjacent to the Forge) and smaller, rectangular stones laid end on, on the north side, possibly for additional grip. A considerable amount of worked stone was found in the Burn in front of the forge, these were almost certainly from the dam head (Plate 81).

Downstream of the forge is a substantial sandstone retaining wall (81d) (Plate 82) which runs along the length of the Burn to the sluice (88).

The site was back-filled after the 1982 excavation, ensuring a significant level of below-ground structural survival. The forge or hammer mill was the workshop where the hot metal is shaped by hammering or rolling. Early forges comprised a finery hearth and a chafery, each with its own air bellows, and tilt hammers. Brittle cast-iron pigs were converted into malleable wrought iron and forged (shaped) bars of various sizes suitable for use by blacksmiths as the basis for iron structures. Waterwheels provided the power for operating the bellows and tilt hammers. Later forges included reverberatory type metal melting furnaces, shingling and steam hammers, rolling mills, power shears etc (William Jones, 1996, Dictionary of Industrial Archaeology). The 1982 trenches were reopened in 2009 by NCAS to clarify details and reassess survival of features. The waggon entrance was re-exposed and recorded along with a floor surface and a possible secondary doorway.

Dr. Stafford Linsley was approached to evaluate the importance of the site and to undertake exploratory clearance work of the dam area. He has concluded that this is the site of an early water-powered forge and is of major industrial archaeological importance. Excavation took place in 1982 and revealed the old dam and forge workings (HER 3432). Associated with Dockendale/Massey’s Forge (81). The present dam is of horse-shoe or horizontal-arched type (Plate 73), though there is physical evidence that it was built over an earlier, straight (gravity type), dam structure (see also Section 4.2) (Plate 74). The earliest recorded horse-shoe dam was constructed by John Smeaton in 1776 across the River Coquet [Smith, 167] but the dam at Massey’s Forge cannot be conclusively dated early than c.1800. It has been suggested [HER) that a transition from a straight to a curved dam structure is represented in the OS mapping, that is the dam was rebuilt as a horizontal arch after 1858, but examination of the 1st-4th editions shows that all have the same shallow curvature, indicating that the present dam was in existence by at least 1858. Overspill from the dam seems to have been confined to its northern end, the southern end, which presumably contained the sluice, seems to have been higher, protecting the buildings on the south side of the burn. Water passed from the dam through large pipes onto the mill wheel.

The dam structure survives to almost its full height over much of its length, and is built of squared sandstone (Plate 73). Square openings in the downstream face are probably power take-offs [D. Cranstone pers. com.], one contains a section of D-shaped cast-iron pipe, almost certainly part of the head race and sluice system (Plate 75). At the western side traces of the earlier, straight, structure, which must predate 1858, are visible (Plate 74).","138-142","Fair, some collapse at dam head.

This may be the site referred to in 1798, when Edward Townely Standish, owner of Stella Estate since 1792, had lately erected a mill for grinding calcined flints [NRO ZCO 82/1/6]. A ‘Flint Mill’ is marked in this position on ‘A Plan of Stella Freehold in the Parish of Ryton, September 1798’ [DRO NCB I/SC/998].

The mill is also shown on an undated plan of Stella Township (c.1800-1820) but not named or given a function. This plan shows a bank of two circular kilns to the north-east of the mill buildings. It was still working as a flint mill c.1836 [DRO D/X 35/16], but it is shown on the 1838 Tithe map as a corn mill. It was let to Joseph Cowen & Co. in 1867, when it was described as formerly a Flint Mill, now a Clay Mill [DRO D/Pr 2], and used by them for grinding clay. It was served by rail branch off the Blaydon Burn waggonway. In c.1896 Bourn describes the waterwheel as hidden by a picturesque little cottage.

The inner face of the wheelpit is visible in the bank on a small haugh (Plate 3) . In the centre is the upper part of an arched opening carrying the wheel shaft and c.3m the west is an arc worn in the masonry by the wheel having been running at one time out of alignment (Plate 72) The outer walls of the wheelpit are not visible, but are likely to survive below silt and gravel wash. A few metres west of the mill a midden is exposed in the side of the burn (north bank). Visible ceramics appear to be first half 19th century.

On the 4th April 1769 Lord Widdrington, lord of the Manor of Stella, leased the ‘Freehold Mill’ to Robert Slator for 15 years at £19 p.a. The lease continued under Widdrington’s successor, Thomas Eyre, and was cited in an enumeration of his estates in 1775 [SS 1958, 51]. The site now known as Path Head Mill is marked as ‘Freehold Mill’ on a plan of c.1798 [DRO NCB 1/SC/998], suggesting that this was Slator’s premises. On a frequently-cited plan for 1775, the mill is allegedly named ‘Hoplyh’s Mill’, but this source has not been traced.

In 1866 the mill was called ‘Burns’ Mill’ because it was worked by William Burn of Mill Farm, who used it to grind his corn., and in 1896 as ‘Gibson’s Mill’ because it was worked by Edward Gibson. The water wheel was confined within the walls of the mill -possibly an overshot wheel

Parts of the northwest and southwest walls survive (Plates 62 and 63), with a scarcement showing a floor level and possible flue in southwest wall. Fragmentary sandstone revetments between the ruins and the Burn may be associated with the headrace, pond or leat.