In 1934 Backworth Colliery Miners' Welfare Scheme bought Backworth Hall and its 85 acres for £8,500. In the grounds a golf course was laid out. Miners could play for 6d a week deducted from their wages. Today Backworth Golf Club, Cricket Club and Bowling Club share the hall and grounds. The Bowmen of Backworth (archers) also use the grounds.

Dates back to 1899 when it was laid out as a racecourse for trotting (horse-drawn buggies). Between 1912 and 1914 Newcastle City FC played here. Between 1917 until 1951 professional foot races took place. Greyhound racing began in June 1928 and continues to this day. This is only surviving greyhound stadium in Newcastle (there were four). Speedway began in May 1929. From 1936-38 Newcastle's rugby league team was based here (then moved to White City). After the War show jumping, stunt shows and midget car racing (an American idea from 1933) took place. On Easter Monday 1952 there was an England versus Scotland midget car race. A photo taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s shows a donkey derby at Brough Park. The dog track was turfed until the 1960s when sand replaced it. There was a main stand on the home straight and terrace covers around the bensds and on the opposite straight. A Tote board was located at one end. Crowds of between 5 and 10,000 were common in the boom years. These days crowds are smaller and spectators are confined to the main stand and paddock in front. Greyhound racing takes place on three nights and two afternoons a week. The greyhounds run on the narrower outer track which is covered with sand. Speedway takes place on Sunday nights between March and October. Speedway is staged on the inner circuit which is covered with cinders. Brough Park is the only speedway venue in Tyne and Wear. Newcastle Diamonds sppedway team appeared for the 1929-30 season. They reappeared 1938-39. Again 1945-51 and 1961-70, 1975 and 1994. In 1949 a team represented Newcastle under the name 'Magpies' but the name 'Diamonds' was reinstated after public protest. The first meeting of the current Diamonds era was March 1997. In Speedway, two riders from each team complete four laps of the track on 500cc bikes which have only one gear, one footrest, no rear suspension and no brakes. A typical race lasts less than a minute. An average speedway night at Brough Park will now attract about 600 people.

Opened in March 1974. Whitley Bay Pool was designed by Gillinson Barnett and Partners. It cost £500,000. It was only the second freeform leisure pool to be built in Britain (the first was in Bletchley and opened a few weeks earlier). Leisure pools catered for those who wished to splash about for fun, rather than serious swimmers. These new pools were based on curvilinear forms, had slides, flumes and lagoons. Whitley Bay had a £15,000 wave machine and a simulated shore. The pool proved immensely popular. Whitley Bay has a twin pool at Rotherham designed by Peter Sargent of Gillinson Barnett. In 2007 a new structure was built over the existing pool, costing £6 million. It reopened in March 2009 as Waves, featuring a spa, slides and replica pirate ship.

The clubhouse was a late 18th century mansion (Benton Park HER 1866). The course at Longbenton was compulsorily purchased for housing (Hoylake Avenue, Gleneagles Close, Muirfield Road and Fairways Avenue). The club moved to Arcot Hall in 1947.

Founded around 1905. Lawn tennis emerged in the 1870s and became the favourite summer game for the middle and upper classes (it had been croquet). Lawn tennis was ideal for the gardens of suburban villas. Women in particular embraced the game as for the first time they could engage in competitive sport and enter a clubhouse.

Opened in 1928 with a cricket pitch and bowling greens. This was the result of the setting up of the Miners Welfare Fund in 1920. The fund was raised via a levy on colliery revenues. The bulk of the fund was spent on the provision of pithead baths, but also community halls, indoor swimming pools and sports grounds like this one. The sports ground is pleasant but has no buildings of architectural merit.

Shown as The Ship on 19th century plans but now The Monument. Roughcast and whitewashed with imitation timber framing to upper floor. Looks late 19th or early 20th century in its present form.

The Grey Horse. Two storey, three bay frontage facing south and a rear wing return at the east end. The front is rendered and whitewashed and has a central doorway with a pair of 16 pane sashes to the side. Possibly mid 19th century although the rear wing (roughly coursed squared limestone) looks older.

Saw mill shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey plan 1862 between Low Lambton Staithes and Low Lambton Drops. It features a saw pit and crane as well as the main saw mill building, plus waggonway sidings connecting it to one of the sprouts or drops on the riverbank. Probably out of use by the end of the 19th century.

Furthest upstream of three staiths. Shown in the Penshaw Staithes area on Burleigh and Thompson's 1737 plan . Out of use by 1775.