Whitehill Point Whiting and Salt Manufactory. Was connected to Backworth Wagonway (SMR 1113) by wagonway (SMR 2082) {1}. By the mid 19th century the sea salt industry had almost disappeared, but some salt making was being pursued using Cheshire or Irish Rock salt which was brought to the Tyne. Wilkinson had a system for employing the waste heat of coke ovens for the production of salt. The rock salt was dissolved in sea water and the brine evaporated by the waste heat of coke ovens and whiting furnaces {2}.

Burdon Main Colliery. 1st edn OS mapping shows an Old Engine House within the site. Opened in 1811. There were seven pits - A Pit, Chance Pit, Chirton Pit, Engine Pit, Hopewell Pit, Old Pit and West Chirton Pit. The colliery was opened by Messrs Bells, Robson & Co. On opening one of the shafts in 1814 a skeleton of a man was found at a depth of 30 fathoms. The workings extended under the River Tyne to the low water mark. Old Pit and Hopwell Pit were upcast shafts. Coal was taken to the drops at North Shields by an inclined plane. On 17 July 1813 an explosion killed 8 miners. On 19 November 1835 11 were killed. Safety lamps were not used at the mine. The accident was blamed on a 10 year old trapper boy, John Arkley, who had left a door open. Deputy James Campbell's candle ignited the accumulated gas. The inquest was held at the Pineapple public house at Chirton. George Johnson was senior viewer for Burdon Main and Willington Collieries. He was a friend of Nicholas Wood. He prospered later in life with the chemical side of the coal industry.

Engine manufactory shown on 1st edition Ordnance Survey map.

Ballast hill shown on 1st edition Ordnance Survey map. Many ships coming to the Tyne to load coal entered the river 'light' or 'in ballast'. This means that no cargo was being carried. In the absence of cargo, the ballast gives the vessel stability. Ships returning from London coal voyages often carried shingle or chalk as ballast. Sand and other materials were also used. Over the centuries, great hills of ballast grew along both banks of the Tyne. There were substantial ballast hills near Bill Point Walker, Willington Quay, Hebburn, Jarrow and North and South Shields. Ships were charged fees to unload their ballast. By the early 1820s this was about 20p per ton. To avoid the fee some masters resorted to the dangerous act of discharging ballast before entering harbour. One estimate suggests that some 20% of all imported ballast ended up in the river, risking the Tyne silting up.

Engine manufactory shown on 1st edition Ordnance Survey map.

A covered shipbuilding berth constructed by T&W Smith in the 1850s (covered building berths meant that a higher Lloyd's vessel classification could be achieved). The berth was of timber with extensive glass panelling. In total, the Smith's had three shipbuilding berths at the Limekiln Shore Yard. A similar covered building berth had been constructed by Smith's in the 1850s at their St Peter's Yard, Walker.
Map Evidence
First Edition Ordnance Survey Six Inches to One Mile 1865 Northumberland 89
The berth lies within Smith’s Limekiln Shore yard and at a considerable angle to the riverside {2}.

New Dock, possibly associated with adjacent shipyard (SMR 2073) {1}. A graving dock was constructed on the Limekiln Shore in 1850 for T&W Smith. As originally constructed it was asymmetric in order to berth one large and one small vessel. It was adapted in the early 1920s to a more symmetrical shape by Sir William Arroll Engineers. The dock is skewed at c.35 degrees to the riverside, probably originally of stone construction, now concrete, with asymmetric sides and curving symmetrical forward end. Two sets of stairs access the dock, one aft, one forward. Flap gate designed by a Mr Edward Box and built by Sir William Arroll Engineers is probably still in place but lowered into its recess at the dock head. During this adaptation of the dock, a new pumping system was also installed set into a sunken chamber at the southern end of the dock. Present dimensions of the dock: length 90.5m, width 15.8m, depth 5.15m. Recorded in 2005.

As of 2000 and the closure of A&P Tyne, the dock survives as a shell within the derelict yard. All equipment and fixtures around the dock have been removed.

Map Evidence

First Edition Ordnance Survey Six Inches to One Mile 1865 Northumberland 89
Dock present

Second Edition Ordnance Survey Six Inches to One Mile 1899 Northumberland 89
Dock unaltered

Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Six Inches to One Mile
Dock now symmetrical after considerable alterations in early 1920s {2}.

Floating Dock. Probably out of use by 1895 as 2nd edn OS mapping shows the dock covered by "Limekiln Shore" (SMR 2135) {1}. A mid nineteenth-century floating dock is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey (and on a map prepared from this and included in Smith's Dock Journal for January 1931) on the Limekiln Shore at North Shields The dock is not present on Calver's plan of the Tyne of 1838-49 and must have been constructed at some time after this. In the 1850s the floating dock was a part of Fawcus's Repair Yard and lay immediately to the south of their slipway. Part of the yard was taken over by Hepples who made marine engines and the yard was subsequently subsumed within the Edwards Bros. Bull Ring Yard when they took over the site in the 1880s (see SMR entry No. ????). The dock had been removed by the time of the Second Edition Ordnance Survey in 1899, swept away in developments along the Limekiln Shore during the 1880s.

Smith's Journal describes the floating dock as:
"…a wooden construction with a gate at one end only. When a vessel was docked it waited till the tide filled the dock and then floated in. When the tide receded, the dock was left dry. The flap gate was then closed and caulked and repair work commenced. When the tide rose again, the dock - and vessel in it - floated and work was continued."

Map Evidence
First Edition Ordnance Survey Six Inches to One Mile 1865 Northumberland 89
Floating rectangular dock lies between two graving docks; ‘New Dock’ to the south and an unnamed dock (Collingwood’s Dock) to the north.

Second Edition Ordnance Survey Six Inches to One Mile 1899 Northumberland 89
By this time the floating dock has gone {2}.

Harrison's Foundry (Iron). 2nd edn OS mapping shows site as part of Shipyard (SMR 2132), so it must have been out of use by 1894.

Ramsey's Foundry (Brass). Superseded on 2nd edn OS mapping by Shipyard (SMR 2132), so out of use by 1894.