Some graffiti

Although some 110m south of Path Head Mill (65), this feature was presumably associated. The separation distance may be due to the Brockwell Way waggonway crossing of the Burn (62), suggesting that the pond was formed after 1713. It was apparently known as ‘Hobby’s Dam’, after an 18th century miller at Path Head Mill, and was the site of two suicides by drowning.

On the 3rd edition OS revision of 1914 it is marked as a ‘reservoir’, and was used by Priestman Collieries to supply water by pumping to the worker’s houses known as Ottovale Terrace, above the valley to the east. The pipework used for pumping may have been carried on the low brick piers visible to the south and north-east.

The pond is visible as a broad, silted-up basin through which the burn now runs as a narrow stream. The dam and sluice are late, cement-rendered, and largely obscured by debris.

Excavated in 1982.

The Rennison’s Mill shown on a plan of Winlaton manor in 1632 as lying in Sir William Selby’s Horse Crofts, can be located with some confidence as occupying the southern part of what later became Cowen’s Low Works. The mill may have had medieval origins, but the earliest reference located is a ‘View’ of the condition of the mill, made on 26th June 1693 which describes the site in some detail. The wheel (external) was 12’ 8"" diameter with the water running freely form the skirt or lower edge of the wheel. The upper stone was 5’4"" diameter and 8"" thick, the under or ‘bed’ stone 5’ 2"" diameter and 2"" thick at the edge. The dam was 24’ broad at the low end and 12’ broad at the high end, 30’ broad in the middle and 60’ long [Rounding & Yellowley; unprovenenced copy of original view kindly loaned by Dr. S.M.Linsley]. Copies of the ‘View’ were signed by Edward and Sir William Blackett, who had acquired the Selby moiety of Winlaton in 1675, and by Dorcas Anderson.

The next known mention of the site, this time called Pickering’s Mill, appears in a newspaper advertisement of 1760 that the premises were to let. The mill is described as ‘the well accustomed water corn mill...now tenanted by Edward Cawsley/Gamsley’. Further references occur in rentals of the Silvertop’s Winlaton (Dockendale) estate: in 1790 Sir Thomas Blackett paid 12/6d. for one-sixteenth of ‘Pickering’s Mill’ [NRO ZCO IV/41] - the same rental has a separate entry for Haggerston’s Mill suggesting that the two sites were not synonymous. By 1796 Pickering’s Mill had passed to Thomas Richard Beaumont, Esq. [NRO ZCO IV/35]. Beaumont paid rental on the mill again in 1798, 1799, 1802 and 1805 [NRO ZCO IV/42]. By 1808 it is possible that this mill had passed to Emerson & Co., paying £20 p.a. [NRO ZCO IV 35].

In the 1821 allotment of Towneley property, the mill site went to T.R.Beaumont Esq. of Blaydon. It was then occupied by Edward Emerson, Thomas Milner & Co., and consisted of two two-roomed houses with a milkhouse, tenanted by Ashley Elliot and James Graham, with warehouses or lofts above , a warehouse, drying kiln, part of a Grinding Mill, large kiln, Dam and yard, small garden and waste ground, valued at £26.10.0d. [NRO 404/238]. A single track tramway ran between Massey’s Forge and the mill site, where there were a number of sidings [DRO Q/D/E 24].

The Tithe map of 1838 marks the mill site as a ‘Fire Brick Manufactory’ belonging to Cowen. There are no remains visble today.

Part of the Ottovale works which although appearing physically as a single entity on the OS mapping, were four related works inlcuding the Newcastle Tar works and Benzol works (Figure 18). After the Mary and Bessie pits closed in the 1950s the works became uneconomic, and were closed [History of Blaydon, 84]. The Ottovale works are shown in a photograph reproduced in ‘Blaydon in old picture postcards’. The site was reclaimed in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Forming the southwestern part of the Ottovale complex this plant, operated by Messrs. Thomas Ness Ltd. Refined the crude tar, a by-product of the coke ovens. A description of the by-product plant in 1951 refers to a Pelouze & Andouin tar extractor, and states that the tar condensates were collected in an underground tank and subsequently pumped to the distillation plant [TWA DP/PM/2/10] (59). There are no visible remains.","NA","NA"
51,"Newcastle Benzol Works","HER 1651","NZ 41745 6303","Benzol Works","20th Century","None","These which were the first in the world to produce petrol from coal, the product being known as ‘Blaydon Benzole’, and later ‘National Benzole’. The raw product was low in strength and was re-distilled before being delivered to the refining plant. No viisble remains.","NA","NA"
52,"The Priestman Ottovale Coke Ovens","HER 1651","NZ 41745 56307","Coke Production","Early 20th Century","None","Of German design and constructed by German engineers of the Silica Company, this consisted of two batteries, each with 40 Otto-Hilgestock Waste Heat Ovens, erected in 1904 and 1906, and another battery built in 1910. The ovens took a charge of 7.5 tons of coal, which after 30 hours carburising produced 5.75 tons of coke [TWA DP/PM/2/12]. Locally it was known as the ‘German Ovens’. No visble remains.