Smithy, in Seaton Burn.

Smithy, in Seaton Burn.

Fisher Lane TP, probably a Toll Gate. On Toll Road (SMR 1068) from Fisher Lane End to Blyth.

Toll Road to Blyth. Branches from Newcastle to Morpeth Road (SMR 1067) at Fisher Lane, NZ 2332 7471. Forms part of County boundary, with Fisher Lane T.P. (SMR 1069). Route survives between existing Petrol Station and Holiday Inn. The road has been realigned at its junction on the east of Fisher Lane but the old route survives disused. the road now forms a link between Fisher Lane and south Cramlington, giving access to Arcot Hall Golf Club.

Post medieval toll road (turnpiked in 1747) from Newcastle to Morpeth. Enters/leaves the County at NZ 2299 7517. Also part of the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh. Ran across the High Fell in Gateshead to Durham. The Great North Road was in existence in the medieval period {Hadcock 1939, 153-5}. However Bidwell and Snape (2002) argue that it was of Roman origin (pre-Hadrianic), lying on the line of Margary's route 806, which linked Brough on Humber to Newcastle. This idea was first put forward by Hafemann in 1956 (page 150). Blaise Vyner says that through Yorkshire and at least as far north as the River Wear the route is probably prehistoric in origin. This theory is based on the fact that there are prehistoric monuments in the Vale of York along a long-distance route southwards and northwards. In Tyne and Wear he lists the barrows at Hasting Hill and Copt Hill (and in Durham a Neolithic enclosure at Chester-Le-Street) as being part of a monument group where the route crosses the River Wear. Vyner (2007, 77) says there is a possibility of a further monument group on the River Tyne. David Heslop says the prehistoric route probably went up to Scotland. Bronze Age metalwork was deposited in the River Tyne as votive offerings at the point at which the road would have crossed the river and a short distance away at King's Meadows island. In the Iron Age a log-boat was deposited in a stream not far from the Great North Road (HER 1377). A round house was discovered during excavations in 2001 on High Bridge. This lies immediately adjacent to Pilgrim Street (on the Great North Road).

Six Mile Bridge, on Toll Road (SMR 1067). One source claims that a survey of the North Road of 1675 indicates a bridge over the Seaton Burn but that there was a 34 year break in the use of the coaching road to Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century, ending with the recommencement of the service in 1763. A travellers map of 1769 shows an inn at the Six Mile Bridge. Before the colliery was sunk the village was known as Six Mile Bridge. The inn is thought to have had its own brewery in the nineteenth century. The present inn dates from the early twentieth century (2).

Wagonway, from Seaton Burn Colliery, NZ 2370 7402. Named Seatonburn Wagonway on 2nd edn OS mapping. Had Hillhead Engine at NZ 2826 7210 (SMR 1096), also Shiremoor Engine and another unnamed engine house, (SMR 1142,1171). Southern terminus was at Seatonburn Colliery Staiths (SMR 2115) NZ3375 6566. Overlay the earlier Brunton & Shields Railway, this line was opened in stages in 1826 and 1837 by Grand Allies, and built by Benjamin Thompson. It had five inclined planes with engines, working a reciprocating system on one section, with half chaldron wagons. It was converted to standard gauge some time after 1860, probably in 1867 when the Dinnington Colliery was sunk and connected to the wagonway system. The rope-worked system was so successful that it was used as the model for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. In the 1890s part of this line was reused for the Fawdon Railway, see SMR 1078. From Seaton Burn to Wideopen the line is on a rising gradient of 1:380.The route of the line survives in many areas, although the bridge which carried the line over the former North Road (SMR 1067) was demolished c.1986 {2-4}. The 1826 Brunton and Shields Line (now known as the Seaton Burn Wagonway) originated at Brunton Colliery and followed a north and north-easterly curving route past Wideopen and Dinnington before turning south-east to Percy Main. From here the line supposedly ran to the Tyne at Whitehill Point (the termination of the Backworth Colliery wagonway) though the earliest available plan, thought to date from c.1830, shows the line turning sharply southwards just beyond Percy Main village and running SSW on the present course to staiths on the Tyne close to the Salt Works (later the Lead Works) at Hayhole. The Brunton - Shields line measured just over 9 and 3/4 miles in total length and was laid out at a gauge of 3' 6". The route of the railway ran across land belonging to a number of landowners and the wayleave was held by William Wood. A Newcastle railway venturer, and subsequently his executors John Anthony Wood, Mathew Charles Wood and Thomas Hood Henderson. The Brunton and Shields Railway consisted of a series of inclines. Five miles of the route were fully rope-hauled and worked by stationary engines on each plane, the wagons achieving speeds of 6-10 miles per hour. The speed and efficiency with which the Brunton and Shields Railway operated using this system was so impressive that it was recommended to be copied for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. There were engines at Percy Main (Tyne Plane), Flatworth, Shiremoor, Hillhead and Brunton. The establishment of the Brunton and Shields Railway was a boon to small collieries along its route which could not afford to construct their own direct access to staiths and were obliged to negotiated wayleaves to connect to and transport coal along wagonways belonging to other companies. Fawdon Colliery, which opened in 1810, connected to the Brunton and Shields line in 1826. Another small company, Wideopen Colliery, linked itself to the Brunton and Shields route in 1827. By 1835 these two collieries were the named occupiers and lessees of the wagonway. The last colliery to connect to the system was Seaton Burn, opened by the Grand Allies in 1837 and transferred to John Bowes and Partners in 1850. In 1845-6 the line was known as the Fawdon Wagonway (see SMR 4006). Up until at least 1853 the Brunton and Shields line continued to serve the four staiths for Wideopen, Fawdon and Seaton Burn. In the following 10 years Wideopen and Brunton Colliery fell into disuse, reducing the staiths at the end of the line to three. About 1867 the line from Seaton Burn to the Tyne staiths was converted to standard gauge (4' 8 1/2") enabling it to be used by ordinary colliery wagons, and Killingworth and Dinnington Collieries connected to the line. On May 1st 1878 the Brunton and Shields line was assigned to John Bowes and Partners following which it became known as the Seaton Burn Wagonway. Over the next 40 years the acquisition by the Seaton Burn Coal Company of a number of colliery branches connecting to the former Brunton and Shields railway, resulted in confusing name changes for sections of the line. In 1909 for example, the line from Burradon Colliery to Northumberland Dock was known as the Burradon and Coxlodge wagonway, while the name Seaton Burn wagonway was applied to the Killingworth line south of Burradon Colliery which followed a twisting route via West Moor to Wallsend staiths. By 1920 the Blyth and Tyne lines had been taken over by North Eastern Railway. Within a few years the Seaton Burn Wagonway south of Hillhead Engine fell into disuse {5}.

Seaton Burn Colliery, served by a wagonway (SMR 1067). 1st edn mapping shows a shaft within the colliery. 2nd edn OS mapping shows expansion of colliery buildings and spoil heaps and the addition of two Smithys {1}. Opened c.1844, closed 17th August 1963. Sinking began to the Low Main seam in 1838. The initial ownership was with the Grand Allies but by 1850 had passed to John Bowes & Partners. By 1899 the owners were the Seaton Burn Coal Company. The mine became part of Hartley Mains collieries in the 1930s. Brenkley Drift was the last producing element of this long worked site. Brenkley was the smallest National Coal Board pit in Northumberland. Three coal faces were worked in seams as low as three feet in height. Considerable mechanisation took place at the mine in the late 1970s but even by 1985 coal was still being shovelled by hand at one coal face. The mine employed just under 500 men in its later years and produced approximately 1400 tonnes of coal per day from the Harvey, Top Busty and Bottom Busty seams. Mining came to a close here when the coal reserves were nearing exhaustion and heavy geological faulting was making the extraction of the remaining reserves difficult. The last coals came to the surface on 25th October 1985. Several weeks salvage took place and the mine closed on 20th December 1985. Seaton Burn Colliery worked via shafts and later drifts until the driving of Brenkley Drift by the National Coal Board. The drift, which started production in 1955, was isolated from the original colliery site and the two were connected by an inclined railway. The route of the line fell steeply from Seaton Burn, under the main A1 trunk road from Newcastle to Morpeth and down to the drift mouth. From there a trackway continued down the slope to an upcast shaft, winder house and fan house. The Workshops were built in two phases with the South East facing stone built single storey block being the earlier. The workshops contained the stores, blacksmiths', plumbers', fitters' and joiners' shop and contained a number of fire places and an internal tubway and probably dated from the sinking of the colliery. The rear extension to the building dated from the period 1899-1922, as did the majority of the buildings which formed the colliery site until the late 1980s. The workshops were restored as units by the Tyne & Wear Building Preservation Trust in 1991. BGS marks the sites of the Engine, East and South shafts. Site of Seaton Burn Colliery now reclaimed and developed as a business park. The workshops being the only surviving buildings. The 1950s pit head baths, built presumably at the opening of Brenkley Drift, which stood on the main road (1067) were demolished c.1990. The incline route to Brenkley Drift still survives and the sites of the drift mouth and pumping/ventilation shaft to the west of the drift mouth are discernible {2}.

North Eastern Railway - Heaton Junction to Berwick. Formerly the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, which became the NER in 1854. The idea of the "Great North of England Railway" to connect Newcastle with Leeds and York, and with Scotland was suggested by Joseph Pease of Darlington back in October 1835. The section of the NER from Durham to Newcastle (the former Durham Junction Railway) is HER 2625. On the day that Royal Assent was given to the Great North of England Railway Bill, Mattias Dunn, Robert Hawthorn and John Dobson drew up the prospectus of a railway which was intended to link the Tyne to Dunbar.

"Annetsford Brewery" shown on 1st edition Ordnance Survey map.