Jane Wharton's Rainton to Penshaw Waggonway
Jane Wharton's Rainton to Penshaw Waggonway
HER Number
17100
District
Sunderland
Site Name
Jane Wharton's Rainton to Penshaw Waggonway
Place
Rainton
Map Sheet
NZ35SW
Class
Transport
Site Type: Broad
Tramway Transport Site
Site Type: Specific
Wagonway
General Period
POST MEDIEVAL
Specific Period
Hanoverian 1714 to 1837
Form of Evidence
Documentary Evidence
Description
Richard Wharton, the owner of Rainton Ducks Colliery, died in 1696. His widow, Jane, ran the colliery for the next 30 years. In 1697, she secured a new route for a waggonway from Rainton across Dubmire and Hall Moors and over Sedgeletch from where the line took up an old waggonway route used by Sir John Duck through Newbottle, Penshaw and down Waggon Hill to the south bank of the River Wear (Turnbull 2012, 76). In 1730, following Jane Wharton’s death, the colliery was passed by marriage to the Tempest family.
Easting
431200
Northing
554000
Grid Reference
NZ431200554000
Sources
Alan Williams Archaeology, 2013, Waggonways to the South Bank of the River Tyne and to the River Wear; Turnbull, L, 2012, Railways Before George Stephenson (entry 86) p 76 & 163; Archaeological Services Durham University, 2019 Land north of Coaley Lane, Newbottle, post-excavation assessment;