Howdon, wagonway bridge abutments

Masonry remains comprising continuous runs of wagonway bridge abutments formerly carrying other mineral lines across the route of the Seaton Burn Colliery Wagonway to staiths on the Tyne at Northumberland Dock. The remains comprise two roughly parallel continuous lengths of bridge abutments built of sandstone with the most recent additions in concrete. Nothing of the original trackbed is visible. The abutments flank part of an earlier wagonway, the Brunton and Shields Railroad, constructed by Benjamin Thompson in 1826. At this point the line of the Brunton and Shields Railway was built on land belonging to the Duke of Northumberland and was an incline known as the 'Tyne Plane'. The abutments represent later colliery lines being carried across 1826 way to reach staiths on the east side of the Hayhole Lead Works and ultimately in the Northumberland Dock. The earliest abutments were in position by 1856, with further abutments added by 1866 and final additions for the Tyne Improvement Commissioner's railway by 1881.