Unusually large Roman spoon found at Benwell Fort during excavations by James Petch in 1926. It has an oval bowl with inside rim. The handle is in three roughly equal lengths. The spoon is 170mm long. The bowl is 41mm wide. EDX analysis by University of Newcastle shows that it is made of over 99% silver with minute traces of copper and iron. Dated C1.

The Quarry Field Works (marine, locomotive and general engineers) were established by John Coulthard (ex Walker Iron Works) & Son in 1840. He was shortly joined by his brother Ralph. They commenced building locomotives for NER and collieries. In April 1853 the partnership between John and Ralph Coulthard was dissolved when John died and the firm became R. Coulthard and Co. In 1865 Ralph retired and the works were taken over by Black Hawthorn & Co. Building was concentrated more on industrial locomotives for collieries and iron works but a number of tender locomotives were also built and went to many parts of the world. Between 1871 and 1874 the works were extended to include the present-day site of Close Works south of Quarryfield Road. The firm developed into one of the premier builders in this area and up to 1896 when the firm ceased trading, over 1100 locomotives had been built and many rebuilt. The firm was bought by Chapman and Furneaux who produced a further 70 locomotives, but ceased marine engineering. The last locomotive built was in 1902. The firm's drawings, patterns and templates were bought by R & W Hawthorn Leslie & Co of Newcastle. In 1904 Ernest Scott & Mountain, electrical and colliery plant engineers, purchased the site and rename it Close Works after their former works in The Close, Newcastle. They go into liquidation in 1911. In 1913 C.A. Parsons & Co Ltd acquire a section of Close Works. In 1915 Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd takes over Close Works. It is re-equipped as a foundry in 1920. Roll manufacture commences in 1933 and pneumatic tool manufacture is transferred here from Armstrong's Elswick works in 1937. Wartime production included bomb casings, gun barrels, aero engine cylinder blocks and propeller hubs. In the 1950s Kue-Ken rock crushing equipment was made and the pneumatic tools division was sold to Thor Tools Ltd in North Shields. In 1968 Close Works was acquired by Davy Ashmore and in 1970 the Davy Roll Co. Ltd was formed.

Sufficient is known about the engine works to indicate that the remaining structure, now incorporated into Graham's warehouse, is a significant remnant of Wearside's industrial architecture. The remaining part of the former Scotia Engine Works possibly dates from the 1870s and is probably the most intact remnant of this industry on Wearside. A plan of the Scotia Engine Works survives in a locally-held private collection {1}. In the mid 19th century this site had been the shipbuilding yard of Carr, Fowles & Co. In the 1880s these works were reopened by William Allan, a future MP for Gateshead and a pioneering industrialist, as the Scotia Engine Works. In 1900 the company was purchased by Sir Christopher Furness and amalgamated with two other marine engine builders, Thomas Richardson & Sons of Hartlepool and Sir Christopher Furness, Westgarth & Co. of Middlesbrough to form Richardson's Westgarth & Co. Ltd. Output from the marine engine works of the Wear in the decades either side of 1900 was massive. Richardson's Westgarth produced diesel engines from 1912 and in 1923 acquired a licence to produce Doxford Engines. The firm grew to become the parent company of a group which comprised George Clark and North East Marine Engineering. The Scotia Works declined in the 1920s when the shipbuilding industry was driven into economic depression. The works ceased producing new marine engines in 1929 but continued with subsidiary work until after WW2. The works were sold to S.P. Austin & Son Ltd in 1946/7 and used for subsidiary outfitting works. In 1964 the works were changed to a builder's merchants. It was reduced to its present size in the early 1980s.

Beehive quern (iron age/Romano-British) found in garden at Burradon Farm by D. Heslop in May 1997.

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