The land within this meander of the Wear was known as the Wood House Estate and remained within the Hylton (Sir William Hylton built the castle in c.1400 and the family dominated the surrounding area) family ownership until 1743 when it was bought by William Maling. The Malings became one of the leading pottery families in the North East with important works on the Wear (SMR 4969) and the Ouseburn in Newcastle (SMR 4967-4968 and 4344). Maling established the North Hylton Pottery in 1762. Before the start of these works the immediate area of the present day Wood House Farm comprised only five buildings. The Wood House itself was occupied by a tenant who probably farmed the immediate area. The remaining buildings made up eight cottages, all individually inhabited by men. By the river stood the largest (of which a portion of wall remains) which formed three cottages under one roof, tenanted in c.1743 by Joseph Carr, Thomas Turner and William Sharpe. A single cottage, tenanted by Ed Donkin, stood adjacent, and a third building made up of two cottages under one roof tenanted by George Todd and William Hunter. On the sloping ground of the woody banks stood two cottages under one roof tenanted by William Miller and Ed Wilson. The opening of the local pottery brought some development in the area and by 1816 Wood House had grown from a single structure to a complex of farm buildings. A windmill had been erected to the front of the farm but had fallen out of use by the end of the Napoleonic Wars. All trace of this mill had disappeared when the Ordnance Survey first edition was drawn up. What the surveyors found however was brickfields, a tar distillery, shipbuilding yards, a quarry, a rail network, cranes, a public house and over 30 dwellings. Wood House by this time was a court-yard farm with attached gingang or horse wheel house. Wood House had developed into a small industrial, as well as agricultural complex. Wood House Farm today shows unmistakable signs of an industrial history related to the Wear. In the centre of the present day complex is a building with a chimney, set at a different orientation to the other structures, which relates directly to an old railway incline (SMR 4971) down to the river. Clearly the building is a winding engine house and in front of it there is a sequence of cells for loading waggons, or for storage, below from the railway above. The farm buildings themselves are full of interest with a square gin-house and threshing barn, extensive stables and a blacksmith's building, as well as a farm house and cottages. What industrial processes were carried out at Wood House remains a mystery. Cartographical evidence suggests that this innocent structure holds over 250 years of history. The earliest portions formed part of the three cottages inhabited by Joseph Carr, Thomas Turner and William Sharp in c.1743. The cottages remained in use as dwellings for over 100 years after this date. However at some time in the mid C19, as the three different types and colours of brickwork suggest, the building was converted into an open ended storage area, and then later the walls were raised and capped with large sandstone blocks to provide added strength perhaps for a stone-crushing plant or perhaps to provide support for an incline railway. By 1869 this wall had become the partial remain which stands today.in contrast the dwellings further down the river bank had developed into a grand house known as the "Manor House". This still survives and holds a small place in aviation history. In 1910 Robert Welford, who lived there, constructed an early monoplane in one of the out-buildings. {1} The winding engine house worked the incline down to the River Wear. What processes were carried out at Wood House remains a mystery {2}.

Maling Pottery was started by William Maling in 1762 on the north bank of the River Wear at Hylton. The family had come to England as Huguenot refugees in the 17th century and settled near Scarborough. William Maling moved to Sunderland in the 1720s and later set up the pottery as a business interest for his two sons, Christopher Thompson Maling and John Maling. The North Hylton Pottery Works was run by the family until John Maling's son, Robert transferred the whole business to a site in the Ouseburn, Newcastle in 1815 (HER4967) {1}.
At first only brown earthenwares were made but at a later date Maling probably produced creamwares and white pottery. According to family tradition, transfer-printing on pottery was first practised in the North East at North Hylton. Sunderland was rich in clay deposits and saw a boom in the pottery industry in the 19th century. Orders increased in number at the North Hylton works. The reason for moving to Newcastle may have been because the clay deposits were exhausted {2}.

The Ford Pottery was established in 1859 on Ford Street by Christopher Maling, son of Robert Maling who set up a pottery at North Hylton (HER 4969) and then at Ouseburn Bridge (HER 4967). The Ford Pottery, built using the dowry of Mary Ford who came from a glassmaking family, was large and newly built and heavily mechanised. The pottery was on one side of the road and the five storey packing site (added in 1868) on the other. A tunnel (HER 7057) linked the two. It was able to produce more in a week than the older works at Ouseburn Bridge had done in a year. With a production capacity of up to three quarters of a million items a month Christopher Maling amassed a huge fortune. In 1878 a second, even larger plant was opened up half a mile to the east, known as "Ford B Pottery" (HER 4344). The original works on Ford Street continued to produce jam and marmalade pots, whilst the Ford B Works concentrated on new markets, such as sanitary ware. In 1936 the packing warehouse was sold to Cartwrights for a Carriage Works. He demolished the warehouse and built a new building circa 1936. This survives today [2005] as R and J Ince Ltd. The Maling firm flourished in this period but in the early 20th century a number of factors began to effect the prosperity of the company, not least of which were the death of Christopher Maling and the increasing use of glass, rather than earthenware, for storage jars, particularly for jam. When the miner's dispute of 1926 starved the kilns of coal for many months, the old Ford Street site closed for production and never re-opened. The buildings were cleared out and sold in the following year. {1} The Ford Pottery site was 2 acres in size. Its 13 kilns turned 80 tons of clay a month into 750,000 items. C.T. Maling amassed a fortune from manufacturing jam and marmalade pots for James Keiller of Dundee and Frank Cooper of Oxford, and dishes for potted meats, jars for ointments and medications. Maling captured the market for the production of white pottery with transfer-printed trade labels and was a leader in production of domestic white ware {2}.

The Ouseburn Bridge Pottery was set up by Robert Maling in 1815, having moved his business from the North Hylton Pot Works in Sunderland (HER 4969). In 1853 Christopher Thomas Maling took over the running of the Ouseburn Bridge Pottery from his father Robert. The firm prospered and expanded. Commercial wares were the main goods made. By 1859 the two kilns at the works were unable to cope with demand and the new Ford A Pottery (HER 4968) was built nearby. The Ouseburn Bridge pottery was sold to Bell Brothers who reopened the premises as the "Albion Pottery". The site then passed to Galloway and Atkinson (although by 1865 only Atkinson is listed at this site) and then to W Morris in 1871. The works eventually closed in 1875. Most of the early pieces were exported to the continent.
The Heaney Building was a two-storey building of modern brick construction with white painted walls and a flat roof. Hutton's plan of 1770 shows a building complex south-east of the 'New Bridge' in a position partly covering the Heaney Building site. Oliver's plan of 1830 indicates that part of the east wall and the internal N-S dividing wall were present by then. The building was probably built as part of the Ouseburn Pottery complex (c.1815). By 1896 the building was part of the Glass Works complex and by 1916 the west wall was in place. The west wall, fronting the Ouseburn is a multi-phase composition spanning the 19th-20th century. The building was demolished following archaeological building recording in 2010. The flues associated with the Ouseburn Bottle Works were attached to the north wall of the Heaney Building. They remain in-situ following the demolition and are on the Local List. An excavation of this area in 2013 by ARS uncovered a large stone built flue which had been backfilled by a mixed deposit of pottery and kiln furniture thought to be associated with the potteries formerly in this area.

In 1856 a fine wrought iron lighthouse was built on the old South Pier (NZ 4106 5825). At the top of the tower was a cast iron dome and internal access to the light was by a cast iron staircase. The 50ft high structure was designed by Thomas Meik who also designed the Hendon Dock and one of the nearby dock-side warehouses, which survived until the early 1990s. The lighthouse can be seen today but not in its original position. The lighthouse was dismantled and re-erected in 1983 when the Sunderland Port Authority shortened the pier to create an easier and safer entrance into the river. Public concern led to the resiting of the structure on the Roker sea front. {1} This is a white painted lighthouse, in good condition, and is approximately 50ft high. It consists of a base of cast iron, atop which is a tapering conical shaft of rivetted steel, above which is a cast iron dome containing the light, and a gallery. Internally there is a cast iron spiral staircase around a central column. Above the doorway to the lighthouse is a small circular plaque showing a sextant and the date 1856. The lighthouse is set on a circular base of two stone steps, and is surrounded by what appear to be the original railings, which are now much corroded and missing in parts. The value of the lighthouse lies in its unusual use of cast iron and steel in its construction. It is not known if it is unique, but it is certainly a rarity. {2}

Although of plain appearance, brick built and dating from the turn of the century (at a guess), this is a good survival of an unusual group. At the moment the house which is the former matron's house is occupied, whilst the former ward building and former mortuary are disused. We consider that the uniqueness of the group would merit a proposal to English Heritage/Department of the Environment for listing of the buildings. {1} Shown on Ordnance Survey third edition of 1919 as "Houghton and Hetton Smallpox Hospital". Now converted to houses.

Ryhope Pumping Station was commissioned in 1868, and was the last of a wide variety of steam powered pumping stations which had been used by the Sunderland and South Shields Water Company. Several factors combine to make the Ryhope Pumping Station pre-eminently worthy of preservation. Thomas Hawksley in his position as Engineer to the Water Company provided designs and specifications for the new works, and the engines were built locally by Messrs. Hawthorn of Newcastle. The design and manufacture were of the highest standard and the subsequent maintenance was of such a high quality that the engines are still in perfect condition even after a century of working. They are now possibly the finest pair of compound beam engines in Britain. The overall requirements for Ryhope Pumping Station were for two wells to be sunk; six boilers and two large compound rotative beam engines to be manufactured and assembled; the engine house, boiler house, smithy and chimney to be erected; two cooling ponds and one large reservoir to be excavated and constructed; main delivery pipes to be laid and suitable dwellings to be built for station personnel. The problems involved in the manufacture and assembly of such large components were great but even so, by February 1869, the sinking operations were nearly completed and by early 1870 the boilers were completed and the station began to operate satisfactorily. Ryhope Pumping Station is an example of a pumping station referred to as a "house engine". This is because the engine house does not merely surround and cover the engines but is a framework upon which the beams, fly wheels, cylinder etc. are supported. The construction of the engine and the engine house therefore has to proceed together. It would have been possible and presumably cheaper to provide an entirely functional engine house such as was the usual practice for colliery pumping engines at that time, but for reasons only partially clear, this was not the traditional practice for many water undertakings. In many cases considerable efforts were made to produce industrial structures which could not offend the most sensitive observer. At such pumping stations conscious attempts were made to plan in detail not only a unified engine house, but to produce an entire station where workmen's residences, cooling ponds, reservoirs, boiler houses, etc linked by flower gardens, lawn and trees, were all interrelated to achieve considerable aesthetic effect. Ryhope Pumping Station is not therefore a unique example of this 'waterworks' architecture but being designed by Hawksley it is typical of the best in the country. At Ryhope the 'power house' block containing engines, boilers and workshops and the chimney are aligned as a near symmetrical group and form aesthetically unified structures, particularly as seen from the south east. The engine house is clearly a massive structure eminently suited to its function, but the final ornamentation, the wall buttressing and the spined ventilation all suggest a verticality which prevents any feeling of ponderousness. Inside the house the many windows give a light and spacious atmosphere to the building. Adjacent to the engine house, the original boiler house and workshop occupied four single storey bays and maintain the ornamental style of the engine house. The chimney is almost 160ft high; originally it had an ornate iron palisaded crown to it, but flue gas corrosion combined with wind and rain subsequently caused its collapse. Similarly a wind vane which had been situated on top of the engine house ventilator has disappeared. The entire station was located in a garden setting with extensive lawns, flowerbeds and newly planted trees. The leaves of the trees became a considerable problem and were one of the reasons which led to the covering in of the large reservoir in 1956. It now appears as a large grassed area. The Ryhope engines remained virtually unchanged from the time of their commissioning and continued to work efficiently with surprisingly few troubles. However they eventually became too costly when compared with the alternative electric pumps. It was decided therefore to shut the station down in 1967. Now open to the public as the Ryhope Engines Museum. {1}

This milestone was listed Grade II in 1987 with the following description:
'Milestone. Circa 1780. Sandstone. Rounded top to square stone : 53 incised on north, 5 on south; eroded coat of arms on west.'
{2}

Staith house.

Crosses North Walbottle Wagonway. Steel main girder, transverse trough girders.