The earliest recorded drawings (1875) by Frank West Rich are for a terrace of houses in hawthorn Terrace, Gosforth.

Shown on OS second edition.

An area of rough ground marked 'The Camp Ground' on the Ordnance Survey 25 inch to 1 mile plan of 1862 which extends to either side of the parish boundary (the Wrekendyke Roman road). An old quarry is shown in the south-west corner. The second edition (1890) shows 'site of huts'. The third (1919) and fourth (1939) editions show the ground as hachured suggesting the earthwork remnants of old quarries. The name Camp Ground is popularly believed to derive from the use of the area as an encampment for the South Lincoln and East Yorkshire Militias during the early 1780s.

Sir William Selby had four working coal pits at his White House estate around 1633. One was at the end of the waggonway (HER 13589) near to Hag Hill Farm, one was near the south-east angle of the walled garden of Axwell Park, one was in the front garden of 26 Axwell Park Road and the fourth was in the south-west angle of Blaydon Leisure and Primary Care Centre. By 1636 the pit drainage system proved inadequate and water began to accumulate in the pits. The dam at Winlaton Mill was employed to solve the problem. The tailrace was altered to lead into the Selby watercourse to make a bigger millpond at Axwell Park. His neighbour John Clavering needed water for his own mills and found that water had disappeared. He began a six year legal battle by suing Sir William Selby and his partners (Sir Robert Hodgson and Robert Anderson). Robert Bewick was brought in the run Selby's colliery after the death of his son (also called William) in a dual with his cousin in 1636. Thomas Gillerie was the colliery overman. His son John took over the job in 1681 under Sir William Blackett. During the legal enquiry Selby admitted that he had ordered 'engines' but didn't say how many or where they were placed. He argued that the water in the Derwent belonged to Winlaton. This was not true. Above Damhead half of the water belonged to the east bank owners. In 1645 the matter was settled by James Clavering (son of John) who agreed that Winlaton could have full use of the river until the closure of the colliery.

Bennett, Clavering and Rounding (1990) suggest that there was a waggonway in Winlaton manor before 1633. The Brockwell seam was opened in the area of the White House (precurser to Axwell Hall), the home of the Selbys, and to the west in the Horsecrofts and in the eastern part of Brockwell. Selby increased the number of staiths at Derwenthaugh. He built a waggonway to link the coal workings with the staiths. The waggonway (as shown in 'A Fighting Trade' consisted of two short parallel tracks on the slope, one above the other, to the west of the drive into Axwell Park. The waggonway was unrelated to any other waggonway system. A plan of 1924, drawn prior to the development of the Axwell Park housing estate, shows that what is now Axwell Park Road already existed as an earth way. This must be the remains of Selby's waggonway. In the wood to the west, a shallow embankment can be seen proceeding in a north easterly direction before turning east by north-east to head for the tail of Axwell Park Road. After crossing Shibdon Road (B6317) the waggonway altered direction to reach the staiths at Derwenthaugh. This deviation was to accommodate the mill pond and to avoid the Bates House estate. In 1665 Sir James Clavering bought the White House estate and renamed it Axwell Park. The waggonway through the estate must have ceased use at that point. The way to Winlaton and Brockwell continued in use until around 1713 when new pits were sunk further from the river and the staiths were transferred to Stella.

The Ryton Foundry for Aldstone Moor opened at Blaydon between 1692 and 1696. It was owned by the London Lead Company. The company was set up 'for the Smelting downe Lead with Pittcoale ans Seacoale'. The foundry had six furnaces. The company chemist Edward Wright perfected the coal-fired reverbatory furnace, which allowed mass production of lead, and the method of extracting silver from lead called cupellation. The head smelter was Thomas Pattison. In 1706 the London Lead Company moved operations to the orefield in Allendale. The Blaydon foundry was bought by Sir William Blackett.

Around 1635 William Selby III carried out a major redevelopment at Winlaton. The 1636 total vend was probably around 2000T, making Winlaton the second biggest colliery on Tyneside. The Derwent face of Winlaton Hill (now in Axwell Park) was exploited. The Brockwell seam outcropped near the 50 foot contour, which is where pits were located around 1600. The coal could be worked from the dip in the north-east corner of the present park. Somewhere in this area Selby provided a waterpit. To power its mill Selby diverted one stream into a trench cut along the foot of the slope and collected the run-off. A tailrace was created from a second falling into the Derwent at 'Selby's Ford'. These works later became the ornamental lake. In 1638 the new colliery was flooded, possibly by pent-up water in old workings north of the fault. Selby diverted water from the Derwent to power more water wheels to drain the mine. The water ran into a much bigger millpond, which beame the fishpond of the park lake. In 1629 John Clavering bought Axwell. He sued Selby and Hodgson in 1639 because water which powered his corn mill was dammed at their colliery. In 1645 James Clavering made a settlement which agreed that Winlaton Colliery could make full use of the Derwent until it closed.

In January 1614 Edward Talbot was granted permission by Selby, Hodgson and Anderson, lords of Winlaton, to build 'one damme or weare for water for a water Mylne for Iron werkes… in the Lopp of Windlington'. His dam appears on a plan of the 1730s as 'Old Dam'. It lay immediately above Swalwell Ford and probably survived until the road bridge was built in the 1770s. The dam served Holme Mill in The Square at Swalwell. Holme Mill later became the centrepiece of Ambrose Crowley's Swalwell Iron Works. After Talbot's death in 1617 Sir William Blakiston took over the iron mill. The iron works remained in production until 1643 when Holme Mill was damaged by fire. For a while Holme Mill was used as a corn mill by James Clavering. John Clavering had sued William Selby for diverting the water of the Derwent for his coal mills. When the matter was settled by his son James Clavering in 1645, he was to have free occupation of Holme Mill for use as a corn mill. The Civil War ruined the Selbys and so James Clavering bought Holme Mill outright along with 10 keelrooms at Derwenthaugh. Around 1660 Holme Mill was converted into a coalmill. James Clavering died in 1702 and Holme Mill was let for another iron works. A plan of around 1712 shows 'mynd drifts' just north of the mill. These must have been the exhausted Brockwell seam workings of Sir James Clavering.

A weir in tidal waters below Swalwell had served as a fishery. It must have been broken in 1551 to permit the passage of keels for Cuthbert Blunt, and later for his widow Barbara. The weir would have had an underwater foundation of stones surmounted by a fence of brushwood or reeds attached to stakes.

Gentry coal estate owned by the Blakiston family. There was a broad but non-continuous belt of coal right across Whickham parish from the Derwent to Ravensworth, but the coal was too far away from the river to allow early exploitation. Most of the coal lay on Marley Hill and at West and East Gibside. The Blakistons were non-freemen, barred from the Hostmen's Company. They could work coal but could not sell it. The Blakistons were related to the Neville connexion and acquired their estates by marriage and became active industrialists. In the 1570s they acquired a long lease for the High Main outcrop at Gellsfield from the Bishop of Durham. In 1617 one of the Blakiston sons achieved admission to the Hostmen.