Old masonry at New Winning

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 22 Nov 2013

The site west of the New Burn in Walbottle Dene has been cleared of buildings but the old masonry that this area has had complex industrial use Image Two capped mine shafts in the woodland above the walls Image and the original name of the hamlet (New Winning) suggest that coal mining was certainly a main industry although I have been unable to find much written evidence. The New Burn is also culverted through this site as it also was (and still is) further south through the former site of Spencer's Steel Works Image According to Lives of the Engineers by Samuel Smiles (1861), the young George Stephenson moved with his family from Dewley Burn to one of the cottages at Jolly's Close, north of Newburn, to work at the Duke of Northumberland's Pit called 'the Duke's Winnin' as an assistant fireman. Jolly's Close is described as a small row of cottages located on flat ground at bottom of Walbottle Dean. He also describes, what was once a green hill, being now, 'a scarified, blasted rock along which furnaces blaze and engines labour night and day'. This location fits well with this description and the remaining industrial archaeology.

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