IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Heddon-on-the-Wall, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, NE15 0DB

A well-made masonry bridge (c.1878) carries the lane leading from Heddon Banks to the east side of Close House estate over the railway incline close to the quarry at Close Lea Image It has an arched span of 30 feet which would have allowed for two parallel standard gauge tracks and associated sidings. The lines levelled out just north of the bridge, terminating near the working face of the quarry, about 150 yards from the road bridge. The deep cutting of the railway now carries a boggy stream and is heavily wooded. A large water-pipe runs parallel with the parapet on the north side of the bridge Image The route of this water supply pipeline seems to have been altered from its previous course when the quarry was opened. An engine house and 100 foot chimney stood on the steep slope about 25 yards north of the bridge, adjacent to the west side of the quarry, but there is little to see there today. The chimney was demolished in 1973. At the bottom of the incline, on flat land east of Close House mansion, the line curved eastwards on a line parallel to and just north of the Scotswood, Newburn & Wylam Railway (SN&W; opened 1876), close to the line of the former Wylam Waggonway, and was worked from the Heddon Colliery yard. Further east, the colliery railway connected to the mineral railway on the old waggonway route leading to Lemington staiths, and the North East Railway who operated the SN&W. Alan Clothier (Beyond the Blaydon Races, 2014, p.229) was very impressed by the bridge: "... the substantial masonry bridge constructed to carry the earlier private road and bridleway to the east side entrance of the Close House estate over the quarry railway remains an enduring testimony to the quality work of the stone masons who built it. In appearance it seems quite out of character with the nature of the country lane which crosses it. Has it, we wonder, been listed?" http://heddonhistory.weebly.com/blog/heddon-quarries

This large pipe, alongside the track from Heddon Banks to Close Lea, south of Heddon on the Wall village, crosses the trackbed of the former mineral tramway that runs south from the disused Killiebrigs Quarry. The structure above the pipe is designed to support its weight as it is elevated above the tramway on large cast-iron columns. More will be revealed about this pipe: where it comes from, where it goes, who built it and when on the Heddon Local History blog http://heddonhistory.weebly.com/1/post/2013/03/northumbrian-pipes.html

The 42" cast-iron pipe supported on iron columns runs alongside the bridge that takes the track running from the end of Heddon Banks to Close Lea over the cutting of the former tramway used to take stone from Killiebrigs Quarry. The house opposite is called West Acres. There is another photo of the pipe here Image Although the pipeline roughly follows the line of the track to the east (left), this is not the case to the west (right). There is actually a right-angled bend close to the right side of the photo where the pipe, close to the ground surface follows the boundary of the quarry, then bends again to continue its course across the lower part of the now-wooded Heddon Common. The iron pipe-line was completed in 1892 replacing earthenware pipes first laid in 1869 and the indication here is that the previous line was altered to cope with opening of the Quarry and its tramway around 1878.

There is another photo here Image Now fenced off and with warning signs. Local children used to play here and practice climbing in the old quarry, dangerous although it undoubtedly was. Landowners are now responsible for any injuries on their land and feel obliged to keep people out. Killibrig Quarry first started operation in 1887, cut deeply into the hillside next to Slacks Plantation. It had a reputation throughout the north-east for its fine quality sandstone. The engine foundations still exist but the chimney was pulled down in the 1980's. The stone was carried in wagons, down the incline from the quarry, to the corner of the Close House cricket ground and then eastwards to join the Wylam Waggonway Image The mineral railway passed under Heddon Banks just below the quarry, between Close Lea and West Acres, and was already marked as disused by the late 1890s http://heddonhistory.weebly.com/old-photos-1.html