IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Clarks Hill Walk, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, NE15 8JU

Council-owned flats at Newburn showing landscaping and renovation work done to footpaths and stairs during 2011.

Newburn council house looking broadly South in mid/late 1989. This image is mainly for historical purposes as these buildings were substantially renovated during this period. The photograph looks South towards Blaydon/Ryton area.

The tower of the church was used by Scottish Artillery in the Battle of Newburn Ford 1640 and was a key factor in their defeat of the English. For more information on the battle see http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=29

The Saxon word lych means corpse. Traditionally the lych gate was where the officiating clergy at a funeral, waited for the arrival of the coffin and its cortege. This one dates from 1885 and carries a memorial plaque to William Hedley the railway pioneer.

Built in 1870 by R J Johnson for the bailiff of the Duke of Northumberland http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=304354&resourceID=5 Closer view here Image

The porch was the work of W S Hicks in 1886 as was the lych gate Image

Wider view here Image

The three gravestones at the rear are those of the Hedley family Image William Hedley (1779 – 1843) was another railway pioneer and was born in Newburn http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=304347&resourceID=5 Two of his famous creations were 'Puffing Billy' Image and 'Wylam Dilly' Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hedley The connection with railway pioneers was complete when George Stephenson married Frances (Fanny) Henderson on 28 November 1802 and, after her death in 1806, remarried Betty Hindmarsh on 29 March 1820, both at Newburn Church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stephenson

There is a wider view here Image William Hedley (13 July 1779 – 9 January 1843) was born in Newburn, near Newcastle upon Tyne. He was one of the leading industrial engineers of the early 19th century, and was instrumental in several major innovations in early railway development. While working as a 'viewer' or manager at Wylam's Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, he built the first practical steam locomotive which relied simply on the adhesion of iron wheels on iron rails. Hedley felt that if the pairs of wheels were connected, as with Richard Trevithick's engines, if one pair began to slip, it would be counteracted by the other. The mine owner, Christopher Blackett had just replaced the wooden waggonway from Wylam to Lemington with iron flanged 'L' section plate rails. Hedley constructed a test carriage operated by manpower in 1811, to test the adhesion under various loads. A small scale model is in the Science Museum. He then used it as the chassis for a locomotive constructed to Trevithick's pattern with a single cylinder and a simple straight through fire tube to the boiler. Called the 'Grasshopper', the engine was not satisfactory. Its motion was erratic, because of the single cylinder, and it produced insufficient steam. He built a second engine, with the assistance of Timothy Hackworth, his foreman blacksmith, and his principal engine-wright, Jonathan Forster, using the 1812 twin cylinder plan of John Blenkinsop and Matthew Murray with a return-flue boiler. This was the famous steam locomotive, 'Puffing Billy' which first ran in 1813 and is now preserved at the Science Museum in London. There is a modern replica at Beamish Image Its success encouraged them to build a second engine 'Wylam Dilly', which is now in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh Image In the same year, his system for using a coupling between the wheels was patented. Both locomotives remained in active service until 1862. William Hedley died in 1843 at Burnhopeside Hall, near Lanchester Image and was buried at Newburn parish church Image Four sons survived him, and his descendants remained heavily involved in the coal-mining industry until nationalisation in the 1940s. In 1971, a charitable foundation was set up in the Hedley name, with assets based on the compensation from nationalisation. It supports young people, the disabled and the terminally ill http://www.hedleyfoundation.org.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hedley