RAILWAY AND CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY EARLY RAILWAY GROUP

Occasional Paper 225

A wooden waggonway wash hole at

Michael Lewis

Over the past three decades there have been no fewer than seven archaeological finds of wooden railways: at Bedlam near Coalbrookdale ( Post-Medieval Archaeology 21 (1987), 259-62), at Bersham ( IA Review 15 (1993), 195-207), the magnificent layout at Lambton D Pit (IA Review 20 (1998), 5-22), less well preserved at Rainton (IA Review 27 (2005), 235-44), (OP 208) and (inf. Pre-Construct Archaeology), and now a seventh and splendid example just east of Newcastle of which this is a very brief and preliminary note.

Swan Hunter’s former Neptune Yard (GR NZ 29956573), historically in Wallsend but now (by a couple of feet) in Walker, is under redevelopment by Shepherd Offshore as an Energy Park. In July-September 2013 part of the site was investigated by the Newcastle-based Archaeological Practice. Some 200 yards from the Tyne, instead of the Roman material they expected in connection with the nearby fort of Wallsend, they found the Bigges Main waggonway, which was built in 1785-6 to carry coal south to the river from the colliery of that name. Its lowest 1½ miles were also used from 1808 for the wooden Kenton & Coxlodge Railway and were relaid in 1812 with iron rails for locomotive traction. This section was single-track and, at the peak, traffic was heavy: of the order of one loaded waggon down and one empty up every two minutes. The Bigges Main connected physically with the older Willington- system and shared its gauge of 4ft 8in. The new-found track is thus the earliest surviving example of the proto-standard gauge.

A 25-metre stretch was uncovered. The main way, falling towards the staiths, is of predictable form. Though much damaged, it is a double way (that is with two layers of rails) fixed with square wooden pegs to oak sleepers of which some, as at Lambton, are wavy and irregular and some are clearly reused ships’ timbers. Branching from it is a short loop which, having been sealed in impermeable layers of coal waste, is in surprisingly good condition. The astonishing feature is that the loop drops steeply down, immediately to rise again to rejoin the main way beyond the limit of excavation. Alan Williams, one of the excavators and a native of Blackpool, joked that he thought he had found the world’s first rollercoaster.

In more prosaic reality, it was a pond or “wash hole” through which waggons were run to prevent their wooden wheels drying out and thereby cracking or warping. Elsewhere on Tyneside such soaking ponds are recorded in documentary sources (see Early Wooden Railways , 194 and the map, below, of the waggonway to the west of Newcastle). Here at Wallsend, the first example to be found, there is a substantial stone-built culvert to feed water into the dip. On the loop the running rails are only one-high, but inside them are check or false rails consisting of two tiers of very tall rails which together stand no less that 15in above the sleepers. The purpose of this great height was evidently to safeguard against derailments in the dip where, under water, the flangeways and running rails might well become obstructed with mud and small coal. Between the check rails is a fine cobbled horse path. The three-foot difference in level between the main way and sunken loop is revetted with recycled timbers, probably again from broken-up colliers.

On Tyneside, old-fashioned wooden wheels were still to be found in the 1780s, but thereafter were rapidly replaced by iron. We do not know exactly when Bigges Main made the change, but a map of 1801 shows that the loop no longer existed and the wash-hole had no doubt been filled in. It therefore seems likely that this loop was an original or early feature which lasted long enough to see some wear and tear before being superseded when iron wheels were adopted. Where it diverged from the main way are the remains of a set of points. As they stand, they make no operational sense because they are multi-period: the main way was subsequently relaid with new and continuous rails, leaving only those parts of the old points which did not get in the way. Sadly, therefore, they shed no light on vintage pointwork

From Lambton, unfortunately, nothing was saved for preservation. At Wallsend, however, Tyne & Wear Museums have removed a six-metre length of both tracks, wash hole included, with the necessarily long-term intention of conserving and displaying them.

My thanks for information, photos and discussion to Jim Rees, Les Turnbull and Alan Williams.

November 2013

Detail from map of Throckley waggonway in 1771. Main and bye ways blue, wash-hole loop yellow, dots denote the presence of check rails: note that in the wash hole they are, as at Wallsend, on both sides of the track (Northumberland Archives ZAN M 17/197a 48)

Wallsend site looking north. A, main way. B, wash hole loop (photo Jim Rees)

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Right, sleeper. Left, lower rail of main way seen from under side, with (A) pegs for fixing to sleepers and (B) tips of pegs for fixing upper rail to lower (photo Michael Lewis)

A, main way. B, timber revetment. C, cobbling and check rails of loop. D, running rail of loop (photo Jim Rees)

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Double-tiered check rails at bottom of wash hole after cobbling removed (photo Michael Lewis)

Site of turnout. Redundant point rails of loop (to right) removed when main way relaid (photo Alan Williams)

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Water supply channel running beneath main way (under ranging pole but largely removed) to loop (off picture to right) (photo Alan Williams)

Wash hole after rain (photo Northern Echo)

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