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Dist:0.3km<br/>The terminus for many a bus route.
©Steve McShane
Dist:0.3km<br/>The centre of Winlaton
©Steve McShane
Dist:0.3km<br/>Community Centre that runs a host of activities for young and old. It houses a large hall, a sports hall, computer suites, even a photographic darkroom and (soon to a come) a kiln!
©Steve McShane
Dist:0.3km<br/>There is another photo here [[2820032]]
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.3km<br/>
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.4km<br/>First shown on the 1858 OS as a single building with enclosures to the south-west, the pit was part of Joseph Cowen’s Blaydon Burn Colliery. The pit was taken over by Priestman Collieries c.1900 and vested with the National Coal Board Northern Division in 1947. It was closed in 1950.
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.4km<br/>The Commercial Hotel, Commercial Street, Winlaton, Blaydon on Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE21 5QX. My grandfather was the publican here during the 1920s. At that time the pub had an upstairs gym.
©Charlie Bell
Dist:0.5km<br/>Coal from the Bessie (or Betsey) Drift Mine [[2820141]] situated directly to the east, on the valley side, was carried on an elevated platform across the valley to the drops where it was loaded into waggons for transport to the Blaydon Tyne staithes. The doorway on the left has a set of steps which provided access to the upper platform. The Betsie Pit was part of Joseph Cowen's Blaydon Burn Colliery in operation in the mid C19th. Around 1900 it was taken over by Priestman Collieries and finally closed in the 1950s by the National Coal Board. http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.php?t=objects&type=all&f=&s= GL002203
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.5km<br/>The path leads down from the housing estate to join old paths which descend the south bank of Blaydon Burn valley.
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.5km<br/>The steps to the north-east of the former coke cutting platform provide access to two converging tracks on the east side of the valley. To its left is a brick structure thought to be associated with former footbridge that crossed the railway lines in the valley bottom at a high level.
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.5km<br/>The reservoir was built in the early C20th with unmarked red bricks. It was later partly repaired using bricks stamped with 'Cowen M'. These are fire-bricks made sometime after 1926 in Cowen's Brickworks at the east end of the valley. The factory, which opened in 1838, made 6 million fire-bricks a year. At that time a good hand moulder could make 2,400 bricks a day. The reservoir, now largely hidden by trees, may have supplied water for quenching coke, burned in ovens in the valley below, or as a general supply for Blaydon Burn Colliery.
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.5km<br/>
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.6km<br/>The path leads north from the Blaydon Burn Waggonway to Beweshill Lane. The mature stand of oak trees behind are said to support rare purple hairstreak butterflies and the green woodpecker.
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.6km<br/>Surprisingly, the field was reclaimed from the site of a former chemical works, known as Ottovale, owned by Priestman Collieries Ltd. and built in 1904 http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.php?t=objects&type=all&f=&s=ottovale&record=0 The Priestman coke ovens were known locally as the ‘German Ovens’ or ‘Ottovale’ after their German manufacturer, Otto Hilgenstock. The ovens burnt coal to produce coke. The nearby Newcastle Tar Works refined crude tar, a by-product of coke production. The Newcastle Benzol Works was the first place in the world where petrol, known as Blaydon Benzole, was produced from coal. There was also a power station which generated electricity using waste heat but little remains to be seen today [[2819832]] The factory was demolished and the site reclaimed in the 1970s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottovale_coke_works
©Andrew Curtis
Dist:0.6km<br/>
©Andrew Curtis

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