Photographs Of Newcastle

Lemington, Bell’s Close and Sugley were adjacent villages which developed in the nineteenth century around the new industries which took advantage of the coal and clay deposits as well as the nearby water transport.

They were all part of the parish of Sugley. In the sixteenth century there was a Lamedon Mill and a Lamedon House and in 1638 the staithes at Lemendon are recorded. There was also a brickyard, tileshed, blacking factory and boatyard at Bell’s Close at this time.

In 1787 the Northumberland Glass Company obtained a lease on some land at Lemington from the Duke of Northumberland and set up four glasshouses. Glass manufacture continued on the site until 1882 when it stopped and the land was leased to Spencer’s Iron Works. Glass making moved to a different site in Lemington.

In 1797 the Tyne Iron Works was established in Lemington 'for the cast iron extracting by the action of fire in large furnaces from ironstone…… to produce everything from an anchor to a needle' but in 1869 it was taken over by John Spencer & Sons and restarted as the Tyne Haematite Iron Company in 1871 using Spanish ore. The furnaces finally closed in 1886 and in 1903 the Newcastle & district Lighting Company erected a power station on the site.

Lemington Staithes and Lemington Point were the termination of many coal wagonways including the Wylam and Wallbottle wagonways. The coal was delivered to the staithes and then dropped into the many waiting Keel boats to take it out to the collier ships anchored in the River Tyne.

In 1876 with the coming of the railways a 'new' Lemington developed 'up the bank' north of the railway line. In the same year the Tyne Commissioners cut a new channel in the river near Blaydon and the entrance to Lemington Loop was cut off and silted up. This area is now called 'The Gut'. Continuous dredging was needed to keep the staithes clear.

By mid nineteenth century Lemington Point was the finishing line for skiff races starting at either the Tyne or Scotswood Bridges. The famous oarsman, Harry Clasper, frequently entered these races.

There was an island at Lemington Point which was locally known as 'Canary Island' during World War I because of the effect cordite had on the skins of the munitions workers. The land was reclaimed after World War II and in 1958 the Anglo Great Lakes Corporation Ltd. Built a plant for the conversion of carbon into graphite for use in the nuclear industry. This was the beginning of the Lemington Industrial Estate.

Holy Saviour Church was originally called Sugley Parish Church when it was built in 1837. It was designed by Benjamin Green and is unusual because it is oriented north-south, rather than east-west, to avoid an unused pit shaft underneath it. The Parish Day School was attached until 1937 when it closed. There were three churches in the area. 1838 a Weslyan Chapel was built by the Keelmen who ferried the stone form Heworth in Gateshead and in 1868 St. George’s Roman Catholic Church was built with an attached school, which is still in use.

On 12 July 1875 Lemington Station opened on the Scotswood, Newburn & Wylam Railway. On 15 September 1958 the station closed to passengers and on 4 January 1960 the station was closed to goods, but the lines weren't lifted until 1992, when the Ever Ready battery factory in Newburn closed.

Description courtesy of the now defunct Lemington Heritage Website.

7th April 2015

Valley View Play Area.

Lemington Power Station.

A typical example of an early 20th century power station, built for a private local lighting company, operating between 1903 and 1919. It was adapted as a substation after WW2 to supply the tram system. The imposing brick building forms part of an important industrial group in a historic industrial landscape and retains a number of original features.

The building survives as intact shell adjacent to river. It is a brick shed with tall, round headed openings often picked out in darker or lighter bricks, circular openings high on the gables, and a full length ridge ventilator to the west bay. Interior features included elevated control rooms, toilets and walkways, an overhead crane to the west bay, and a below ground reservoir. The perimeter wall is also of interest – it survives in the southern half of the site, incorporating opposed entrance gateways.

Source: Sitelines.

16th August 2013

Lemington from across the Tyne in Blaydon.

14th May 2010

Lemington Middle School Demolition.

11th October 2009

Lemington Gut.

Before work by the Tyne Improvement Commission, the River Tyne at Lemington bent like a horseshoe around Lemington Point. The river was widened and deepened, the banks strengthened with stone and earth, and its route changed to remove the horseshoe bend which would have been difficult for large ships to navigate.

Lemington Point then became part of Newburn Haugh, no longer cut off from Lemington proper. What once was the bend in the River Tyne around the Point, became Lemington Gut, a narrow water channel which ended at the old Lemington Staiths.

Source: Sitelines.

Lemington Power Station.

Rydal Street.

8th October 2009

Newcastle Infirmary Mass Grave.

THE INFIRMARY
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Here lie the remains of those
previously buried in the grounds of
the Newcastle Infirmary, Forth Banks
now the site of the
International Centre for Life.
Originally buried between 1753 & 1854
and re-interred here November 1998

Lemington Cemetery.

Lemington Cemetery, World War II Memorial.

Riverside Way area.

Lemington Glassworks Cone.

Glassworks, now factory. Circa 1787 for the Northumberland Glass Company. English bond brick; renewed uppermost courses. Tall cone with 5 large segmental arches visible on west and south sides, 2 smaller on north, bricked up and with inserted door in north-west. Historical note: the only surviving glasshouse on the Tyne, famous since the early C17 for the manufacture of glass.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.

Lemington Methodist Church.

1891. Primitive Methodist. Replaced an 1861 chapel. Brick with ashlar dressings. A large town chapel with galleries, gabled front to street on east, with projecting porch block.

Source: Sitelines.

Lemington Labour Club.

Waverley Park Doorstep Green.

Valley View Play Area.

Waverley Lodge Care Home.

Lemington Gut.

Route of the now dismantled railway.

Valley View.

Union Hall Road.

1st October 2009

Lemington Methodist Church.

St. Georges R.C. Primary School.

R.C. parish church. l868-69 by A.M. Dunn; at the expense of Richard Lamb of West Denton. Flemish bond white brick with polychrome dressings; rear (north) red brick; Welsh slate roof. Western 3-sided apse to chancel; south tower; 5-bay nave with south porch.

Shouldered lintel to blocked ritual west door in porch: Shouldered lintel to inserted west door with broach-stopped rebate to surround. Nook shafts to paired west lancets; cinquefoil above has drip mould with ball-flower stops. Carved gables to 2 west buttresses. 2-centred-arched windows in buttressed nave with sill string and continuous impost band: Lombard frieze above and around apse; 2-stage tower, blind below, has upper wide 2-centred-arched belfry openings under Lombard frieze with corner gargoyles, and steeply-pitched hipped roof with iron ridge finial.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.

The Lemington Centre.

Looking north up Northumberland Road.

Newburn Sea Cadets.

The old Lemington Hotel.

This old public house named Lemington Hotel is an important part of the appearance of the village of Lemington. It is a handsome stone built structure prominently located in the centre of the village. Built in 1897, it also consists of a cellar and a stable block. Replaced earlier Lemington Hotel at Newburn Hall. Became the property of Scottish Brewers in 1959. Licence was revoked in 1996. The building has been derelict since the pub closed in the late 1990s.

Source: Sitelines.

Lemington Middle Club.

Looking east on Quarry Road.

Kielder Road at its junction with Henlow Road.

Blyth Court.

The shops on Tyne View.

Rokeby Avenue.

Union Hall Road and Eva Street.

Union Hall Road.

7th August 2006

Lemington Glassworks Cone.

The Parish of the Holy Saviour, Sugley.

Parish church. 1836-37; by Benjamin Green. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar plinth, quoins and dressings; Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings.

Aligned north-south; nave with ritual north porch and south vestry and lower, set-back sanctuary. Early English style. High pointed arch to boarded door in steeply- gabled porch; 3-light east window, lancets in sanctuary and east nave, 2-light windows in nave; wide chamfered buttress, dividing west lancets, beneath bellcote. Low-pitched roof. Interior: plaster, sloping sills to windows; queen-post roof with pendants. Blind high pointed west arch; high pointed moulded arches to doors; moulded arch to sanctuary, one step above chancel, which is paved with Caithness flags as Second World War memorial.

Historical note: said to be aligned north-south to avoid disused pit shaft on east.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.

More Information:

Historical interest in Lemington:

Historic cinemas and theatres in Lemington:

Historic industrial sites in Lemington:

Past and present religious sites in Lemington:

See my other photos around Lemington: