200 year old wooden waggonway discovered in Newcastle

Britain's newest heritage line?

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/river-tyne-200-year-old-5325105

Incredibly exciting.

 

Wow!

 

Blast! my son has just graduated from Newcastle Uni with a degree in ancient history and archaeology (and drinking!) and he missed this! Well I'll be darned. I wonder if they'll find the original script for that most uplifting of songs, "Ah went tu Blaydon Races t'was on the 9th of Joon, in aighteen hundred an sixty too on a summa's afternoon. We tuk the 'bus fram Balmbra's and she was heavy laden and off we went down Collingwood Street, that's on the road to Blaydon.... etc."

 

I'm sure the Branch Line Society will want to get the mileage over it!

Wonder what will happen to it now?

 

According to BBC 'Look North' after recording it in situ it is going to be removed for conservation and display. Ray.

 

I wonder where? York, I suppose, or Shildon. Perhaps even Beamish.

 

More news here: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/race-preserve-historic-wood-track-5373076

 

I hope they know what they are doing! Quite worrying to see the whole length of wooden track exposed to the sun and no doubt drying out. Once that happens an irreversible process of decay sets in and it is effectively lost. A friend of mine has been involved with recovering ancient wooden artefacts excavated in the Fens, and the one thing you have to do at all costs is keep the wood wet!! Items are always covered in wet sacking and transferred as quickly as possible to special water tanks until a specialist conservation process can be carried out.
Remember the "Mary Rose" being constantly sprayed with sea water until it was deemed appropriate to begin conservation treatment? There they gradually replaced the sea water with some sort of penetrating resin or wax I think.

46118

 

As the area is being redeveloped I guess it was expose it all and record it or let it be destroyed without being recorded.

 

Archaeologists are well aware of the problems with wood drying out.
York Archaeological Trust run a wood treatment department that treats artifacts from all over the UK.

 

Bryan, I made the point because the whole length was uncovered, and there didn't appear to be any protective covering on site. The York people are the ones conserving the ancient wooden artifacts from the peat Fens, so I hope they have been involved with this fantastic find. I repeat though, leave it uncovered for a few hours in the current weather and you risk considerable damage and irreversible issues.

Hopefully this is not the case.

46118

 

If it is really more important than Roman remains then surely it should be left in situ, covered over with some sort of protective glass box and displayed where it is? You wouldn't move a Roman town to build things - living as I do near one of the UK's surviving Roman sites, they are not even allowed to plough the fields nearby for fear of disturbing anything.

In summary "it's really, really important, but not as important as making a quick buck". Shame.

 

Beamish would seem to me to be the obvious home, given it's existing pre-Stephenson railways. It should be funded by the beneficiaries of the devlopment work, i.e. Shepherd Offshore and Newcastle University, as a condition of planning permission, etc.

 

Planning permission will have already been granted before they started the work. They will have paid for the archeologists.

 

I believed it is to remain in situ and be re-buried for now...

 

More photos and description on the latest Beamish blog post:
http://beamishtransportonline.co.uk/2013/07/the-mysterious-wooden-waggonway

Richard

 

I'm going to look tomorrow

 

I've already seen some images, and spoken to one of the people working on the site.
Speaking personally !
I hope that it is found a good home - as preservation in situ will not be an option. But it has been recorded in detail.