Date: 11/08/2016

A section of historic wooden railway unearthed on the banks of the Tyne is to be safeguarded and studied thanks to a £75,000 award.
The railway, dating from the 1790s, was discovered in 2013 during a dig before Shepherd Offshore was due to begin development work of the former Neptune shipyard site in Walker in Newcastle. The grant from Arts Council Englands Designation Development Fund will now allow Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and partners including North Tyneside Council and the National Railway Museum to investigate the remains.
Compacted coal waste covering the railway had resulted in a remarkable level of preservation and the find has been hailed as being of international importance.
A 25m (82ft) stretch of the wagonway was revealed by archaeologists Alan Williams and Richard Carlton, of Newcastle-based The Archaeological Practice.
The excavated remains were part of the Willington wagonway, which took in collieries at Willington Quay and Bigges Main on the edge of Wallsend.

External links

Funding boost for what could be world's earliest railway

Evening Chronicle

The railway, dating back to the 1790s, was unearthed in Walker before Shepherd Offshore started redeveloping the former Neptune shipyard in 2013

Related news items

Tags: x Willington Waggonway