Cited from wikipedia.org - Gateshead Garden Festival
"The festival site was created over a two-year period, on 200 acres (0.81 km2) of derelict land, previously the site of a gasworks, a coal depot and a coking plant named Norwood Coke Works. The cost of reclaiming and redeveloping the land was around £37 million. The Evening Chronicle reported: "Around 50,000 cubic metres [1,800,000 cu ft] of discarded coal and coke over 25 acres [0.10 km2] was removed and the area capped with layers of limestone. Nearly two million trees and shrubs and 1.2m bulbs were planted. Enough turf was laid to cover 1,000 domestic lawns and three tonnes of grass seed was sown. Five thousand previously unemployed people were trained for roles in the festival." After the festival ended, much of the site was replaced by housing, although still largely derelict. At the site, a pond was constructed named Norwood Pond, named for the area of the former cokeworks."
1990 Garden Festival - Norwood Pond by Michael Brady
"The Hidden Wetland from the 1990 Gateshead Garden Festival which is still there - sort of. Norwood Pond"
Old Historical Forest (former Quarry) by Urbany North East - Urbex
"This area (named Norwood historically) in Gateshead was once a very thriving environment and has history. It originally was a coke works (factories for stone essentially), and in 1990, the Gateshead Garden Festival was held from here to the Tyne. A pond was constructed named Norwood Pond, which seems mostly dried up by now, and the River Team, a tributary of the River Tyne, flows by this sector of forest. It has not been managed for at least 10 years."
Woodham Comp. trip to the National Garden Festival Gateshead 1990 by Richard Jackson
"Woodham Comprehensive School trip to the National Garden Festival in Gateshead. June 1990 Class 3F and 3M. Filmed by Richard Jackson Teacher at the school 1988-1990. Copied from 1st generation VHS cassette."
Location: Dunston
2 miles [3 km] SSW of Newcastle
Map Ref: (Sheet 88) NZ238611, 54° 56' 38" N, 1° 37' 42" W
Output:
1961 - Coke. (260,000 tons)
1964 - Coke. (253,000 tons)
1965 - Coke.
1972 - Coke.
1979 - Coke.
1980 - Coke.
1981 - Coke.
Employment:
1961 - 330
1964 - 294
The plant consists of 66 Simon-Carves underjet silica ovens (20½ mean width) completed in 1947. The 130 ovens which the new battery replaced were dismantled, but the old by-product plant was retained and partially renovated. Renewals of this section of the plant are now in band.
At a coking time of 29½ hours the plant has a throughput of 330,000 tons of coal per annum formerly washed at the coking plant. Since 1960, coal from the Morrison washery has been carbonised.
In order to reduce maintenance and labour costs, it is proposed to modify the coal handling plant and utilize four existing 500 ton bunkers for coal blending in place of a number of small brick drainage bunkers.
Crushed coke breeze is added to the coal and all large coke, amounting to 80% of the total coke produced, is sold for foundry purposes and there is a landsale depot for domestic and industrial coke.
6 million cubic feet of unpurified gas are sold daily to the Northern Gas Board and a new gasholder and compressor have been installed to reduce the loss of gas at oven reversals. Crude benzole is sent to the Board’s refineries and tar is distilled by Ness and the Northern Gas Board.
When the existing battery was built, new gas coolers, steam exhausters and an extra boiler were installed. The old sulphate of ammonia plant was replaced in 1964 by a concentrated liquor plant and improvements to the benzole recovery plant have been made.
Steam is raised in four Lancashire boilers fitted with mechanical stokers and also equipped for firing with gas or tar fuels. Three of these boilers have been renewed.
Two test ovens, a test room for coke heating appliances, and the Divisional Sampling House are located at Norwood.
Coking Plants, 1964
HER Number
5136
District
Gateshead
Site Name
Norwood Cokeworks
Place
Dunston
Map Sheet
NZ26SW
Class
Industrial
Site Type: Broad
Fuel Production Site
Site Type: Specific
Coke Oven
General Period
20TH CENTURY
Specific Period
Early 20th Century 1901 to 1932
Form of Evidence
Documentary Evidence
Description
Work commenced in 1912 by Teams By-product and Coke Co. Ltd. There were 120 Otto by-product coke ovens coking 300,000 tons pa and producing 225,000 tons of coke. Tar, benzole, sulphate of ammonia and gas were produced as by products. There was also a tar distillery producing a range of products. The works were connected to the NER Tanfield Branch Railway and the Pelaw Main Collieries Railway Dunston Branch. In May 1930 it was taken over by Priestman Collieries Ltd, who owned Watergate Colliery at Lobley Hill which produced much of the coal for the ovens. The plant was nationalised in 1947 and the original ovens were replaced by 66 Simon Carves ovens with increased capacity. In 1957 295 men were employed here including the coal washery and tar distillery. Watergate Colliery closed in 1964 and the ovens were then supplied from the various collieries feeding the Morrison Busty washery at Tanfield Plain and the Derwenthaugh washery at Winlaton Mill. Closure of local coking coal collieries and a decline in the demand for foundry coke led to the closure of the coke ovens on 20 May 1980 although coke stocking from other plants continued until 1984. The last stocks were removed in 1985 and the rail link removed. The tar distillery continued in operation until December 1986 utilising tar from other coking plants in the region.
Easting
423800
Northing
561400
Grid Reference
NZ423800561400
Sources
<< HER 5136 >> B. Corrigan, 1990, Norwood Coking Plant notes; Tyne and Wear Archives DP.PM/2/9 Norwood Cokeworks 1951