Geograph - photograph every grid square

The site has been reclaimed from old industrial land and the poor soil favours a good variety of wild flowers. In 2003, plans to more than double the size of a civic amenity waste site using land from the Walbottle Brickworks local nature reserve had to be changed to preserve the habitat of Dingy Skipper butterflies.

Walbottle (or Newburn) Brickworks was part of the North Walbottle and Blucher Colliery Company which had its own tram/railway system from the pit to the brickworks and on to staiths on the River Tyne at Lemmington. The brickworks was in existence from the 1850s to 1965. The buildings were demolished in 1979 and the site is currently a council recycling plant off Walbottle Road. The sister plant, Throckley Brick Works (originally owned by the same company and on the same tramway) is still in existence NZ1567 : Brickworks. Newburn bricks were mainly used for industrial building work including sewers, tunnels and arches.