Geograph - photograph every grid square

This disused bridge over New Burn carried a single mineral railway track running parallel to and slightly north of the main double track line of the Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway. Old maps indicate that it lies more closely on the former line of the Wylam Waggonway and it has been suggested that it might utilise or incorporate the original 1748 bridge used by the wooden waggonway.

Puffing Billy, one of the locomotives built for Wylam Colliery in 1813 by William Hedley, was still running along this line in 1860. The colliery closed in 1863 and the waggonway fell into disuse until the Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway was formed in 1872.