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A little bit of History from 1857
Posted by Norman on 28/2/2026, 11:02 am
A piece of Hebburn History from a booklet I scanned years ago
Mid 1800s the village of Hebburn was a mining settlement and still a place of modest proportions. There was a post office, a pub, a brick yard, two shipbuilding yards and chapels. The mining village was near the river just to the west of Jarrow. The street-names High Lane Row and neighbouring School Street mark the location of the village today. There were three pits associated with the colliery. ‘A’ Pit was at the heart of the village, ‘B’ pit was just to the south between St Oswalds Church and Victoria Rd east. ‘C’ Pit was to the west just across Ellison St from St Andrew’s Church in Hebburn Quay area. Hebburn's ‘Low Road’ was called ‘Waggonway Road’ and it linked ‘C’ Pit.to ‘A’ Pit. Hebburn Quay was situated on the river bend facing across the Tyne to Wallsend and was originally a separate settlement that was home to an Iron Ship and Boiler Makers Manufactory. Large quantities of ballast had been deposited by ships since the seventeenth century and this played its part in the development of the quay which jutted out into the Tyne. Later in the nineteenth century, a third place called Hebburn - Hebburn New Town had developed just south of Hebburn Quay, quite close to Hebburn Hall. The present town centre of Hebburn is focused on this area. By the late nineteenth century industries focused in this area were along the river and included The Tyne Works or Tharsis Sulphur works (sulphur and copper) established in 1869 just north of Pelaw Main. They faced across the Tyne to Walker Shore. Just to the north and further downstream on this river bend was Tenants alkali works (1864). Much of the remaining riverside stretching east to Hebburn Colliery was a home to shipyards. LESLIE'S SHIPYARD The big name in Hebburn Shipbuilding was Andrew Leslie (1818-1894), the son of a Scottish crofter from Shetland where Mr Leslie was born in 1818. He grew up in Aberdeen, where, after working as a boilermaker and blacksmith he sought his fortune on Tyneside. He arrived at Hebburn by steamer and purchased land from Cuthbert Ellison for establishing a works, and launched his first ship, the ‘Clarendon’ in 1854. Hebburn and Jarrow still had a relatively small population in the 1850s so Mr Leslie supplemented his Tyneside workforce with labour from Aberdeen. Hebburn came to be known as 'Little Aberdeen' and the first houses for his Scottish workers was called Bonnacord Street (the Aberdeen motto). More workers came over from Ireland as well as other parts of the country. Mr Leslie had a reputation for looking after his workers and had housing built for them and also helped to fund the building of St Andrews Presbyterian church in Ellison Street. Mr Leslie lived on the other side of the river at Wallsend so he could look across and see his new shipyard. He travelled across by ferry. By 1886 he lived in Coxlodge Hall in Gosforth and was retired from the business. In that year the firm acquired the locomotive works of R and W Hawthorn of St Peters Newcastle. The company became Hawthorn Leslie and Co, though it parted with the locomotive side of the business in 1937. Much later the yard was acquired by Swan Hunter’s and the yard continued building ships at Hebburn until 1982.
