Backworth in 1844. Interestingly B pit existed before what later became Eccles Colliery which is described as the ‘new winning’

Billy Embleton

Backworth 1920 Chronicle Live

Havelock Place 1937- A lost Village when the adjacent pit closed down CC-BY Karl Pijnen

The Wheatsheaf Inn Backworth

This was just off the south side of the main street OS Map 1841 ©NLS

SiteLines (HER 4495) mentions another public House and small brewery for sale in Backworth in 1838 at Northumberland Place, NZ430000 572400, the location given is well to the north of the existing main street.

Backworth Station 1977

© Billy Embleton / Flikr

Backworth – Dairy and Ivy Cottages

The Google images are a few years old, on a walk past in June 2025 you could see that the buildings roofs have collapsed and the decay is now advanced.

Dairy Cottage is Grade 2 Listed, Ivy is mentioned as having historical merit.

Planning Application 2018 – 18/01374/LBC

Map Location Dairy & Ivy Cottages © Google Maps

West Backworth medieval village is well preserved and the best example of an abandoned medieval village in Tyne and Wear. The wet conditions and the evidence of the unrecorded excavation indicate that significant information on the form and history of the village will be preserved beneath the present ground surface. The overlying ridge and furrow cultivation illustrates the abandonment of the village and its subsequent incorporation into the field system of the surviving Backworth village. The ridge and furrow cultivation is interesting and unusual as an example of open field agriculture laid out in or after the 15th century.

Details

West Allotment Medieval Village – Location on a modern map

LIDAR image of the site © Environment Agency

The remains of West Backworth medieval village, 300m south east of West Farm, Backworth. The historic monument includes both medieval earthwork and below ground remains and the remains of post-medieval activity which overlie them in places. The surviving medieval remains include two rows of allotments (or crofts) aligned east-west along a hollow way. The hollow way bisects the field in which the monument is situated. The eastern section of the hollow way is 16m wide and 1.5m deep and leads to a post-medieval dammed pond. The section of the hollow way to the west of the pond is identified from aerial photographs and is the same width as the eastern section. The building platforms (or tofts) lying within the crofts are visible as level ground, which in the eastern half of the field is 1m-2m above the level of the hollow way. A further building platform in the south east corner of the field is 1m above the level of the other building platforms and 12m long by 8m wide.

An unrecorded excavation 20m south east of the pond has exposed surviving stonework in the north west corner of a 40m by 50m enclosure. The predominant post-medieval feature is the 5m wide ridge and furrow cultivation, which is orientated north-south and overlies all the medieval features. Post-dating this cultivation is the pond and causewayed track. The pond is approximately 10m in diameter and has been formed by the construction of a dam on its north side. The dam consists of an earthern bank 0.5m high by 5m wide and contains material of post-medieval date. The other post- cultivation feature is the causewayed trackway extending along the western half of the southern edge of the field. This trackway is 0.5m high and 4m wide. The earliest reference to the existence of both West and East Backworth was in AD 1189. In 1241 the two villages comprised a single manor which was granted to Tynemouth Priory. In the subsidy of 1296 the two villages were assessed separately, West Backworth providing four taxpayers.

The manor was devasted by Scots raiding in 1323. During the 15th century all the freeholds of both villages were extinguished, the lands went out of cultivation, and were subsequently divided into ten husbandlands *. By the 16th century West Backworth was deserted and its site was incorporated into the field system of East Backworth which now forms the present day village. The electricity pylons are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

© Historic England / Wrathmell, S, Deserted and Shrunken Villages in Southern Northumberland, 1975, PhD thesis

• Husbandlands – An old Northumbrian / Scottish term. the holding once held by a husband or tenant farmer or the quantity of land held by him
• Old English hūsbonda, from Old Norse hūsbōndi, from hūs house + bōndi one who has a household, from bōa to dwell

Backworth in 1844. Interestingly B pit existed before what later became Eccles Colliery which is described as the ‘new winning’

Billy Embleton

Backworth 1920 Chronicle Live

Havelock Place 1937- A lost Village when the adjacent pit closed down CC-BY Karl Pijnen

The Wheatsheaf Inn Backworth

This was just off the south side of the main street OS Map 1841 ©NLS

SiteLines (HER 4495) mentions another public House and small brewery for sale in Backworth in 1838 at Northumberland Place, NZ430000 572400, the location given is well to the north of the existing main street.

Backworth Station 1977

© Billy Embleton / Flikr

Backworth – Dairy and Ivy Cottages

The Google images are a few years old, on a walk past in June 2025 you could see that the buildings roofs have collapsed and the decay is now advanced.

Dairy Cottage is Grade 2 Listed, Ivy is mentioned as having historical merit.

Planning Application 2018 – 18/01374/LBC

Map Location Dairy & Ivy Cottages © Google Maps