AD 122: The Roman Wall is built. Evidence of the Wall has been found at Red Barns (top of Crawhall Road) and on Shields Road, although no evidence has been found to confirm its precise route across the Valley.
1400s: Water-powered mills are established along the fast flowing Ouseburn river between Hadrick’s Mill and the river Tyne. Physical evidence of these mills survives in Jesmond Dene and Jesmond Vale. The Flint Mill below Heaton Hough in the Lower Ouseburn survived until the 1890s; the site is now just below the Ouseburn Viaduct.
1750s: Crawford’s Bridge, a low stone bridge, is built to support the main north-south pack-horse route through the Valley. This bridge appears to have replaced an earlier wooden bridge.
1760s: Pottery and earthenware manufacturers are established on Stepney Bank and lower down between Crawford’s Bridge and the ford further downstream. This ford is one of three east-west routes across the Valley, the others being Ouseburn Bridge (connecting Cut Bank to the Shields Road turnpike via Byker Bank) and Glasshouse Bridge built in the 17th century.
1801: James & Co. establish their white lead works at the maximum reach of the river Tyne tide, thereby exploiting both the full power of the Ouseburn river and the navigation of the Tyne tide. Henceforth, various entrepreneurs apply to Newcastle Corporation for permission to remove sand and build walls along the Ouseburn (i.e., dredge, widen and reinforce the channel of the river). This marks the beginning of the development of the Ouseburn as a centre for heavy industry.
1815: The Maling family relocate their pottery business from North Hylton on Wearside to the east side of Ouseburn Bridge, at the foot of Byker Bank. They later build a much larger factory higher up Byker Bank (Ford Street, 1858) and an even larger pottery (1878) just east of the Ouseburn, now Hoult’s Yard.
1820s: Clarke, Plummer & Co establishes a flax spinning mill on the north side of the ford. Flax was spun to make sailcloth for ships. In the 1840s this firm commissioned John Dobson to build a much bigger flax mill on the west side of the ford.
1827: the historian Mackenzie complains about the ‘disagreeable and dangerous’ limekiln near Ouseburn Bridge - hence Lime Street.
1839: the Ouseburn Viaduct is built, as part of the Newcastle-North Shields Railway. It has stone pillars and wooden arches. The architects are John and Benjamin Green.
1848: the building now known as ‘36 Lime Street Studios’ is completed and begins operation as a flax spinning mill. By 1858 this business is closed and in 1860 the building is converted into a steam-powered flour mill by Henry Proctor & Co.
1853: Robert Morrison establishes an iron foundry on the west side of the Ouseburn - hence Foundry Lane. An engine works specialising in small marine engines is also established but is closed by 1875 after efforts to sustain the business through a workers co-operative.
1858: The first Ordnance Survey clearly shows the Ouseburn Valley as a distinct and separate industrial suburb east of Newcastle Town.
1869: The Ouseburn Viaduct is widened and the superstructure rebuilt in iron. The railway line itself now links Newcastle to Edinburgh.
1871: Ismay & Co establishes the Northumberland Lead Works on the site of the original flax mill, on the north side of the ford. Like the James & Co lead works, this too manufactures white lead as a pigment for the paint and varnish trade. The manufacturing process is very crude, and dangerous to work in.
1878: Three new bridges are built across the Ouseburn. Byker Bridge is opened as a toll bridge, and operated as a private business venture. A new Ouseburn Bridge and Glasshouse Bridge are wholly owned and operated, free of tolls, by Newcastle Corporation.
1896: The Second Edition of the Ordnance Survey reveals an Ouseburn Valley covered with industry and housing. The extension of Newcastle Quayside and the development of the Battlefield immediately west of the Ouseburn means that the Valley is now very much part of Newcastle Town.
1906: Newcastle Corporation begins to culvert the Ouseburn between the Ouseburn Viaduct and Heaton Hough. The James & Co lead works is buried beneath a huge volume of landfill as the Valley is filled-in to create level ground for house building and new roads. This landfill becomes the Ouseburn Tip, notorious for almost 50 years for its noxious smells and tendency to self-combust during hot dry summers.
1930s: Much of the old heavy industry is closed and demolished. New industries such as furniture and mattress makers are established on Lime Street and Foundry Lane.
For information about more recent regeneration activity, go to the Lower Ouseburn Regeneration section