Plessey Wooden Waggonway
Plessey Wooden Waggonway ran from pits near Plessey Checks NZ2479 to Blyth NZ3181. It opened in the late 1600s and closed in 1813.
Plessey waggonways is one of the earliest and longest waggonways in Northumberland. It was running by 1709 and continued in use until 1812. It ran from Plessey Hall Farm to Blyth harbour. Along the line of the Plessey waggonway , small horses would pull their Chaldron [5200 weight] five and a half miles to Blyth harbour. The loads would be emptied and they would return for their twice daily journey. When it was built it had tracks made from beech wood laid on oak sleepers. Horse-drawn waggons pulled the coal from the coal mine to the harbour at Blyth which were then loaded into Keel boats. These keel boats were rowed out to the river Blyth and loaded onto waiting colliers, because the channel approach was to shallow for the larger coal ships.