Winlaton
Winlaton is a village situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. Once an independent village in County Durham, it became incorporated into the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear and Borough of Gateshead in 1974.
Winlaton was once at the centre of the local steel industry. Ambrose Crowley, a Quaker nail-manufacturer, moved in 1691 to Winlaton. He set up furnaces and forges there and on the River Derwent at Winlaton Mill. The river was ideally suitable for tempering steel, as the sword-makers of Shotley Bridge also found. Crowley not only produced high-quality nails, but also iron goods such as pots, hinges, wheel-hubs, hatchets and edged tools. He could also make heavy forgings, such as chains, pumps, cannon carriages and anchors up to four tons in weight. The Crowley works were regarded as the largest manufactory of the kind in Europe. The gates for Buckingham palace were also forged in Winlaton.
It still has one of the oldest forges remaining in existence, built c1690.
The parish churches are dedicated to St Paul and St Anne.
Coordinates: 54°58′N 1°44′W / 54.967°N 1.733°W
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Winlaton. |
- Photos and video of Blaydon & Winlaton 1960s
- St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church, Winlaton
- Winlaton Local History Society
- Winlaton Camera Club