Report - River Team, Gateshead - Oct 2014

paulpowers · Oct 29, 2014

Driving back from Morpeth and it was time for a break, I'd got this one marked on Google maps so decided it was time to pop in.

The infall is in the centre of a busy round-about which made for an interesting dash between traffic.

Once inside it's a large concrete affair with a wire mesh top that has been left to let bushes and plants grow over it, it made for an interesting stroll which was broken up by covered sections.

The River Team is a tributary of the River Tyne in Gateshead, England.

Its source is near Annfield Plain, where it is known as Kyo Burn. Then changing its name again to Causey Burn as it flows underneath the famous Causey Arch. It then flows past Beamish Museum in County Durham (where it is known as Beamish Burn) then crosses the border into Gateshead flowing through Lamesley. Continuing on into the Team Valley, the river flows through a culvert in the middle of the roundabout underneath the A1 road, it then continues through the Team Valley Trading Estate through a covered culvert, before emerging to the surface halfway along.

It then flows through the site of the 1990 National Garden Festival, before finally discharging into the River Tyne in Dunston. This area is known as Teams, after the river.

The River Team has long been regarded as one of the most polluted rivers in the area due to the discharges from Sewage works near Lamesley and heavy industry in the Team Valley. It is called "The Gut" by the residents of Dunston. However considerable improvements have now been made and the river is relatively clean.

Prior to the last Ice Age, the lower part of the River Team actually formed the lower part of the River Wear, with a combined Tyne-Wear river continuing to the coast from Dunston. The ice diverted the River Wear to its current course towards the coast at Sunderland, with the smaller River Team flowing along its former course towards the River Tyne.