Report - Ouseburn Culvert/Shelter, Newcastle - Sept 2013

[paulpowers]

Why eye mon, fog on the tyne pet

Whenever I try a Geordie accent I sound like a South African with learning difficulties.

So I was up in Newcastle and fancied a quick bit of underground so on went the wellies and under I went

The culvert was constructed between 1907-1911 carrying the Ouseburn underneath the suburb of Heaton. It runs for a total length of 2150 ft and built at a cost of £23,000. From 1911 the valley in which the Ouseburn runs through was filled gradually over 40 years of industrial and household waste with a plan to provide a level ground for housing, however, shortly after this new government regulations were introduced so houses were not to be built on landfill. In 1939 part of the culvert was converted into an air raid shelter housing upto 3000 people during the war. This was done by actually splitting the culvert in two, a concrete platform now sits above the water

On the way over I found Geoff, my traveling companion for the trip (there's a pic of him later on)

Geoff getting settled in to his new home

 

[Punk]

Really like this one, despite it being concrete. Seems there's a few good culverts round Newcastle. As always great stuff @paulpowers