Dunston Staithes

Dunston Staithes...
Last Visited 27th February 2015
Access on staithes certain days only..


The Dunston Staiths were built by the North Eastern Railways as a structure for loading coal from the North Durham coalfield onto ships . The first pile was driven on 26th August 1890. There was no formal ceremony when they were opened, just a few officials of the mineral traffic department were present.
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They were opened on Monday 16th October 1893, and the first steamer loaded at 7.20 a.m. was called ‘The Holmside’. It is said that the Dunston Staithes are the largest timber structure in Europe and probably in the world, although there is no proof of this.
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The structure is made of North American pitch pine timber, no longer available, from the once unlimited forest. Most of the timber used was 20 metres long, 14 inches deep and 14 inches wide.
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The total weight of timber is 3,200 tons, The Staithes are 526 metres long with 4 railway tracks, 6 loading berths (3 on each side), with two chutes to each berth. The gradient from West to East is 1 in 90.
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The main structure was £33,130.19s.lld The railway known as the permanent way was £247.5s.0d., additional timber £2,433,19s.2d. The total cost £210,000., which was a lot of money in 1890.
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During the Staithes “glory days”, in 1929, 140,000 tons of coal per week was loaded. In 1970 it’s production dropped to just 3,500 tons per annum. Trade had steadily declined from the end of the second World War, it was never to recover. The run-down was gradual, but they closed as working Staithes in 1977, and finally in 1980.




In 1990 after they were refurbished by Gateshead Council with help from Central Government grants. The Staithes were opened as a walkway, on part of the riverside site, which was part of the National Garden Festival. The river Tyne was also cleansed for this event and now, happily, salmon swim up the river to spawn.

In 1912, a dug-out canoe was found at the West Dunston Staithes, it dated back to Neolithic times..
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The Dunston Staithes is an unusual structure restored to be part of our local and national industrial heritage. It is now a grade ‘A’ listed building and over 100 years old.
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The Staithes suffered further fire damage in July 2010. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £420,000 restoration of the structure began in April 2014.
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Videos of the Staithes Click HERE and HERE
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Heritage Open Day...
Dunston Staithes was open for free access on the 13th and 14th September 2014 as part of the Heritage Open Days Events across the North East.
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View gallery of the open day Here
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The Cone...
Cone was a new artwork by Wolfgang Weileder situated on the Staithes, the Cone is the first large scale installation piece of art that has been developed from the Jetty Project: Art & Sustainability a collaborative research investigation funded by the AHRC and coordinated by Newcastle University and Manchester University.The cone was in place from 3rd July 2014 to 15th September 2014.
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View picture gallery of the Cone HERE
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All future events and open days for the Staithes can be found Here.