Cleadon Windmill

Cleadon Windmill

Image Details

Title Cleadon Windmill
Reference Number STH0006609
Photographer Bardwell Keith
Town or Village Cleadon Village
Date Circa 1983
Original Format Colour photograph
Period The 1980s
Copyright South Tyneside Libraries
Further Information The windmill on the hills was constructed in the 1820s. The mill is
built on the highest part of Cleadon Hills on a slight artificial
mound. The building incorporates a stone reffing stage peculiar to the
mills in the area.

The mill was severely damaged in a storm at some time during the
1870s, and then suffered the indignity of being a target for gunnery
practice during the First World War.

Also on Cleadon Hills is a former water pumping station, which once
provided water to the South Shields area. The site is dominated by the
landmark Cleadon Water Tower, in fact a chimney for the former
steam-powered pumps, which is visible for miles around.

The works were built for the Sunderland and South Shields Water
Company to a design by Hawksley and opened in 1863. The facility was
typical of the grand Victorian waterworks style of the day, and
resembles its sister station at Ryhope which was built a few years
later.

It was one of a chain of wells that stretched from Cleadon in the
north to Hesledon in the south, which were constructed to exploit the
reserves of clean fresh water that lay trapped in the permeable
limestone. Little is known about the engine that drove the pumps, it
was described as a 'high class' beam engine of 130 hp, driving a pump
that drew water from a well 258 feet deep and 12 feet in diameter, the
water standing 18 feet deep at the bottom. The works were electrified
in 1930 and the steam plant removed.

The chimney itself is 100 feet tall and the balcony is 82 feet above
ground level, a square spiral staircase of 141 steps winds around the
central flue. It was designed to resemble the well known Italian
campanile bell towers, and was placed above the works on the highest
part of the hill to facilitate boiler draughting and the dispersal of
smoke and steam