If anyone has ever walked between Backworth and Seghill, you'll definitely recognise this path. It's just off the old Backworth Colliery sites.

This was one of the long forgotten pit communities in these parts - Havelock Place. Havelock Place was a triangular settlement with 2 separate rows of housing facing the central field you see on my aerial shot. They were almost certainly built in the 1850s after the revered (and controversial) Henry Havelock, born in Sunderland rising to become one of the foremost generals in the British Army. Nowadays, he's associated with the brutal suppression of Indian rebels, though it would be unwise for me to discuss this event on this post... Backworth C Pit was also sunk in 1856, which gives credence.

The community was made up entirely of pitmen and their families working at the Backworth Pits and the Hotspur Brick Works. A quick peruse over the census records confirms this - with inhabitants working as "fire brick labourers", "brick moulders", "blacksmith at brick works" and coal hewers.

Though the houses were solidly built with bricks made adjacent, the infrastructure was less sturdy. A United Free Chapel stood here, but children had to walk across the muddy, sodden trails to Backworth each day. Vehicles and wagons struggled to get through and requests were made in the 20s for the coal company to re-ash the lane. There were regular floods due to bad drainage alongside regular outbreaks of illness - Diphtheria and Measles outbreaks are both mentioned. With this said though, I'd be keen to hear from former residents on what this place was actually like.

The above reasons were contributors to its clearance. Havelock Place disappeared in the late 1930s, with residents rehoused on the nearby Moorside Estate. Nowadays, at certain times of the year you can still see the blooms of the garden flowers and bits of rubble from this old street.