Scotswood Drift is another subterranean feature on Tyneside was the Drift Mine in Scotswood that was owned and operated by the ADAMSEZ company, they of bathroom product fame.
Now I don't know exactly where the drift was located but have vivid memories of a tunnel entrance, more or less opposite Scotswood Bridge - see view below. The tunnel has in recent years been covered over.
The drift mine was licensed to The Adamsez Ltd for the main purpose of mining "saggar clay", a small amount of coal was also mined which was used in the works to heat up the kilns.
Adamsez were producers of all sorts of fired clay products, such as toilets pans, wash basins etc, and the clay from the Scotswood Drift was used in that very process. Adamsez had their production site at Fireclay Works, Scotswood on Tyne, just to the West of Scotswood Bridge.
As an aside, do you know where the Adamsez name came from?, it was due to the fact that this was a family firm, with all of the Directors having the surname Adams!
The Kitty Drift is another mine, further to the West of The Scotswood Drift.
The Kitty Drift was opened up in the early 1800's as an underground waggonway from Kenton Colliery to the staithes at Scotswood. During its construction coal was also mined so it had a dual purpose. So it isn't only the Victoria Tunnel that was used to transport coal "underground".
The Kitty Drift was also used by The Montague Pit Complex to transport coal from the Caroline's Colliery (the one in Denton Burn) to the screens at the closed View Pit.
Evidently the Kitty Drift had a huge Steam Winder which used to haul the coal tubs for something like 3 miles - this was replaced in the 1930's by a 250 horsepower electric winder.
It also turns out that other drift mines were sunk and angled to intercept the Kitty Drift in order that the coal mined could be easily transported.
Just before the complex was closed it was reckoned that The Kitty Drift and its associated other drift mines had a rope haulage system that in places was 6 miles long.
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