Marsden Lime Kilns and Remains of the Rattler – England - Atlas Obscura

Marsden Lime Kilns and Remains of the Rattler

This former industrial installation reveals its inner workings and the remains of a historically important railway. 

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This massive installation  of former lime kilns on  Coast Road, out of South Shields,  Tyne and Weir, is a very impressive  structure  but look closer and you will also see the remains  of a fondly remembered railway  which was an important local service  but which paved the way for rail nationalisation by the Labour Party’s post WW2 government. 

The Marsden lime kilns, a structure  containing 17 kilns, of 2 different designs, and the remains of a rail loading dock took the product of the nearby Marsden Quarry  (magnesian limestone) and coal from the nearby Whitburn  Colliery (which also owned the quarry), to produce quicklime, between about 1870 and 1968 (when the Colliery closed). The structure  is a magnificent relic of former industry in the concealed Durham coalfield.  The coal company also owned the railway which it used to move coal, limestone and lime to the docks on the Tyne and importantly, it also operated it as a passenger railway to bring workers from the town of South Shields  to work in the quarry and the mine (and also helped support  the nearby Souter lighthouse and a paper mill). This railway was known locally  as “The Rattler” because of the poor condition of the rolling stock used to transport  the workers. The carriages used were ancient North Eastern Railway stock, stripped of all comforts and fitted with wooden benches, particularly  for the miners who for many years (until 1930) had to travel  home from work in their, coal dust covered, working clothes without  the chance to change or take a shower.

The social and political  history  of the railway is important in that it was taken into public ownership along with the coal mine which owned it, when British mines were nationalised in 1947, some 2 years before the railway  network  was nationalised making this the first passenger railway in the UK to be nationalised  by the post-war socialist  government. You have to look quite hard to find evidence of the railway now since it closed to passengers in 1959  (with the opening of the coast road busses took over) and freight in 1963 but the track bed runs directly  in front of the lime kilns  and along the former line of the track there are occasional glimpses of mid 20th century (and sometimes  earlier) rail infrastructure. Finding them gets more difficult the closer one gets to town as much building has taken place along the  line of the track.

Know Before You Go

The memory of the Rattler is maintained locally in the name of a bar and restaurant on the coast road at the edge of South Shields. Part of this restaurant is housed in recycled railway  carriages.