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Rising Sun Colliery and Country Park

The Rising Sun Colliery first produced coal in 1908 and was closed in 1969. There was also a brick works and a quarry on the site. In 1960 it produced 475,871 tons of coal so it was a very busy pit. After the colliery was closed the pit heap was landscaped into Rising Sun Hill. Through the middle of the park runs the Waggonway. At the height of the pit working this transported coal from the local collieries to the river using horse-drawn wagons. In 1813 it was the site of the first steam engine trials and the Rocket was trialled on this waggonway

History
The Wallsend & Hebburn Coal Co Ltd began coal drawing from the colliery in September 1908. It took its name from a nearby farm, north of the town of Wallend.

Country Park
The Country park is on the site of the Rising Sun Colliery and the Scaffold Hill Isolation Hospital. Scaffold Hill Isolation Hospital was officially opened in 1914 and was built to house sufferers of tuberculosis, scarlet fever and measles. The main cause of admission in the first forty years of its life were diphtheria and tuberculosis. In those days scarlet fever and measles could be fatal and many families lost one or more children to these infections. We are lucky today that we have inoculation to prevent these diseases. The hospital finally closed its doors in 1986. There are two theories as to why the hill is called Scaffold Hill. The first is that there was a scaffold there for hanging people. The second is that a scaffold was mounted there to watch the steeplechase that used to run from Murton to Benton in the 17th and 18th Centuries.