The High Main, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, Tyne and Wear

Byker was originally one of five villages which made up the ‘township of Byker’, transformed by industrial expansion from the growth of the coal trade on the Tyne. Lawson Main Colliery stood at the east end of Shields Road (near Brough Park Greyhound Stadium). The coal mine and the nearby quarry were named after the Lawson family (from Brough, in Yorkshire), who had owned most of old Byker since 1543. ‘Main’ referred to the High Main coal seam.