Tyneside Family History.
Northumberland Docks.
1854 September 12, The foundation stone of the Northumberland Dock and Hayhole, near Howden, on the River Tyne, was laid by Joseph Cowan Esquire chairman of the river commissioners. As a proof of the magnitude of the project the dock is capable of containing 600 ships at various tonnage and covers an extent of nearly 73 acres, and cost nearly �200,000 the stonework forming the bottom of the dock is Cornish granite, some of the blocks weighing nearly 10 tons. The dock is from the designs of Mr Brooks, engineer to the river Commissioner's
The Docks opened on 22 October 1857.
Local Records III, Fordyce, 1867.