WYLAM. [By B. P. Leitcli.] 



CHAPTER II. 



WYLAM AND DEWLEY BURN GEORGE STEPHENSON'S EARLY 



YEARS. 



THE colliery village of Wylam is situated on the north/I 

 bank of the Tyne, about eight miles west of Newcastle. ' 

 The Newcastle and Carlisle railway runs along the 

 opposite bank; and the traveller by that line sees 

 the usual signs of a colliery in the unsightly pumping- 

 engines surrounded by heaps of ashes, coal-dust, and 

 slag ; whilst a neighbouring iron-furnace in full blast 

 throws out dense smoke and loud jets of steam by day 

 and lurid flames at night. These works form the 

 nucleus of the village, which is almost entirely occupied 

 by coal-miners and iron-furnacemen. The place is more 

 remarkable for the amount of its population than for its 

 cleanness or neatness as a village the houses, as in most 



