Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, of Great Britain/Blyth River, Northumberland
BLYTH RIVER.
THIS river rises a few miles west of Belsay Castle, in Northumberland, the seat of Sir Charles Miles Lambert Monck, Bart. whence, taking a westerly course, by Kirkley Hall, and about a mile to the north of Blagdon Park, it pursues a circuitous route by Bedlington, and falls into the harbour of Blyth, near a village bearing that name, which is situate on its southern bank.
It is navigable only for a short distance, as a tideway river, and consequently free of toll. On its northern bank, at about a mile above the village of Coopen, are the Bedlington Iron Works, and a short distance west of the last-mentioned place, a railway of considerable length extends to the collieries near Willow Bridge, five miles east of Morpeth. At Blyth there are also private railways from the collieries situate three quarters of a mile to the west of the village, upon which coal is conveyed to the harbour, to be shipped for London, and the towns on the eastern coast.