The Port of Tyne is the navigation authority for the tidal reaches of the River Tyne, from the mouth to the Tidal Stone at Wylam, a distance of 17 miles.
Wylam's parish church was built in 1886 and is dedicated to St. Oswin, a Northumbrian saint.
•
The steam locomotive engineer Timothy Hackworth, who worked with Stephenson, was also born here.
•
Timothy Hackworth's father was foreman blacksmith at the colliery and his son was born in the village in December 1786.
William Hedley, Timothy Hackworth and Jonathan Forster all worked at Wylam Colliery for Christopher Blackett (1751-1829), and there produced the famous early steam engines Puffing Billy (1813-1814) and Wylam Dilly (1815)
•
The Blacketts of Wylam were a branch of the Blackett family of Hoppyland, County Durham, England and were related to the Blackett baronets.
At Wylam, Timothy Hackworth also employed a blastpipe on his earliest locomotives, but it is not clear whether this was an independent discovery or a copy of Trevithick's design.
Through the Wylam colliery and its owner Christopher Blackett, Hedley would have been familiar with Trevithick's engine.
Richard Trevithick of Cornwall had experimented with various models of steam locomotive, and in 1805 his work had culminated in an engine for the Wylam Colliery.