Seaham is on the County Durham coast, just south of Sunderland.
What’s the name mean?
Seaham simply means ‘Homestead by the Sea’
Landmarks?
Ray Lonsdale’s beautiful ‘Tommy’ sculpture is probably Seaham’s best-known landmark. It depicts a First World War soldier – a ‘Tommy’ at rest. It’s nearly 10 feet tall and made of Corten steel.
Things to see and do:
Blast Beach, the harbour, Chemical Beach. The beaches are delightful despite their industrial sounding names. Just stroll and take in the sea. You can see ships coming in and out of the Tyne, Wear and Tees. There’s a lovely Saxon church near the beautiful Seaham Hall Hotel. The hotel is well-known for its spa.
Seaham is noted for:
The poet, Lord Byron. Being the site of a Victorian glass works. Rounded jewels of sea glass washed up on the beach which is sometimes collected for making jewellery. Seaham is also noted, like many Durham coastal locations, for its complete transformation from a run-down coastal eyesore to one of the most delightful little towns on the coast. There were once three collieries here: Vane Tempest, Dawdon and Seaham.
Some facts:
Although a little village (near the hall) and the church of St Mary date back to Anglo-Saxon times, the present town and harbour of Seaham was developed by the third Marquess of Londonderry who wanted to put the rival port of Sunderland out of business.
The nineteenth century poet Lord Byron was married at Seaham, hence the name of the local shopping centre. Byron’s wife was Lady Ann Isabella Milbanke, whose father owned Seaham Hall. She was a keen mathematician. The poet nicknamed her his ‘Princess of Parallelograms’. Although their marriage was short-lived they had a famous daughter, Ada Lovelace, who has the distinction of being the world’s first ever computer programmer.
Eat!
Try Downey’s Fish and Chip restaurant; the Lamp Room Cafe or Martino’s Italian. The Crows Nest is a popular family pub at the north end of Seaham.
To find out more about Seaham visit our Seaham history page:
We’d love to hear your comments. What are the best things to see and do in Seaham? Any notable shops or crafts? Where’s the best place to eat? Please leave your comments using the comments link at the top of this page.
3. What is the name of the legend involving a hapless knight, a secret cavern, a beautiful maiden, a wicked wizard, a sword and a couple of skeletons that is associated with Northumberland’s Dunstanburgh Castle?
11. What was the name of the fenced-off Belgian village occupied by 6,000 French and Flemish speaking Belgian nationals during World War One and where in the North East was it located?
12. The mound of this Norman castle (below) can be found on the outskirts of which North East village?
13. Who was the leader of the seventeenth century Levellers political movement who hailed from the North East?
14. Where will you find the memorial to the Felling Colliery disaster and the grave of the miners’ union leader, Thomas Hepburn?
15. Where in the region would you find the ballroom from the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic?
16. For what purpose was the building that now forms the famed art gallery BALTIC at Gateshead originally built and on what notable industrial site does it stand?
18. Where would you find the Kilted Magi and what are they?
19. What family name links the village of Longnewton near Stockton, Wynyard Hall, Seaham Harbour and Old Durham near Durham City?
20. What was the name of the son of William the Conqueror who built a castle of earth and wood at Newcastle in 1080?
21, What was unusual about William Cumin, Bishop of Durham who seized and fortified the hill top church of Kirk Merrington in County Durham during a siege in 1143?
30. Where would you find the two towers pictured above?
31. Which County Durham church has an interior with a remarkable similarity to the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathedral and is thought to have been built by the same architect?
33. What is the name of the hill near Sunderland where the carriers of St Cuthbert’s coffin are said to have mysteriously ground to a halt, as the monks sought guidance in finding his final resting place?
34. Who gave Jesmond Dene as a gift to the people of Newcastle?
The North Tyne and South Tyne merge to become the Tyne.
Friar’s Goose is another name for gorse (or broom).
It was Joseph Swan’s house, the first private house in the world to be lit by electricity.
Antony Gomley modelled the Angel on his own body.
Milfield Plain near Wooler.
Tynemouth.
It’s an observatory built by astronomer Thomas Wright.
Elisabethville at Birtley.
Bishopton, near Stockton-on-Tees.
John Lilburne.
Heworth churchyard.
The White Swan Inn, Alnwick.
It was originally a Joseph Rank Flour Mill. In earlier times this spot was the site of Hawk’s (Haaks) Gateshead iron works (1858-1890).
Winter’s Gibbet, near Elsdon, Northumberland. The body of a local murderer called William Winter was hung here after he was executed at Newcastle in 1791.
Medieval stone carvings of three wise men wearing kilts at Kirknewton church near Wooler.
Vane Tempest (Marquess of Londonderry’s family name).
Robert Curthose.
He was a usurper bishop who had seized the County Palatine of Durham under the direction of King David of Scotland. He was not the rightful bishop.
Robert Clavering, a High Sheriff of Northumberland who was shot dead at this spot in November 1586.
A railway line.
Norham Castle.
William Turner.
Remnants of Newcastle’s medieval town walls.
The great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead.
Bulman Village.
Bishop Auckland.
Cleadon, South Tyneside.
St Lawrence church, at Hallgarth, Pittington.
Gateshead.
Warden Law
William, Lord Armstrong.
Geordie Ridley’s song ‘The Blaydon Races’, the song itself mentions the actual races which took place on June 9th a few days later.
St Nicholas.
Seahorses.
The Blaydon Races – horse racing event was always a rather riotous occasion.
A notorious mosstrooper, horse and cattle thief from Allendale.
Because it follows the course of the dene or valley of a stream called the Lort Burn. The spelling should perhaps be ‘dene’ rather than ‘dean’.
2. What was the nationality and name of the sailor and privateer who bombed the Northumbrian village of Alnmouth with a cannon ball from his passing ship on September 23, 1779?
3. Where would you find a sculpture of a male and female called ‘The Couple’ standing on a platform out in the middle of the sea watched over by a much smaller but otherwise identical couple on the shore?
5. What was the name of the ship that struck one of the Farne Islands on the morning of 7th September 1838 and resulted in the famous rescue involving the heroic lighthouse keeper’s daughter, Grace Darling?
6. Broad and Trinity in Newcastle; Church, Low and Middle in Chester-le-Street; Castle and Wear in Bishop Auckland; Castle in Durham and Church in Whickham are all examples of what?
7. Originally from County Durham but principally associated with North Northumberland, what were the Culley Brothers, Matthew and George (born 1730 and 1734) noted for?
8. Name the famous furniture designer born at Stockton-on-Tees in 1751 who shares a family name with a North East village near the A19?
11. In the courtyard of which Newcastle quayside institution will you find a former almshouse of 1787 and an anchor from the Spanish Armada of 1588?
12. Which North East town was the birthplace of Frank Williams of Formula One racing fame?
13. Which famous North East battle took place in Redesdale, Northumberland in 1388 and involved the Northumberland Percys and the Douglas family of Scotland?
15. What was the name and occupation of the Akenside from whom Newcastle’s Akenside Hill takes its name?
16. Where in the North East would you find the picturesque Trafalgar Square situated around a green with a plaque commemorating 76 local sailors who served at the Battle of Trafalgar?
17. Which battle fought near the Roman Wall a few miles north of Hexham persuaded the victorious Northumbrian king, Oswald to convert to Christianity and who were the opponents in the battle?
18. Name the Swalwell-born composer who reputedly wrote the tune to Auld Lang Syne?
19. Where might you have once found an eighteenth century military defensive instalment called the Black Cat battery?
20. What is significant about Ellington in terms of North East coal mining and what was the nickname with which the mine was associated?
27. White-washed farm-houses in Teesdale usually signify that they are part of which landed estate?
28. Which Newcastle street was historically associated with the distinctive keelmen fraternity who transported coal to ships on the Tyne using their boats called keels?
31. Name the ten rivers found in the historic county of Durham and the three rivers that it acquired from the North Riding of Yorkshire in the 1970s following boundary changes?
32. What is the name of the famous character created by the Hartlepool cartoonist Reg Smythe (1917-1998)?
33. Until 1836 what was unusual about the districts of Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire in Northumberland?
35. Which prominent North East family were closely associated with Streatlam near Barnard Castle and Gibside near Gateshead?
36. Which North East village was known as ‘Little Moscow‘ from its communist sympathies and a street called Marx and Lenin Terrace?
37. Shiremoor in North Tyneside was named from which historic North East district or ‘shire’?
38. What was the name of the German industrialist who was the first mayor and first MP for Middlesbrough?
39. What famous Roman fort is located at Chesterholm in Northumberland?
40. Where would you find Killingworth Billy and what is it?
Answers below
Answers
Sandhill, a quayside street, Newcastle upon Tyne
John Paul Jones. He was American.
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.
Haughton Castle, Northumberland.
The Forfarshire.
They are all ‘Chares’.
Farmers who bred the Border Leicester sheep.
Thomas Sheraton.
Flodden Field.
Ford village, Northumberland.
Trinity House.
South Shields.
Otterburn.
Joe Wilson.
Mark Akenside. He was a poet.
Sunderland.
Heavenfield. King Oswald fought against the Welsh.
William Shield.
Sunderland.
Ellington was the region’s last colliery. The mine was known as ‘The Big E’.
The River Wansbeck and River Blyth.
Backworth.
Newcastle quayside.
W.T. Stead. He died on board the Titanic.
Chevy Chase.
Duddo standing stones, a small stone circle.
Raby.
Sandgate.
Gordon Sumner.
Rivers Tyne, Derwent, Team, Don and Wear.
Rivers Tyne, Derwent, Team, Don, Wear, Tees, Browney, Deerness, Gaunless and Skerne. The River Balder, River Lune and River Greta were moved into Durham from Yorkshire.
Andy Capp.
They were part of County Durham (The County Palatine of Durham).
Robert Swan.
The Bowes family.
Chopwell.
Tynemouthshire.
Henry Bolckow.
Vindolanda.
It’s a locomotive found at the Stephenson Railway Museum, North Shields.
