Seaham is on the North East coast and has a population of around 22,000.
Seaham or Seaham Harbour as it is better known was developed for convenience,
the foundation stone was laid in 1828 and the harbour was built between 1828
and 1831 by the Marquess of Londonderry. The need for a harbour was for a
cheaper and easier way to move the coal from Durham to London and the
Continent. It was the brig Lord Seaham who three years later carried the first
cargo of coal from Seaham Harbour. Before the harbour was developed the coal
was moved by horse draw railways, the shipping activity combined with railway
operations meant that the town grew along with the harbour.
Major industrial expansion began in 1852 with the sinking of the first pit in
Seaham. Coal was a major part of life for the people of Seaham, there was at
the time three pits Seaham Colliery, Vane Tempest Colliery and Dawdon
Colliery. These colliery's have now sadly closed. In the early 1900’s the dock
doubled in size with new quays large curving piers and a new light house.
These stand today in virtually their original condition.
Seaham’s first house, which is now Sylvia's public house and is at the eastern
end of the shopping area. Following the war a lot of clearance and
redevelopment took place. Old houses were demolished, new roads built and a
new civic complex of buildings constructed at St. John’s Square.
Seaham Hall is on the northern outskirts of Seaham and dates from early
1790's, it was commissioned by Ralph and Judith Milbanke, they were to have
only one child a daughter Anne Isabella. The great English poet, Lord Byron,
came to Seaham in 1814, where he met and married the Milbanke's daughter, Anne
Isabella. In the drawing room of Seaham Hall on Monday 2nd January 1815. In
the 1820’s the Millbanke’s sold their estate to Charles Stewart, the 3rd
Marquess of Londonderry and his coal heiress wife, Frances Vane-Tempest.
During the first world war Seaham Hall was used as a war hospital and in 1927
it became a tuberculosis sanatorium. Today, Seaham still has a beautiful road
verged with trees and countryside called “Lord Byron’s Walk” which runs past
Seaham Hall where Lord Byron was married. Seaham Hall, will soon be turned
into a top class hotel, restaurant and conference centre
The Londonderry Offices, on Green Terrace stands proudly at the top of the
cliffs adjacent to the Harbour. Built in 1857 as the headquarters for the
Londonderry business empire, from here they managed their coal mines, docks
and railways.
The Londonderry Offices were being used for the Seaham Police Station but this
has now been closed, the building is being redeveloped. A new building at the
bottom of the Avenue has been purpose built for the police station, at a cost
of around one million pounds. The new station contains no cells, so any
prisoners have to be transferred to Peterlee police station.
)
)
