A wet night and morning, but we slept in till it stopped – good plan! Don’t get too excited we were up and out by 9. Later we drove to Nose Point, looking down onto Blast Beach, where we were yesterday….
As I have already mentioned this stretch of coastline was pretty abused by the coal industry up until the early 90’s (can you believe that?) and nature is doing its damndest to recover, time will tell but even now it has a kind of rugged charm.
As we walked on down into Seaham, there is quite a bit of industry on the south side (which I guess is a good thing) and evidence of activity in the port – big piles of coal? and scrap metal? Ugly but again a good thing if it means employment.
The outskirts were pretty grim with scrubby litter strewn areas but once you got into town you could see that areas were being regenerated and in some places looking sucessfully thriving. Down by the marina, aside from this sculpture dedicated to the lifeboat crews….
There were a number of little shops and cafes and a nice atmosphere with this harbour beach a bit of a bonus…
Just beyond the harbour wall is The Slope (Featherbed Rocks) beach a small stone and shingly sand crescent shaped beach…
Around the headland (Featherbed Rocks) at the start of the Promenade was probably the nicest memorial garden I have seen….
Shortly we were looking down onto Seaham Beach a long beach with a mix of stone, sand and shingle….
We wandered along the lower promenade which judging by all the stones strewn across it is frequently battered by the waves and joined the beach a little further on, out of the reach of the incoming tide.
Too busy with Sunday afternoon walkers and sea glass hunters – from 1850 to 1921, Seaham was home to the largest bottle making plant in the UK, with all the waste glass ending up in the sea and now much sought after (pity the same can’t be said for the coal waste dumped along this coastline too!).
Poppydog and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the beach before returning the way we came. The sun coming out and just catching the waves though too low to catch the beach.
The sun also glinting off this sculpture ‘The 3 Pits’ (took a bit of figuring out but essentially the profile of the 3 pits that previously stood along this coastline).
It has a way to go but it is good to see an area coming back to life and made for a pleasant Sunday afternoon 7 mile walk.
Freedom Bird 
The first beach is The Blast beach not Draft beach. The second beach is The Slope not Dalton Burn a nd the headland is Featherbed Rocks not Featherstone Rocks. I spent the first 25 years of my life here and served as a Volunteer Coastguard and Lifesaver patrolling these beaches. Also the last beach is called The New Beach and it was here that on 3/9/60 I saved the life of a 12 year old girl when Barry Sutherland was drowned trying to save her .Why has whoever wrote this not checked the details or even mentioned the George Elmy lifeboat disaster which I also attended for a continuous 25 hours non=stop on 17/11/62. Michael Thorpe
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Thank you for your comments and my apologies for the errors, I have updated my blog accordingly. I write about hge places I walk through with information if I come across it, unfortunately I did not encounter any details of the two tradegies to which you refer and so did not include them in my blog – however I have now read up on them both and you and your fellow men’s bravery is to be commended. Kind regards.
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