Seaham Sojourn

Ever since researching seaglass on Pinterest, we learnt that Seaham was the best seaglass beach in England.

It had long been my wish to visit.

It`s a long way, so we broke our journey with a most welcome stay with my nephew and his family in Leicester.

From there we travelled up to County Durham.

We stayed in Horden at a guesthouse called The Bell.

It was a most comfortable stay, of two nights, in cosy rooms and with very friendly staff.

Recommended.

Here is Inders who cooked for us. He is the owner of the guesthouse and had most interesting local knowledge of the coal mining industry thereabouts.

 Here is a commemorative plate from the breakfast room.

The bar had a wall of old photos .

And one in particular which had been enlarged from a tiny picture....

.....I think it is amazing as it looks as if you could step into the tunnel. Very clever.

The tunnels in actual fact, went 5 miles under the sea, an extra fear for those whose livelihood depended on this industry.

Surrounding the guesthouse were many miners` homes, both terraced houses and retirement bungalows.

 Seaham is about 8 miles from Horden and an easy journey.

At the moment all car parks there are free of charge which was a revelation to us. Our seafront car parks in the south, charge extortionate prices.

After settling into our rooms, and armed with collection pots, trays and bags, we set off for our first beach session.

 

Seaham surprised us. It was much bigger than we had imagined.

We parked very close to Tommy, a poignantly magnificent metal statue. Last year children at the local school, collected pebbles from the beach and painted them red and black to form poppies and these were laid in front of Tommy for Remembrance Day.

After home-made soup in Humbles....on the right here....

....where the waitress regaled us with stories of the huge chunks of multi-coloured seaglass that she picked up as a child.....

we made our way to the closest beach, right next to the harbour.

 Being in the north east, the sun was behind us as we faced the sea....rather unusual for us, coming from the south east.

The tide was in and the sea was extremely rough, one of the main reasons why the seaglass is so rounded and frosted.

Here we are, searching on that first day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say that we were not very impressed by our finds that afternoon and did wonder about having travelled so far!!

In the evening, the friendly customers in the bar, suggested 

eating at The Half Moon, in Easington, 2 miles away.

The food here was great and good value for money.

There was a very friendly atmosphere.

Recommended.

Then it was back to our guesthouse to dream of what we would find the next day.....would it be all it was cracked up to be?