Loading map...
{"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"auto","height":"300px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":13,"defzoom":14,"layers":["OpenStreetMap"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrent Town PO at Church Street\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Current Town PO at Church Street\n","link":"","lat":54.837058549297545,"lon":-1.3357669114945319,"icon":"/w/images/6/6a/Orange_marker.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESeaham Harbour GPO original office, now an Ice Cream Parlour\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Seaham Harbour GPO original office, now an Ice Cream Parlour\n","link":"","lat":54.839079652775574,"lon":-1.3320873491123304,"icon":"/w/images/f/f8/Yellow_marker.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERoyal Mail Sorting \u0026amp; Delivery, Adelaide Road, Seaham\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Royal Mail Sorting \u0026amp; Delivery, Adelaide Road, Seaham\n","link":"","lat":54.83764949866964,"lon":-1.3351810238524047,"icon":"/w/images/a/af/Red_marker.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENew Seaham-Closed\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"New Seaham-Closed\n","link":"","lat":54.84025074820332,"lon":-1.3545331442023507,"icon":""},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDawdon PO - Closed\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Dawdon PO - Closed\n","link":"","lat":54.83123072860722,"lon":-1.334201327549467,"icon":""},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHigh Colliery\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"High Colliery\n","link":"","lat":54.83870991082614,"lon":-1.3675741592661461,"icon":""},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDeneside PO\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Deneside PO\n","link":"","lat":54.8360171021869,"lon":-1.3531816544661308,"icon":""},{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003EParkside\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Parkside\n","link":"","lat":54.8272056670026,"lon":-1.3427216861168,"icon":""}],"imageoverlays":null}
Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated 6 miles south of Sunderland and 13 miles east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and coal mines.The original village of Seaham has all but vanished; it lay between St Mary's Church and Seaham Hall (i.e. somewhat to the north of the current town centre). The parish church, St Mary the Virgin, has a late 7th century. The Anglian nave resembling the church at Escomb in many respects, and is one of the 20 oldest surviving churches in the UK.
The area's fortunes changed when the Milbankes sold out in 1821 to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, who built a harbour, in 1828, to facilitate transport of goods from locally encouraged industries (the first coal mine was begun in 1845). However, this harbour later proved inadequate to deal with the millions of tonnes of coal and the 6th Marquess commissioned engineers Patrick Meik and Charles Meik to reclaim land and extend and deepen the dock. It was officially opened in 1905. The harbour is of particular interest because it consists of a series of interconnecting locks, rather than the more typical two wall construction.
As early as 1823, the 3rd Marquess had approached the architect John Dobson with a view to his drawing up plans for a town to be built around the harbour. Dobson did so, but the planned approach foundered for lack of funds, and the town instead grew in a more piecemeal fashion. To begin with, the town was itself called Seaham Harbour (to differentiate it from the ancient village); in time, though, the settlement as a whole came to be known as Seaham.
In 1853 John Candlish built the Londonderry Bottleworks in the town. It was the largest glass bottle works in Britain and survived until 1921. Candlish went on to become mayor and, in 1868, Liberal MP for Sunderland. Waste glass from the bottleworks was dumped at sea and is now washed up as glass pebbles, known as sea glass, on local beaches.
In 1928, production started at the last town colliery to be opened, Vane Tempest. By 1992, however, all three pits (Dawdon Colliery, Vane Tempest Colliery and Seaham Colliery – known locally as "the Knack") had closed, a process accelerated by the British miners' strike. The pit closures hit the local economy extremely hard.
Seaham Colliery suffered a massive underground explosion in 1880 which resulted in the loss of over 160 lives, including surface workers and rescuers.
What links to here?
Seaham
Church Street still current
Seaham Harbour
13 North Terrace - closed.
The Old Post Office (GPO) in Seaham Harbour which handled the revenue/postal and telegraphic functions of the towns businesses
Town Sub-Offices
Dawdon
closed
Deneside
High Colliery
New Seaham
closed
Parkside
_SH_a.jpg)
_SH_OPO.jpg)
_a.jpg){kind=link}