Cullercoats, Cullercoats Harbour

HER Number:
2215

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
Cullercoats, Cullercoats Harbour

Place:
Cullercoats

Map Sheet:
NZ37SE

Class:
Maritime

Site Type: Broad:
Water Transport Site

Site Type: Specific:
Harbour

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C17

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Cullercoats Harbour used to be a salt (see HER 5480) and coal harbour - these operations had ceased by the mid-18th century. A wooden pier was built in 1677. Cullercoats Port was put under the charge of the Custom House Officer at Blyth when permission was granted for the export of coal from the pier, which had been built by the partners of Whitley Colliery (Thomas Dove, John Carr, John Rogers and Henry Hudson) and Lady Elizabeth Percy, heiress of the 11th Earl of Northumberland. Between 1681 and 1688 Captain Granville Collins in his yacht "Merlin" made a survey of the coast of Britain published as "Great Britain's Coasting Pilot". "Collar Coates" is described as "a pier where vessels enter at high water and to load coals and lie dry at low water. The going in of this place is between several rocks. The way in is beacon'd". In 1710 the wooden pier was damaged in a storm. Trade from Cullercoats was stifled following the Jacobean Uprising of 1715 when Papists and Quakers (Cullercoats residents being largely Quakers) were kept under surveillance. In 1723-4 78 vessels left Cullercoats harbour with coal, and in 1724 758 tons of salt was shipped from Cullercoats, in ships like the "St Michael" of London. The "Fortune" left Cullercoats with 21 tons of salt in 1726. Oats and wool were also exported in ships like the "George and John". The harbour's prosperity came to an end when the colleries closed by 1724 and the salt pans moved to Blyth in 1725. Despite its small size, Cullercoats Harbour had its own registered sailing ships. The "Triton" was lost in 1755 en route to Hamburg. The master, George Heslop was lost, but the crew were rescued. Cullercoats fishing village was noted for its "fisherwomen" who sold fish from baskets in the surrounding countryside when the boats came home. There is a photograph in Atkinson 1980.

Easting:
3644

Northing:
7122

Grid Reference:
NZ36447122

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 2215 >> Desc Text S.M. Linsley, Notes on the Industrial Archaeology of Tyne and Wear, Cullercoats Harbour, p.239; F. Atkinson, 1980, North East England - People at Work 1860-1950; R. Wright, 2002, The People's History - Cullercoats