Seahouses is a large village on the North

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

coast in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is about north of

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bor ...

, within the

Northumberland Coast The Northumberland Coast is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering of coastline from Berwick-Upon-Tweed to the River Coquet estuary in the Northeast of England. Features include: Alnmouth, Bamburgh, Beadnell, Budle Bay, ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Attraction

Seahouses attracts many visitors, mainly from the north east area. However national and international tourists often come to Seahouses whilst visiting the Northumberland National Park, Northumberland Coast and the

Farne Islands The Farne Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Northumberland, England. The group has between 15 and 20 islands depending on the level of the tide.

. Seahouses also has a working fishing port, which also serves the tourist trade, being the embarkation point for visits to the Farne Islands. From shops in the town and booths along the harbour, several boat companies operate, offering various packages which may include ''inter alia'' landing on at least one Farne, seeing

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

s and

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s, and hearing a commentary on the islands and the

Grace Darling Grace Horsley Darling (24 November 1815 – 20 October 1842) was an English lighthouse keeper's daughter. Her participation in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked ''Forfarshire'' in 1838 brought her national fame. The paddlesteamer ...

story or scuba diving on the many Farne Islands wrecks. Grace Darling's brother is buried in the cemetery at

North Sunderland North Sunderland is a fishing village on the coast of Northumberland, England, and adjacent to Seahouses. The population of the civil parish was 1,803 at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,959 at the 2011 Census. Etymology The name ''North Su ...

. He died in 1903, aged 84. The current Seahouses

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen A ...

bears the name ''Grace Darling''. The Seahouses Festival is an annual cultural event which began in 1999 as a small

sea shanty A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...

festival. After a significant European funding grant from the Leader+ programme, in 2005, it has grown into a more broadly based cultural celebration. Kipperfactoryseahouses

There are claims that

kipper A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split in a butterfly fashion from tail to head along the dorsal ridge, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold-smoked over smouldering wood chips (typically oak). In the United Ki ...

s were first created in Seahouses in the 1800s, and they are still produced locally to this day. Between 1898 and 1951, Seahouses was the north-eastern terminus of the

North Sunderland Railway The North Sunderland Railway was a railway line in Northumberland, England. It was opened in 1898, and ran from to , with an intermediate station at . Chathill was on the main line of the North Eastern Railway between Morpeth and Berwick. The bra ...

. Independent until its final closure, it formed a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

rail link between the village and Chathill Station on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

.Wright, 1988 The site of Seahouses station is now the town car park and the trackbed between village and North Sunderland is a public footpath.

Governance

Seahouses is within the civil parish of North Sunderland and the

Northumberland County Council Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. The population of the non-metropolitan unitary authority at the 2011 census was 316,028. History It was formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of N ...

electoral division of

Bamburgh Bamburgh ( ) is a village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It had a population of 454 in 2001, decreasing to 414 at the 2011 census. The village is notable for the nearby Bamburgh Castle, a castle which was the seat of ...

, The parliamentary constituency is

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

, represented by MP

Anne-Marie Trevelyan Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (née Beaton; born 6 April 1969) is a British politician, a member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed since 2015. Trevelyan is a junior minister, and has served ...

(

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Religion

Seahouses is in the Anglican archdeaconry of Lindisfarne, in the

Diocese of Newcastle The Diocese of Newcastle is a Church of England diocese based in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering the historic county of Northumberland (and therefore including the part of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne), as well as the area of Alston Moo ...

. It is in the Roman Catholic

Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church, centred on St Mary's Cathedral in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. The diocese is one of the six suffragan sees in the ecclesiastic ...

References

Sources

* Wright, A., (1988), ''The North Sunderland Railway'', The Oakwood Press, Locomotion Papers No. 36,

External links