Cresswell is a village in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. It is about to the north of

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

, on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast.

History

The place-name 'Cresswell' is first attested in the

Close Roll The Close Rolls () are an administrative record created in medieval England, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands by the royal chancery, in order to preserve a central record of all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the Crown ...

for 1234, where it appears as ''Kereswell''. It appears as ''Cressewell'' in 1242 in the

Book of Fees The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs') which is a listing of feudal landholdings or fief (Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, bu ...

. The name means 'stream where water cress grew'. The

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on s ...

operated Cresswell Lifeboat Station between 1875 and 1944. The lifeboat was launched 58 times, and 91 lives were saved. The former lifeboat house is now Cresswell Village Hall. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

operated two radar sites south of the village on the road to

Lynemouth Lynemouth is a village in Northumberland, England, northeast of Ashington, close to the village of Ellington, Northumberland, Ellington to the north west. It was built close to coal mines, including Lynemouth Colliery. Lynemouth and the surr ...

. Both sites have since been cleared and have no above ground evidence of previous activity. Cresswell is a popular bird watching area with Cresswell pond and bird hide nearby and the Druridge Bay Country Park less than away. The village has one ice cream shop which closes out of season, and a café on the beach just to the north of the village, open year-round. The village also has two caravan holiday home parks – Cresswell Towers and Golden Sands. Cresswell Towers takes its name from the old

pele tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...

nearby, Cresswell Tower, and is owned by

Parkdean Resorts Parkdean Resorts is a holiday park operator in the United Kingdom. It was formed in November 2015 through the merger of Parkdean Holidays and Park Resorts. As of 2022 it operates 66 holiday parks across England, Scotland, and Wales, and is the ...

. At the 2001 Census, the village had a population of 237, which by the 2011 Census, had dropped to 206.

Landmarks

Snab Point, south of The Carrs, is a sheltered bay with the site of the former

Alcan Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During ...

aluminium smelting plant on its south side. Embedded in the small cliffs of Snab Point are the remnants of fossilised trees. The beach area is littered with the remnants of fossilised wood and small seams of coal can be seen in the cliffs. Depending on the tides and wind, vast swathes of sea coal is washed up within the bay. The area was formed during the

carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

period some 310 million years ago, when the current land mass was in a region below southern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, more than south of its present position. File:snabcoal1.jpg, Sea coal washed up at Snab Point. File:snabrocks.jpg, Fossilised tree remnants embedded in the cliff File:cresswell strata.jpg, Fossilised wood.

Music

Cresswell was the inspiration for 'Tidelines' by UK composer

Peter McGarr Peter McGarr is an English classical composer and teacher, working in the English experimental tradition and inspired by Northern English landscape and culture. Photo of English composer, Peter McGarr, taken in 2022 Biography McGarr was born in ...

a piece written for

Gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

at Fenham House.

References

External links

Cresswell Towers Caravan Park

Cresswell House B&B

Golden Sands Holiday Park
Villages in Northumberland Populated coastal places in Northumberland {{Northumberland-geo-stub