Seahouses

{{Short description|Village in Northumberland, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}

{{Infobox UK place

| country = England

| type = Village

| official_name = Seahouses

| static_image_name = Seahouses town centre looking west to Main Street - geograph.org.uk - 1379437.jpg

| static_image_caption = Seahouses

| population = 1,803

| unitary_england = Northumberland

| lieutenancy_england = Northumberland

| region = North East England

| constituency_westminster = North Northumberland

| post_town = SEAHOUSES

| postcode_district = NE68

| postcode_area = NE

| dial_code = 01665

| civil_parish = North Sunderland

| os_grid_reference = NU2232

| coordinates = {{coord|55.583|-1.655|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| label_position = top

}}

Seahouses is a large village on the North Northumberland coast in England. It is about {{convert|20|km}} north of Alnwick, within the Northumberland Coast 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. 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 seals and seabirds, and hearing a commentary on the islands and the Grace Darling story or scuba diving on the many Farne Islands wrecks. Grace Darling's brother is buried in the cemetery at North Sunderland. He died in 1903, aged 84. The current Seahouses lifeboat bears the name Grace Darling.

The Seahouses Festival is an annual cultural event which began in 1999 as a small sea shanty festival. After a significant European funding grant from the Leader+ programme, in 2005,http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?NewsAreaID=2&ReleaseID=167692{{Dead link|date=January 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} it has grown into a more broadly based cultural celebration.

File:Kipperfactoryseahouses.jpg There are claims that kippers were first created in Seahouses in the 1800s, and they are still produced locally to this day.{{cite book |last=Trewin |first=Carol |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swU53UBC1LEC&dq=1843,+%22john+Woodger%22+kipper&pg=PA51 |title=Gourmet Cornwall |page=51 |publisher=Alison Hodge Publishers |isbn=9780906720394}}

Between 1898 and 1951, Seahouses was the north-eastern terminus of the North Sunderland Railway. Independent until its final closure, it formed a standard gauge rail link between the village and Chathill Station on the East Coast Main Line.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 electoral division of Bamburgh. The parliamentary constituency is North Northumberland, represented by David Smith MP of the Labour Party.

Religion

See also

References

{{reflist}}

Sources

  • Wright, A., (1988), The North Sunderland Railway, The Oakwood Press, Locomotion Papers No. 36, {{ISBN|0-85361-335-4}}