We’ve Been to the Beach!

Well it was a fine day and we don’t get too many of these when the tide is right for a beach visit.

It was my husband’s day off and he’s been talking about taking our grandchildren fishing on the rocks off the beach where he grew up. Until we were married he lived in a Northumberland coastal village called Seaton Sluice. It has a small very old harbour and an enormous beach with beautiful golden sands.

It’s only about a half hour drive but it was about 10 degrees cooler and much windier at the beach than it was at home.



Still they enjoyed it but it wasn’t long before we headed off for lunch. Humungous plates of fish and chips! What else?

After that we headed for the beach proper where Lauren wanted to build sandcastles. Well as a child who had built more sandcastles than these two have had hot dinners I gave them the benefit of my extensive sandcastle expertise and advised them that you can’t build a sandcastle with a moat on dry sand. They would need to build it on the wet sand nearer the sea. Well an hour later after lugging water from the sea up to the dry sand and finding it just drained away, the penny dropped and they gave up! Don’t children ever listen? No, because Nanna’s know nothing!

Time for a paddle!

It was very sunny but with the wind, it wasn’t exactly hot. Funny how they don’t feel it, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and I had to drag them out of the water.

Next it was burying in the sand time. Strange how children still do all the things we did when we went to the beach over fifty years ago. Maybe they were doing it a hundred years ago. They’re not really that different to us after all!

On the way back through the dunes we passed a remnant of the war. At the start of the war the beaches were closed off with barbed wire to repel any potential German invasion. Here’s a photo of the remnant of a pillbox. They were composed of concrete-slabs or filled bags, some held anti tank guns others accommodated soldiers with rifles. The pill boxes formed part of a line of defence along the coast.



That must have been awful for local families whose only summer leisure would have been going to the beach.

I lived in another coastal town and the beach was just down the road from our primary school. Despite dire warnings from my Mam about not going onto the beach after school, we often did. How sad that children during the war were robbed of this simple pleasure. They had very little else.

Well the forecast is good for tomorrow (that’s if the Met Office haven’t boobed again) we’re off to the beach where I used to roam after school. Happy days are here again!

Post 114

NOTE

I've been fiddling around with the layout of the blog because I've been having so many problems with the photographs. I've tried widening the space for the text to allow me to paste the code for the photos directly into the blog so that I don't need to use the Blogger photo insert. Well I'm not over keen on the results but I'll try to improve on it another time.

Skywatch - Friday 28 November 2008

We tend to think the sun never shines in the UK but it does, occasionally! When it does, the skies are beautiful and when the wind is from the west, it's a fantastic place to be.

Although last summer was one of the worst I can ever remember (I can remember quite a few), the sun did shine a few times, the skies were blue and on 9 June I captured the evidence below.

This is part of the beach at Seaham Harbour in the North East of England. As beaches go it wouldn't win any prizes, but I like it. I love walking in the water along a beach, any beach, anywhere really, I don't mind. Although I like living in Washington and it's only a twenty minute drive to a few beaches, I miss not living next to the sea.

I lived in Seaham until I got married in 1969 and now it seems to me that when I was little, we spent most of the summer on that beach. The summers were longer and hotter, the days were sunnier and the beach was definitely cleaner. Well I said that's how it seems to me.

The beach certainly got dirtier because the coal dust from the pits in the area was dumped it into the sea. Eventually as coal production increased the sand got blacker and the water got dirtier. Not a pretty sight!

Dawdon was one of several pits in Seaham, it was sunk in 1905 and employment grew to 3,300 with an output of 1 million tons in its heyday. It was closed in 1991 a few years after the 1984/85 miners' strike.

All the pits are long gone now, courtesy of Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Government. The loss of the industry hit places like Seaham really hard. My great grandad, both my granddads, my Dad, all my uncles and my brother worked at Dawdon Pit. The area has never recovered despite the development of new industrial estates.

(Dawdon) "...suffers from severe deprivation, with many
households surviving on welfare benefits, poor health, poor educational attainment and significant child poverty."
Dawdon Community Appraisal

On the plus side there has been a lot of work done redeveloping the area. In addition the sand is clean again and the water is much cleaner. However the sea seems a whole lot colder than when I was young!

Beach top car park

They have been doing a lot of work to improve the area at the top of the beach. I think the designer of this wall must have been having a bit of a Gaudi moment. I really like it.

Is this a sea monster?

The church on the left of the picture is St Mary the Virgin. It's an Anglo Saxon church dating back to 7th Century. It's supposed to be one of the 20 oldest churches in the country. To my shame I've never visited it. Something I must do this summer and I'll take my camera, if it's allowed!

Why not join us at Skywatch Friday and post your photos? We'd love to see them.