Cullercoats History

  PERHAPS there were no saucy picture postcards in those days. But the holidaymakers of over 200 years ago had their own ways of saying, "Having a good time. Wish you were here." Such as in this letter written in 1751 - "Tinmouth and Cullercoats are much in fashion - not a room empty. My Lady Ravensdale and my Lady Clavering were a month at Cullercoats bathing." It. seems that My Ladies enjoyed their visit - just as visitors do today when the sun shines and the Scots pack their luggage and families into cars and head for the Northeast coast. Trippers, too - Countless thousands of them who arrive by cars, trains and buses for a day at the seaside. Fashion Tinmouth - it's known as Tynemouth today and Cullercoats are still very much in fashion with the Macs and the Geordies. My Ladies may now go elsewhere. Not a room empty, It is often difficult to find a room in Tynemouth and Cullercoats for popular although the two places maybe, there are few boarding houses and residential hotels. Each summer an appeal goes out to residents "Let the town council know if you have any spare rooms for visitors." Once upon a time Cullercoats was the haunt of artists. They set up easels and painted pictures of the whitewashed fishermen's cottages "so quaint and picturesque" the Bay and the fishwives in their traditional costumes. The artists have still the Bay to paint. But it is hard to find a fishwife or even a fisherman in Cullercoats today. Yet once it was a busy fishing port. Those quaint fishermen's Cottages? They have gone too. The planners saw to that. And what have they put in their places? Nothing yet except car parks. And they are not nearly so picturesque as the cottages the artists loved to paint. But wait a new Cullercoats is on the drawing boards. It has been a long wait too long say many local people who have seen much of old Cullercoats demolished and there is still more of it to disappear before Cullercoats takes on its new look. My Lady Ravensdale and My Lady Clavering would not have been impressed. They knew it as a fishing village and the haunt of smugglers. It was during the 18th century that many of the villagers used smuggling to supplement the family income. There was no Welfare State in those days and so they had to find their own means of looking after their welfare. Just opposite St. George's Church is a headland called George's Point and at its foot there used to be an inlet known as Smuggler's Cave.The cave was often put to good use by smugglers who also found St Mary's Island at Whitley Bay ideal for the purpose and they arranged an intricate system of signs and signals among themselves. In 1722, two villains who according to records used to run brandy murdered a Mr Anthony Mitchell, Customs officer for Cullercoats, near his home.

Bathing

By the early 19th century, according to historian Hodgeson, Cullercoats had become a small bathing town, inhabited chiefly by fishermen. There were warm and cold baths, a ballast hill, the ruins of an old pier and a wagon way for coals and behind the village a neglected burial ground. There are earlier references to Cullercoats as Culver Coats and Culler Corners. As a village, it probably dates back to the mid 17th century on land owned at that time by the Dove family. Thomas Dove established a Quaker burial ground there in 1661 near the north end of the present John Street. In the same year, his son John was imprisoned along with others in Tynemouth Castle for attending a Quaker meeting. Meanwhile, Cullercoats was developing into a small port. In 1677, Lady Elizabeth Percy and the owners of the Whitley collieries to ship coal from Cullercoats instead of the Tyne constructed a pier. A wagon way was also built. The export trade grew. In 1694, about 23,000 tons of coal was shipped from Cullercoats and in one month alone 78 ships left the harbour for foreign ports. A map of 1685 says of Cullercoats "a pier that lyeth a mile or more from Tinmouth Castle to the northward and is a pier where vessels enter at high water to load coals and be dry at low water. The going in of this place is between several rocks. The way is beacon'd. Other industries were also developed and in 1690, as a result of its growth in importance. Cullercoats became a separate township, being so populous as to be made a distinct constabulary of it self. In the early 18th century Cullercoats was at the height of its prosperity as a port but in 1710 the demolition of the pier by a severe storm marked the beginning of its decline. Fishing helped to recompense the Inhabitants for the loss of export trade in oats, wool, salt and coal, and by 1749, the township was described as "the best fish market in the north of England."