Seaham to Sunderland

If it hadn’t been for the train strike planned for the day we were due to travel home, we’d have arrived in Seaham by train to resume our walk along the  coast.  Instead we had driven to Sunderland and left the car on the drive of the house belonging to a colleague’s parents, who we didn’t previously know at all. They also provided us with a snack and then gave us a lift to Seaham. Such kindness. There was heavy rain with thunder and lightning while we were at Stephanie and Billy’s house, so we weren’t optimistic about the weather for the walk. However, by the time Billy dropped us in the Asda car park, amazingly close to the point we’d got to last time we were here, it had stopped raining. We set off walking about 3pm. It was the first day of Seaham Carnival, something of a damp squib in this weather. 

Until coal mining  and the harbour came to the area in the 19th Century, the original Seaham village (somewhat to the north of the centre of the current town) was small and agricultural. Seaham Hall's claim to fame was to have been the home of Anne Isabella Milbanke, who was married to Lord Byron here. The marriage was short and acrimonious but led to the birth of one child, the famous mathematician Ada Lovelace. Meanwhile, it was subsequent owners of Seaham Hall, the Marquisses of Londonderry, who sunk the coal mine and built then extended the harbour to handle the coal produced. 

There are a number of memorials around the town, perhaps because it has faced more than its fair share of disasters. In 1880, 164 men and boys lost their lives in an explosion in the mine, and  in 1962 five lifeboatmen drowned, along with three men and one boy on the boat they were attempting to rescue.  However, perhaps the best known memorial in Seaham is ‘Tommy’, an enormous weathered steel statue officially named  "1101" (recalling the first minute of the armistice at the end of the First World War, after 11am on 11th November ) commemorating an unnamed soldier. The statue was created by Ray Lonsdale and it was initially just on temporary display in Seaham, until the locals clubbed together to raise the money to keep it here permanently. It was slightly incongruous to see Tommy surrounded by the Carnival stalls.

We left Seaham by means of a low promenade. We had a few drops of rain, but by the time we’d got our waterproofs out,  it had stopped. Beneath us, on the beach, we noticed quite a number of people looking for something near the sea line. We realised that they were looking for sea glass, most likely originating from  bottleworks or glass-making factories in Seaham or Sunderland - but now attracting a reasonable price.  Near Seaham Hall, the promenade ended, with an onward choice of either walking along the beach, or climbing up steps to the top of the cliff; the England Coast Path signs directed us up the steps. However, a short distance further on, a sign directed down another set of steps and we found ourselves back on the beach. It looked like we were meant to walk along the beach…but another short distance further on, we realised the beach was running out and there was no way up.  We returned to and climbed back up the steps we’d descended, and close to the top there was the (unsignposted) side path along which our route lay. Bother! 

We meandered our way close to the edge of the cliff and so to Ryhope Dene. Here the path retained its height, but followed the edge of the Dene inland to a road, where we passed from County Durham to Tyne and Wear (though I have described the whole leg under "Durham"). After crossing the top of the Dene we turned off the road again, somewhat relieved that our route stayed at the top of the Dene rather than descending into it. We returned to the coast and continued to the north.

As we approached the next dene, which seems to be called Ryhope Village Dene, a mass of balloons ascended ahead of us and dispersed out to sea. Then we became aware of a group of people, mostly teenagers, watching the balloons. We surmised that this was a balloon launch in memory of a friend of the teenagers. At the time of writing I’ve not managed to find any details, but I have discovered that this sort of balloon launch is becoming quite common, and they are frowned on by the authorities. I can see the littering argument, but nevertheless,  as bystanders, what we witnessed was a simple and moving memorial. 

After walking around Ryhope Village Dene we returned to the coast. Given the earlier thunderstorms, we had been remarkably lucky with the weather, but it did now start to rain. We were approaching Sunderland docks and it was quite an industrial landscape, with a fasinating little area around Hendon Beach. Our route was slighly inland, but there was a narrow promenade immediately behind the beach along which cars were going at speed, Rather them than me! We used an underpass to get to the other side of the railway. and followed a road through the dockyard area of Hendon.  However, prior to reaching the mouth of the River Wear, the route meandered its way back towards the coast, to the "Town Moor".  It was a fascinating area, with some historic buildings including Holy Trinity Church and the old workhouse, with information boards describing some famous and infamous residents.  It had stopped raining, but unfortunately we didn't take any photos here.

We cut through a housing area to reach the south bank of the River Wear, and continued near the river as we walked towards the iconic bridges. As we approached the Wearmouth Bridge we climbed up to it but stayed on the south side of the river and, after some complications caused by needing to cross busy roads,  we continued along, past the site of the former Vaux Brewery (with another Ray Lonsdale weathered steel sculpture, this time of a brewer's dray with horses) to the Sunderland Premier Inn, We had a room with a good view of....part of Sunderland University. We don't normally have either an evening meal or  breakfast  in the onsite restaurant when staying in Premier Inns; we tend to bring provisions with us, but we hadn't had the opportunity to buy anything today.  There were some pubs close to the Premier Inn but they looked rather trendy and were likely to be noisy on a Saturday evening, and we didn't want to do further because our feet were hurting. So we signed up for the evening meal and breakfast "meal deal" and had quite a reasonable meal with a vaguely italian feel to it. 

Following leg of England Coast Path