Seaham

Seaham, a town of about 20,000 people, is just down the coast from Sunderland. Its main development stems from the construction of a port in the 1820s to export coal, but its fame today is based around sea glass. The Londonderry bottle works were opened in 1853, and at their height produced 20 million bottles per year. Waste glass was dumped into the sea, and is now washed up as rounded off sea glass, which is much in demand for use in craft work. On my weekday visit in the middle of the week with drizzly weather there must have been 20 people on the beach looking for it. Although I did collect a few small pieces of sea glass for a friend, my main purpose was of course to hunt out public clocks. The first clock is on St Johns Church in Blandford Place. This is a Grade II listed building constructed in 1835 – 40. It is one of the relatively few church towers to have clock faces on all four sides. The church and its clock can be seen along the full length of (well what else?) Church…