The Crown seized the lands belonging to Tynemouth Priory after the suppression of the Monasteries in 1539. In 1588 we find that Queen Elizabeth I granted lands at Tynemouth to two men called Downing and Dodding who, a few months later, sold the rectory at Tynemouth, and adjoining lands, to a Peter Delaval, a cloth worker and citizen of London, and his brother Ralph Delaval, a gentleman. 1588 was the year in which Drake routed the Spanish Armada off Calais, forcing the ships to sail up the East coast of Great Britain to escape. I wonder if any of the people living on these shores saw them, and were aware of what was happening.
In 1606 Ralph surrendered part of his property to his brother, Peter. It is described on the deed as Culler Corners, but the place was also known as Arnold's Close or Marden Close. It has been suggested that Culler Cotes is a corruption of Culver-house (a dove cote), but there is no record of the ownership of one here. It is unlikely that it would have belonged to the monks since they had dove-cotes within the Priory grounds. The Prior did own a mill on the banks of the Marden Burn, and I suppose it is possible that the miller had a dovecote.
In 1618 the land was held by a John Delaval, who granted it to a Thomas Wrangham, and three years later he sold the estate to Thomas Dove of Whitley. The Delavals, of course, were the family responsible for the development of Seaton Sluice. When in 1621 Thomas Dove came into the estate it contained little more than a few houses and a water mill which had stood near the mouth of the Marden Burn since before 1292 Belonging then to the Prior of Tynemouth it is recorded that it was rebuilt in 1598/9 at a cost of £17 17s. plus £16 for the mill stones, the wood having been brought by boat from Blaydon. In 1644 Thomas Dove leased land to the miller, Richard Simpson, to build himself a house, and granted him the liberty to fish with one boat.
By 1661 it would appear that the Doves had fallen out with the established church, and had become Quakers. Thomas Dove enclosed a small piece of ground to be a burial ground for his family and friends who were Quakers. The first person to buried there was a Joanna Linton, but the move must have been unpopular because when her father died two years later his family objected, and guarded by soldiers, carried his body away to be buried in the graveyard of Tynemouth Church. (Christ Church in North Shields was dedicated in 1668). Thomas Dove had three sons - John, Robert and William. John and William were imprisoned in Tynemouth Castle in 1661 for being at a Quaker meeting. Robert, who was not a Quaker, built himself a house at Cullercoats in 1668, when he already had interests in the newly developing ironstone and coal mines of the district.
To understand the reason for the creation of a harbour and therefore a hamlet at Cullercoats it is necessary to know something of the salt industry which flourished here until the discovery of brine springs at Hartlepool and other parts of the country. Until the advent of canning large quantities of salt were needed to preserve fish, meat and vegetables for the winter months. It was particularly important on the borders because the meat from Scottish cattle was of the right quality for salting. Salt was also used extensively in agriculture and other industries. A tax on salt, and its scarcity in country districts led to people hiding it - a fine example of a 'Salt hide' can be seen in the George and Dragon at Garrigill, near Alston. Much of the coal mined at this time was of very poor quality. the best was exported, and rather than throw away the poor coal, it was used by the salt makers, pit and pans often being leased together. The main method of salt manufacture before rock salt became cheaper to produce, was to boil down seawater in large open pans. It seems likely that the monks started the industry, pans were recorded in 1139 at Newminster and Brinkburn and on the Coquet in 1147. Their salt pans on the Tyne were recorded in 1462 and in 1529 Tynemouth Priory sold £40 worth of salt as they had been allowed to export coal and salt from the Tyne since 1462. At first lead pans and wood fires were used, but when wood became scarce and coal took its place it was found that coal fires caused the lead pans to corrode. The salt makers of Shields started using cast iron pans, which were unaffected by coal, in 1489. By the 15th Century the main salt producing areas were S.E.Durham, Hartlepool, Teeside Banburgh, Amble, Blyth and Alnmouth.
At the beginning of the 16th century considerable rivalry sprang up between the salt makers in North and South Shields, and the burghers of Newcastle. The richest of the city dwellers were mainly the younger sons of the border chieftains who, unable to inherit their father's lands, had come to Newcastle to make their fortunes in the coal trade. In the 12th Century they had formed themselves into a legally constituted body known as Hostmen (because at first they had acted as hosts to travelling merchants from the south), and held sway over the coal trade of the port of Newcastle. The Salt Makers of Shields were equally as strong a body of men. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the Earl of Leicester bought a quantity of salt pans to Tynemouth in the hope of increasing his wealth by manufacturing salt. The Salt Makers would have none of it, and his pans were left to rust away in the grounds of Tynemouth Castle. He then sent his friend, Sutton, (Dives Sutton on account of his meanness) to Newcastle to infiltrate the ranks of the Hostmen and so gain a foothold for the Earl in the coal trade. He was as unsuccessful with the Hostmen as he had been with the Salt Makers.
Of interest is the fact that in 1505 the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Trinity of Newcastle upon Tyne whose Brethren have always been Freemen of the city, became a corporate body and bought the premises known as Trinity House. Although their aims have always been concerned with the welfare of seamen, a Royal Charter from Henry VIII in 1536 empowered them to levy dues on ships entering ships arriving in the River Tyne, fourpence for a foreign ship and twopence for an English ship. The money collected went towards the building and embattlement of two towers at the entrance to the river in North Shields, in which lights were to be lit each night as a guide to approaching ships. They became the High and Low Lights of North Shields
In 1530 an Act of Parliament, instigated by the Hostmen, allowed the loading and unloading of salt at Newcastle only. This was an attempt to check further commercial development at North and South Shields. The Tyne, at this time, was no more than a shallow meandering river and no attempt had been made to dredge a channel for shipping. Vessels that were able to reach Newcastle often found themselves stranded there on a mudbank. They could wait for up to three weeks for a tide high enough to clear the riverbed again, making a passage to the sea possible. It is little wonder that many ships' masters disregarded this law and risked loading and unloading at Shields, which continued to flourish.
In 1634 the Mayor and Burgesses of Newcastle presented a petition to the king – to prevent any baker, brewer, victualler or smith using any port but Newcastle. This was a further attempt to handicap the salt industry by compelling all the vessels carrying materials used by the salt traders to bypass Shields. A few months later the saltmakers responded to this challenge by forming the Society of Saltmakers at North and South Shields. The Society was empowered to sell salt to all the towns between Berwick and Southampton and to erect salt works on the seacoast and on the Rivers Tyne and Wear. Thus the Saltmakers of the Tyne sought complete control over salt manufacture and trade of the whole of the East Coast of England and beyond. Their power was short lived, however, because in 1644 invading Scots either possessed or destroyed salt pans on the Tyne, leaving many saltmakers without work. To make matters worse Scottish salt was then imported into England. Parliament sought to put a levy onto imported salt, but the Scots could still sell their salt more cheaply than the English, because their coal was cheaper. When Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament the impoverished salters hoped for better things and sent a petition to him. They stated that cheap Scottish salt would be the ruin and decay of the ancient trade and manufacture of salt in England but also the speedy and inevitable ruin of many hundreds of families.
With this in mind it is easy to see why it would be of benefit to build a harbour away from the Tyne and the Hostmen of Newcastle. In the years between 1677 and 1682 a pier was built at Cullercoats, jointly financed by Lady Elizabeth Percy, daughter and heir of the 11th and last Earl of Northumberland, and the lessees of Whitley Collieries. The Hostmen and Burghers still imposed conditions even from that distance saying that the haven could only be used for exporting coal when its use would not in any way disadvantage the port of Newcastle. Tomlinson says that the pier cost £3013 13s.6d which seems an excessive sum for that time, although it may have included the cost of the wagon way, and that two men were killed during its construction - Thomas Lorraine was killed by the falling of the mast which was being erected for the beacon, and David Archer was buried in a fall of earth from the bank. A wagon way was built to the pier, one branch coming from Churchill Playing fields where there were extensive shallow coal workings, one from along the links, joining up with the branch from Whitley Pit, to run through the fields to Cullercoats on a line which is still a right of way , then it followed the line of the old Front Street, crossing the Marden Burn, Tomlinson says, where the stream was dammed for the mill.
This wagon way brought the coal that was necessary to make salt, the main purpose of the exercise In 1677 also, a Thomas Fearon, a South Shields salt merchant, was leased land for 98 years on which to erect two salt pans with liberty to export the salt from the pier that was being built. The land extended from the "Rock where the gutter runs down under the bank to the wharf, and he was to build above the hill or bank, Garner's and Salter's houses and store coal there, all for the yearly payment of 12 pence. Fifteen months later John Dove died aged 59 years and was buried in the Quaker burial ground. Henry Hudson held his land at Cullercoats and that of the miller in trust for the owners of Whitley Collieries.
In 1681/2 his son, Thomas Dove, built a manor house with his own and his wife's initials together with a figure of a dove carved on the east gable. It was called Dove Hall, known locally as Sparrow Hall. In 1695 the harbour was described in Collin's 'Great Britain's Coasting Pilot' thus 'Collar Coates is a pier that lieth a mile or more from Tinmouth Castle to the Northward, and is a pier where vessels enter at high water to load coals, and lie dry at low water. The going in of this place is between several rocks. The way in is beaconed'.
The salt and coal trade flourished at Cullercoats. There was a large increase in population and more salt pans were erected round the bay. By 1690, 13 years after Thomas Fearon started the salt business at Cullercoats, there were 17 pans, 7 on the north side of the bay owned by Fearon, and 10 on the south side on Tynemouth North Point above the Smugglers Cave. A lead pipe through which the water was pumped remained in the roof of the cave until about 85 years ago. The new pier ran for about 150 yards from the Fairies Cave in the centre of the bay, and from it ran staithes and ballast wharves. Coal spouts were built into the bank tops, one on the site of the Lookout House - the coal was shot from the wagons over the bank into the ships below. A large ballast hill rose up behind the bank, at the foot of what is now Mast Lane, called after the beacon mast which guided the ships into the harbour.
By July 1690, 70 years since Thomas Dove bought the land, the village had grown so much that it was created a distinct township with its own constabulary - Cullercoats was now 'on the map'!
To make salt, sea water was first collected in a 'sumph' or pond in the rocks and at low tide was pumped up the cliff to a 'ship' or cistern where it stood until it was clear of sand and mud. The clear water was then run into the salt pans. These were made of iron plates, and held 1400 gallons of water about 16 inches deep. The building that contained the pan was known as the saltern, and was divided into two parts - the fore house with a roof where the coal was stored and the fires stoked, and the open boiling house which contained the pans and furnaces. When the pan was full the water was heated to lukewarm then clarified with egg white or the blood of sheep or black cattle. It was skimmed, then boiled until salt crystals formed on the surface. The pans were then topped up with more seawater, clarified and boiled as before, 4 times in 24 hours. By then the salt crystals had sunk to the bottom of the pan and could be raked out, and the remaining liquid drained away through conical baskets. The salt was then put into 'drabs' (wooden boxes) where it lay until it was dry - 3 or 4 days.
The harbour at low tide would have been busy with ships loading not only coal and salt, but oats and wool too, ready to sail at high tide - not an easy harbour to negotiate because of the rocks surrounding it. However the main feature of the village would have been the salt pans. A heavy pall of smoke and water vapour must have hung over the houses night and day and the pans would have been surrounded by heaps of burning rubbish and ash. The ballast hill too probably contained coal dirt, ash and cinders. The fires must have been seen from the sea, indeed it was said that the smoke was visible from Cheviot. Although Cullercoats could never have been a rival to South Shields with its 200 pans, nevertheless in 1708 there were 36 pans on the cliffs producing 2180 tons of salt each year and using 15,360 tons of coal to do so. The salt cost an average of 31s per ton and in one year the profits were £538. Not all the salt was shipped out, some was carried by packhorse into the country down well recognized routes known as Salt Trods. Many place names remind us of this - Salters Road and Salters Bridge in Gosforth, and Salters Gate in Alnwick, for example. Some was smuggled into Scotland where the smugglers grew rich and bought estates.
Thomas Dove died in 1704 and left his estate to his son John, of Whitley, the executor being Henry Hudson. In 1706 John, who had married Mary Hudson, left the area, being described as a grocer of Wapping. He had sold his mansion to the Quaker Zephaniah Haddock, who had married into the Dove family. By 1710 the fortunes of Cullercoats were beginning to fade. The piers was very badly damaged by a violent storm, the Whitley pits were in difficulties with flooding, and were said to be wrought out. In 1717 Thomas Fearon the salter died and was interred in the Quaker burial ground, and in 1718 John Atkinson, the agent for Whitley Collieries also died. The pier and waggonway gradually fell into disuse and the last shipment of salt - 21 tons - was made from Cullercoats in the 'Fortune' of Whitby, in July 1726. The last 6 pans were moved to Blyth, and the Cullercoats folk turned to fishing. In its heyday Cullercoats was one of the busiest ports on the North East coast.
The unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1715 had made the authorities suspicious of Papists and Quakers, and we find the Cullercoats community once again in the news - Zephaniah Haddock being indicted at Morpeth for refusing to take an oath before the Justices of the Peace. He also appeared as the signatory of a petition addressed by the inhabitants of Cullercoats to the bench of magistrates praying to be relieved of a pauper named Sarah Wilkinson in 1718. He died in 1739, leaving three daughters who married John Simpson, John Heddon and John Shipley. Elinor, daughter and co-heiress of John Dove, married in 1742 the Rev.Curwen Huddleston who thus became the owner of the Dove properties in Cullercoats. Their son Wilfrid, born in 1745, became lord of the manor. A descendent, also called Wilfrid, opened the Dove Marine Laboratory in 1908
By 1749 Cullercoats was being described as the best fish market in the North of England. It was also becoming a fashionable watering place. In 1751 Mrs Astley reported that "Tinmouth and Cullercoates are much in fashion, not a room empty. My Lady Ravensworth and my Lady Clavering were a month at Cullercoates bathing". The only building remaining from this period is Cliff House which was built in 1774 by Thomas Armstrong. In 1770 the Rev Curwen Huddleston attempted to offer for sale his property in Cullercoats to the Duke of Northumberland, but the Duke claimed that it was already his. A long correspondence ensued between the two, ending when the Duke's solicitors declared ownership to the Duke.
In 1801 the population of Cullercoats was 452. In 1807 Richard Armstrong built the salt-water baths. There were four bathrooms with a dressing room each. The bathhouse seemed to be in some danger. as the poorer villagers were in the habit of digging into the sea banks for coal, and there was a danger of falls of earth onto the buildings.
The well-known Quaker family, the Richardsons of Cleveland, took an interest in Cullercoats 1790 - 1860. George Richardson built the tannery at the Low Lights in North Shields on 1765, and spent his summers at Cullercoats. He and his family, especially his daughter and niece, were benefactors to the village in the tradition of the Friends. They obtained a better water supply for the houses, mended footpaths, built a small pier for the fishermen and eventually built and opened a school in 1850 in John Street, earlier called Back Lane, at a cost of £400, the site having been given by the Duke of Northumberland. The first headmaster was William Douglass. After five months the average attendance was 80, and it is probable that some of these children came from Whitley. Four years later two more classrooms were built. It was not the first school to built there, there were references to a school in 1829, but it became the most important, was enlarged several times, and pulled down (what remained of it) in the 1960s.
[From “North Country Lore and Legend” On 16th June, 1890, Mr. James Richardson, senior partner in the firm of Messrs. E. and J. Richardson, leather manufacturers, Shumac Street, Elswick, was seized by a fit of apoplexy whilst at his place of business, and died within an hour. He was 58 years of age. Like his ancestors, Mr. Richardson was a member of the Society of Friends, and occupied several positions connected with that body.]
In 1813 Hodgson described Cullercoats as having a neglected Quaker Burial ground. It had had a high stone wall built round it in 1819 at a cost of £13. In 1872 the Corporation of Tynemouth decided to extend John Street to the Marden Burn and join it to Whitley Lane, which meant that the burial ground would have to be moved. The sanction of the Society of Friends was obtained, and the bones and headstones were moved to Preston cemetery, where they can be seen today. The names recorded were -
THOMAS AIREY and a son ROBERT CURRY and a daughter HANNAH DOVE, wife of John Dove, then of Robert Selby of Durham FRANCES daughter of Thomas Dove JOHN WILLOBY ELLENOR DOVE ELINER DOVE DORATHA FROST MARGARET HADDOCK MARTHA HASLEM, wife of LAWRANCE HASLEM JOHN BUSTON
The census return of 1861 showed living in Cullercoats 156 fisherman, 16 fisherwomen, 2 baitresses aged 14yrs, 6 pilots, four of whom were also fisherman, and 1 pilot's widow, and 18 mariners, out of a total population of about 660. There were also 25 men who were probably employed at the quarry and brewery, and 1 coal miner, and they were served by 4 public houses - two Ship Inns, the Queens Head, and the Newcastle Arms (formerly the Hope and Anchor). 21 households had servants, 17 people were in trade and a solicitor and a barrister lived in the larger houses.
In 1864 the Blyth and Tyne Railway Co. opened Cullercoats station on Mast Lane. In 1872 the old Quaker burial ground was removed in order to extend John Street to Whitley Lane - now Road - over the Marden Burn. All the bones and headstones were removed to Preston Cemetery. In October 1879 the Look-out House was opened, in 1882 the railway line was moved nearer to the coast and the present station in Station Road was opened. Cullercoats was caught up the building boom and although it was always more of a fishing village and less of a holiday town than Whitley, its picturesqueness attracted artists by the score - notably the Joblings, Birkett Foster, Richardson, Slater, T.S.Hutton, John Charlton and many more. By 1881 the population had grown to nearly 2000, a total which included many visitors