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Old 16-05-2014, 01:00 PM
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Default A Young Port. [an account of Amble from 1876]

A YOUNG PORT.
About three years ago, in an account we gave our readers of Mr Picton's agreeable Memorials of Liverpool, we outlined the gradual rise and development of that wealthy town, from its insignificance in the days of Queen Elizabeth, when only twelve vessels belonged to its merchants, to its affluence and commerce of the present time, when upwards of 20,000 vessels enter the port annually. We are now going to notice the formation of a new port in our own day from a similar small beginning. Without assuming that this young Victorian venture will assume the dimensions of its Elizabethan example, we may watch its foundation and progress with interest, and possibly with advantage.
The young port we are about to describe is at the mouth of the Coquet in Northumberland. It is so young it has scarcely yet consolidated itself sufficiently to be certain of its own name ; for, while generally called Amble, it is officially entitled Warkworth, and the harbour offices are lettered " Warkworth Harbour Offices." Thirty years ago, however, there were only two good houses and a few cottages near the mouth of the river, and this little group of habitations were known as Amble. In an old garden behind the houses in the new main street is a short length of an ancient wall, in which there is a traceried window blocked up proving the correctness of local records that attest the existence of a small religious house here in the Middle Ages. With these exceptions, wherever the eye rests in Amble all is new. There are new streets, new roads, crisp to the tread with pebbles from the shore, a new church, new schools, a new vicarage-house now building, a new bank, new shops in all sorts of unfinished corners, a new harbour, a new pier, new quays, new tramways, new brick-kilns, new hones building in various directions, and all so new that nothing appears to be quite finished.
Glancing down some of the new streets, we note there is no pavement, or it only extends along part of the length of the street; in one we perceive the stumps of the hedges and bushes that grew there a short time ago, or the great root of a tree, still in situ ; in another, an open burn, with only a few old planks thrown across it for people to walk on; and we note that the tramways for the coal-waggons cross the public roads and pathways without the least protection. But this incompleteness is by no means the result of idleness or indifference ; every one is intelligently and briskly busy, and there is not a lounger or beggar to be seen in the place. It is simply owing to the rapidity and recentness of its growth, and press of attention to other matters.

As we have said, the whole population is heavily at work. Little steam-tugs puff in and out of the harbour, tugging great ships that glide silently after them ; long lines of coal-waggons tear along the tramways from the collieries to the quays and tilt their loads into the holds of vessels waiting to receive them ; fishing boats come and go, and carts come to meet them; a huge dredging-machine is always at work, dredging up pebbles and sand from the bottom of the harbour, and discharging them into trucks that are to carry them away; ballast is also unshipped and taken away in trucks; and every one on the spot seems to take the liveliest interest in what is going on ; while, less than three miles up the river, is the lonely Hermitage of Warkworth, as silent and still and deeply shadowed with trees as it could have been when the unhappy hermit lived in it, who fed upon his tears day and right ; and less than two miles up the river stands the grand castle of the Percies, ruined and roofless, and as still and as silent as the Hermitage.
The cause of the sudden outburst of human activity at Amble was the discovery that the coal seams worked at Radcliffe, a pit about a mile away, were of such immense extent that they were, so to speak, inexhaustible. It occurred to some minds as original and far-seeing as that of the Mayor of Liverpool in Queen Elizabeth's days that, if a harbour could he made at the mouth of the river, this coal could be disposed of profitably. A company was formed in London, and the scheme set on foot. Many lent themselves to the venture and the pit, once the small property of the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, was adequately worked with powerful machinery, and the harbour was also commenced. Another colliery, about three miles away, at Broomhill, was rapidly developed, and all seemed prosperous. But many difficulties arose. The bed of the river proved to be very shallow, and notwithstanding the unceasing labours of the dredging-machine, is not yet deep enough ; the pits were the property of rival companies, who competed with each other rather than worked together; there were three long miles of distance to the nearest railway ; considerable depression set in ; the large population suddenly drawn together without adequate house accommodation brought its own evils ; there were outbreaks of fever ; and those who advanced the money sunk in the undertaking did not enjoy the fruits of their pains. The sum expended upon the harbour works is spoken of, roughly and sadly, as a quarter of a million of money. But now the enterprise has changed hands, and all things have adjusted themselves on the new basis, and settled to work well. The two collieries are now in the same hands, there is a prospect of two other collieries shipping their coal from the port; and there is a general air of hope, and even certainty, of great things.

Not one house in this little Victorian port is more than two stories in height; and all of them are on the south side of the river. The main street runs from one end of the town to the other, and has been laid out to be 40 ft. wide ; but, unfortunately, there is a sudden bend half-way down it that gives it the character of two distinct streets; otherwise it would have been a very satisfactory setting out. The western end of this thoroughfare is called High-street, and the eastern end is named Queen-street. It is approached from Warkworth by a steeply ascending way a called the Wynd, and then comes on and on till it comes to the two old substantial houses we have mentioned, when it takes the sudden bend half-way in its length, and then goes on again till it stretches itself through the whole length of the town, and dies into the sandy coally flat, traversed by waggon-ways, that lies between the town and Harbour. South and north of this main street run parallel streets, not continuously yet, but in various lengths; and from the east and from the west are openings to short streets, containing a few new houses in each ; and, again, with less system than here indicated, there are new houses of exactly the same type building in isolated spots that have yet to be connected with any roads at all.
Out of all these new buildings only three have any architectural pretentions. These are the church, the bank, and the vicarage-house now in course of erection, which all present an ancient French character, and are the designs of the same architect. All the streets of small two-storied houses exhibit no design, except a desire on the part of the masons and joiners who have erected them to do so at the smallest cost compatible with durability for the proposed accommodation.
In this little port, house accommodation does not include a supply of water, nor a system of drainage. Out of all the houses, all day long, come people with cans and pails to carry water from three wells, and out of nearly all the houses, all day long, people throw all their slops and refuse upon the nearest ash-midden. A small line of drain has indeed, been laid down in one part of the town, but it does not answer the purpose of proper sewerage. Busy, intelligent, and enterprising as they are, the residents have not taken time, apparently, to consider that the water would come to them if properly managed, and the sewage and slops depart from them also, if properly conducted; or, if they have looked at the matter, they have not been able to surmount the difficulty the question presented to them. However, the outbreaks of fever made it apparent that the Rural Sanitary Authority of the union to which Amble belongs that a system of sewerage is imperatively required, and this is shortly to be laid down.


The formation of the harbour has left in the rear of it a low-lying brack, formerly covered by the tide. The present proprietor proposes to till up this piece of land claimed from the ocean to a suitable level for building purposes, and to cover it with trees. Towards this end all the ballast brought home by the ships that take coal away is discharged upon it, and is gradually rising high and dry above the shore. Already thirty-two ships belong to the little port, three of which were built in Amble. Twenty-one of them are of Sunderland workmanship, and one of Prussian building. These figures, however, give no idea of the coming and going, the tugging in and out of gallant ships, as the vessels from foreign parts visiting the harbour are much more numerous. In Liverpool, only two centuries ago, the largest vessel belonging to its merchants was only 40 tons burden. In this little Victorian port, now so rapidly rising out of the waters, the largest ship is 714 tons burden; and the smallest, the Sea-flower, is 155 tons burden.
As Amble is not on the road to any other place, there is but very little wheeled traffic in it. The streets are comparatively quiet, owing to the absence of carriages, wagons, and omnibuses. Accidents are rare on the land, but, on the other hand, the sea furnishes its quota, and instead of street causalities, there are fishermen dying because they have been swept overboard and hurt, and sailors sick unto death brought into' the little hospital. This institution, bye the bye, is but a small house in the Wynd, and might be considerably improved by a better situation, which opinion will be doubtless shared by this occupiers of two or three bright little villa residences with gay flower-gardens in this same Wynd, and as well by the tenants of the adjoining cottages.
From the windows of such of the rows of houses as face the north are superb views of the wide open country, with Warkworth Castle standing up like a sentinel in the middle of it, and with the placid Coquet winding about through the meadows in it. From the windows of many of the other houses are splendid views of the North Sea, with Coquet Island, with its lighthouse glittering upon it like a great jewel, and black and white ships silently and dimly appearing and disappearing all day long in the horizon.
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Old 16-05-2014, 01:05 PM
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Must have been a house used as a hospital of some sort on the Wynd.

And they were tipping ships ballast on the braid in and attempt to reclaim the land?
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Old 16-05-2014, 08:25 PM
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The area where the ships ballast was tipped was not the Braid, it was the area behind Ladbroke St. and Leazes St.

Harbour Road, Runciman Way and Broomhill St. will all of been built on this reclaimed land.
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Old 16-05-2014, 09:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Northern Light View Post
The area where the ships ballast was tipped was not the Braid, it was the area behind Ladbroke St. and Leazes St.

Harbour Road, Runciman Way and Broomhill St. will all of been built on this reclaimed land.
Yes that makes sense as that was waste when the river was straightened.
What was being carried as ballast? I think sometimes they carried chalk and flint?

[we need a 10 metre core sample from the middle of Broomhill street; see what's in there!]
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Old 17-05-2014, 06:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post
Yes that makes sense as that was waste when the river was straightened.
What was being carried as ballast? I think sometimes they carried chalk and flint?

[we need a 10 metre core sample from the middle of Broomhill street; see what's in there!]
A quick look on the Northside of the harbour will reveal lots of chalk and flint, I have seen impressive lumps of chalk in the past.
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Old 17-05-2014, 12:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hollydog View Post
A quick look on the Northside of the harbour will reveal lots of chalk and flint, I have seen impressive lumps of chalk in the past.
There was a ship too with a cargo of chalk lost on Warkworth beach (1880). But there is also chalk in the estuary which must be ballast.
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Old 18-05-2014, 08:20 AM
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It would be anything native to where the boats were returning from. Sand, chalk, flint and who knows what else.
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Old 19-05-2014, 07:43 PM
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[we need a 10 metre core sample from the middle of Broomhill street; see what's in there!][/QUOTE]

British Geological Survey web site has a number of boreholes. One behind Broomhill St. from 1974 shows:

0 - 2m Made ground, coal dust, sand and gravel and bricks.
2 - 4m Loose coarse brown sand and fine coarse gravel.
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Old 20-05-2014, 09:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Northern Light View Post
[we need a 10 metre core sample from the middle of Broomhill street; see what's in there!]

British Geological Survey web site has a number of boreholes. One behind Broomhill St. from 1974 shows:

0 - 2m Made ground, coal dust, sand and gravel and bricks.
2 - 4m Loose coarse brown sand and fine coarse gravel.
Fascinating, I forgot about those borehole logs. you did mention them a while back. I had a good browse through those last night, 'til 2am.

There is another just east of Harbour Road that goes a bit deeper. Also on the 'north side' there is a series of bores from 1976 when the degaussing station was planned. these reach the solid geology at 26 metres or there about.

A deep one for a well to supply the locos with water is near the railway track behind Brinkburn place - drilled in June 1872 reaches 73 metres. Passes through two coal seams 18" thick and 12" thick. (Same as Percy Street coal and the shore excavations??)

link: http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/sobi_scans/bo.../12424108.html
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Old 10-07-2017, 01:26 PM
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Default Flint

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Originally Posted by hollydog View Post
A quick look on the Northside of the harbour will reveal lots of chalk and flint, I have seen impressive lumps of chalk in the past.
Has anyone actually found any large pieces of flint in amble area
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Old 10-07-2017, 08:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by duddy1984 View Post
Has anyone actually found any large pieces of flint in amble area
Lots on the northside where the ballast was emptied from ships. Have a look where the dunes have been disturbed or around the tide line.
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Old 17-07-2017, 01:01 PM
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I did some googling around a while back regarding the possibility of naturally occurring flint being in the area. Apparently there are minor sources of flint or chert in Scotland but the chances of it being carried here by ice is about nil I think.

I'm also under the impression that some (I assume a tiny amount of) chalk ballast went to the pits for the use of officials underground. Read that somewhere I think. Or was it that some enterprising individual collected the chalk and sold it to the pits?


My Question would be why flint and chalk in particular for ballast? (Flint nodules are commonly found in chalk anyway so not like it was two separate materials being loaded.) Stuff is generally found on the south coast of England, but is that the source? Any in the Europe?

On the subject of material from ships, in the winter I occasionally collect a bucket or two of sea coal down on the beach near Sea View to the quarry wall. For many years there has been a thick black tar or pitch washing up. It looks just like lumps of coal so unless you pick it up you would not notice the difference. I wonder what the source of that is? some wreck out there?
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Old 17-07-2017, 07:24 PM
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Interesting stuff, I always believed the ballast was from sailing colliers returning from delivering coal to the Thames power stations. Steam colliers used water as ballast ? so the dumping of it stopped at the end of sail. Any thoughts on this theory?
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Old 17-07-2017, 10:49 PM
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You're right. Thames estuary has loads of chalk. Part of the chalk basin that forms the south coast chalk, brought up to the surface by faulting around Lewisham and Purfleet.

There's a reference to east coast colliers and chalk here - says they could sell it for lime making? Anyway, ballast was dumped near the home port harbour mouth.

I'm sure I've seen it in the estuary on the North Side? You seen any there?
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Old 17-07-2017, 11:01 PM
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We're going to need a large poke of chalk and flint for the Amble Museum too. Just need another volunteer to carry it from the North Side.
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Old 18-07-2017, 07:59 PM
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I once found a very large piece of chalk (football sized) in the concrete pad of a pillbox on the beach just down from Warkworth golf club. That got me thinking, the anti tank blocks, was the material brought along from the northside along with shipped in cement? if so, a good amount of the ballast may have been used making them. There is a photo on here which shows the northside hill to be a lot larger 100 years ago.
Next dog walk I'll have a closer look at the upturned blocks and what stone is used
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Old 18-07-2017, 08:03 PM
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Does that look like a large heap on the northside? far more than there today if it is
Attached Images
File Type: jpg user157_pic276_1405171755.jpg (43.3 KB, 28 views)
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Old 19-07-2017, 09:34 AM
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No sure. If it really is a heap and not some artifact on the image/negative, then it would be marked on the ordnance survey. But...that is also near the spot where there is chalk on the estuary beaches I believe.
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Old 19-07-2017, 09:45 AM
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If there was a persistent heap it would look like this on the map?



If it is a heap, but a temporary one of some material, then just as curious I suppose.
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Old 19-07-2017, 10:44 AM
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I just love these maps http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-...&right=BingHyb
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