Seaton Sluice - Rocky Island

[c-side]

Charlie's Garden was indeed a different place and is no more - total erosion 

Rocky Island is across the gap which used to be the harbour entrance in the days when it was a busier port than Blyth.  Then ships got too big to use that harbour.

The bridge is still there - it has to be because the Watch House (mentioned in the link above) is on the island.  The pipe is also still there but nothing more romantic than a sewer!!

Christine

[TriciaK]

Ah - so it's a sewer!
The reason I asked is that we were walking round there back in the 90s and saw a group of lads near the end of the pipe. One had actually got onto  it, sitting with legs straddled , and shuffling across on his btm.
I was horrified, but daren't shout to stop him as he might have fallen off    Also I thought the pipe didn't look very strong and could have broken. We were talking about it the other day, saying how kids love to do dangerous things. As we did when young, but never ventured on there!
To the previous poster - thanks for the interesting website.
Another favourite haunt in Seaton Sluice was Holywell Dean and Starlight Castle, but that's a story in itself, lots of history there.

[pityackafromblyth]

Yes, I stand corrected re my post concerning Rocky Island.  A few hours after adding my post I realised that triciaK was referring to the land where the pub stood.  I used to visit there and go down onto the rocks which faced Blyth.  I can still visualise the bridge, pipe, and the pub.

[Yossarian]

Is this the one you mean, or am I barking up the wrong pipe?

(note the creepy girl on the swing, and a figure watching her further back on the right)

This was taken from the bridge outside the King's Arms pub.

A short walk from here, I knew the rock as Charlie's Garden too. When I was a kid it was a solid mass with grass growing on its top. Years of erosion have all but destroyed it.

[TriciaK]

Yes that's the one - good photo! Hope the girl and adult aren't ghosts of unlucky risk-takers 

[Michael Dixon]

  Some maps ie Ordnance Survey, showing the bits of Seaton Sluice under discussion are available  in the Seaton Sluice section of Northumberland Communities web site.
 
Michael

[TriciaK]

We went for a walk there on Monday, and Charlie's Garden is still there. You can't see it from Rocky Island, you have to walk along to Collywell Bay. Only the biggest part still standing.

[hanes teulu]

This 1938/47 map shows Rocky Island and Charley's Garden.

https://maps.nls.uk/view/101028729

[TriciaK]

A fascinating map - who needs satnavs?
It was high tide when we were there, so couldn't go down to the Bay. But it revived old childhood memories.
ps re Yossarian's photo - it has just dawned on me that someone must have shuffled along that pipe to hang the model of the girl on the swing. That was why I asked the question in the first place - a few years ago I saw a young lad shuffle from one side to the other for a dare. We used to do daring things, but not that