Qualla: Seaham https://qualla.com/seaham en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/p/seaham-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Seaham https://qualla.com/seaham Seaham: Introduction https://qualla.com/seaham/ Photo credit DS Pugh, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 2 January 1815, Lord Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke at Seaham Hall. Their only child, Ada Lovelace, was born eleven months later. The marriage lasted barely a year. Byron found the place oppressive in winter, though he was captivated by the sea: he started writing his Hebrew Melodies during his stay at Seaham and they were published that April. Two centuries later, Seaham's beach still throws up evidence of its industrial afterlife. The waves grind down the cullet dumped by John Candlish's Londonderry Bottleworks, the largest glass-bottle factory in Britain from 1853 until 1921. The result is sea glass, washing ashore in frosted greens and blues, a Victorian by-product that has become the town's accidental signature.

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Image: DS Pugh | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/p/seaham-wp/gcxp-seaham-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Seaham: Byron's Winter and Ada's Beginning https://qualla.com/seaham/ Photo credit John Lucas, CC BY-SA 2.0. The original village of Seaham was tiny, an agricultural settlement near St Mary's Church and Seaham Hall, north of the present town. Anne Isabella Milbanke was the local landowner's daughter, an intelligent and sheltered young woman who would later be remembered as a serious mat...

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Image: John Lucas | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/p/seaham-wp/gcxp-seaham-byrons-winter-and-adas-beginning.mp3 0:06 2 full Seaham: The Marquess and the Harbour https://qualla.com/seaham/ Photo credit Roberto Strauss from Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland, CC BY 2.0. In 1821, the Milbankes sold their estate to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, who saw what the North Sea coast and the County Durham coalfields could become together. He built a harbour in 1828 to ship coal from the mines he was about to encourage. The first colliery opened in 184...

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Image: Roberto Strauss from Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/p/seaham-wp/gcxp-seaham-the-marquess-and-the-harbour.mp3 0:06 3 full Seaham: Sea Glass and the Pits https://qualla.com/seaham/ Photo credit Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0. John Candlish's Londonderry Bottleworks opened in 1853 and survived until 1921, the largest glass bottle works in Britain. Waste glass, dumped at sea throughout the operating life of the factory, has been ground by tides and wave action into smooth, frosted pebbles for more than ...

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Image: Andrew Curtis | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/p/seaham-wp/gcxp-seaham-sea-glass-and-the-pits.mp3 0:06 4 full Seaham: Tommy on the Seafront https://qualla.com/seaham/ Photo credit Dunpharlain, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2014, the local artist Ray Lonsdale installed a steel statue on the Seaham seafront. Officially titled 1101, locally known as Tommy, it depicts a First World War soldier sitting on a bench in the moments after the Armistice was signed, contemplating the war's end. It was origi...

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Image: Dunpharlain | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/p/seaham-wp/gcxp-seaham-tommy-on-the-seafront.mp3 0:06 5 full