St Mary’s Island was the obvious spot to build a lighthouse because there were over 300 shipwrecks in just a few decades between Blyth and Tynemouth. Only a few survived and the rest were buried near the old monks’ gravestones. John Crisp, the new tenant of the island, moved in on 10 th December 1895 and ran a temperance hotel there – sounds like fun – and his family has lived on the island ever since, lucky bastards.Ī troop of Russian soldiers who had stopped over on their way to fight in the Napoleonic Wars contracted cholera on the island in 1799 and were quarantined there. Eventually they managed to get him out but had less success with a pig, which ran amuck for over six hours before being carted over to the mainland squealing in protest at such manhandling. Lord Hastings, the island’s owner, had to step in and he sent in the bailiffs when Ewen refused to budge. He had a falling out with a local farmer, Joseph Pattersen, a few years later and a nasty feud broke out between them. When the salmon fishing laws became restrictive in 1860 he had to supplement his income and opened a pub called The Freemasons Arms in 1862, known as The Squire and Compass by locals. They were supposed to have hidden their ill-gotten gains in haystacks further along the coast.Ī salmon fisherman from Aberdeen, George Ewen, built a cottage on the island in 1855 to use as a base when the salmon run was on. In the 18 th century smugglers ran brandy using a creek on the north side of the island, and they were probably responsible for murdering Anthony Mitchell, a customs surveyor, in 1722. It was also known as Bate’s Island later on, after Thomas Bates, a local mine owner and a Northumberland surveyor for Elizabeth I. These lights were known locally as St Mary’s Lights, so this is probably how the island got its present name. Nearby Tynemouth Priory was established in the 7 th century and the monks used the island as a burial ground for a while.Īfter William the French Bastard and his thugs took over in 1066 – enslaving my ancestors, the real Brits – the Priory maintained a chapel on the island which was dedicated to St Helen and a top storey was added to this where a fire was kept burning to warn sailors of the rocks. The island has a rich history, like the rest of this rugged, storm-swept coastline. I read nothing about ‘Tyne & Wear’ in Bede. The Vikings attacked Northumberland, not ‘Tyne & Wear’. Historically it has always been Northumberland and will ever remain so for me. Incidentally, I hated the change to Tyne & Wear in the 1970s – it sounded so local council. I’ve long fantasised about living in St Mary’s Lighthouse off the Northumberland coast, like Montaigne in his tower, surrounded by books and in splendid isolation.
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