Searching for Sea Glass in Seaham… (and a little crochet too of course)

So I fulfilled a little dream- yes, I have visited Seaham – a place I have wanted to go to ever since I first discovered that it was well known for it’s sea glass. Seaham is in County Durham in the North East of England, 340 miles away from where we live so it’s a long way! It was fellow blogger Alida from Buttercup and Bee in response to a previous post I wrote about Searching for Sea Glass that first told me about Seaham and its seaglass and I’m so glad she did…

The reason Seaham has so much sea glass and also some really unique pieces is that until 1921 there was a glass factory nearby and the waste was thrown into the sea. Yes, sea glass is pollution but 100 years late this pollution is washing up on our shores like little sea jewels…

We combined a visit to Seaham with a camping trip to the very North East of England (I’ll write more about the rest of the trip in another blog post next week).  Having our campervan means we’re pretty flexible about where we stay and we planned this trip to make sure we’d have an opportunity to search for the famous sea glass.

Well it did not disappoint! I had thought that perhaps it would have become a victim of it’s own success and there would either be no sea glass left or just too many people searching for it. But this is not the case at all… it’s a wonderful beach which is unspoilt and a pleasure to visit.

Our first visit was on a Sunday evening. The tide has to be out so we checked the tide times before we left and knew that an evening visit would be good… here are the steps leading down from the car park to the beach…

and the beach itself…

We searched immediately…the thing with looking for sea glass is that there’s a lot of looking down…

…on our first evening I found this little lot- just look at the colours!

The beach also provided a great photo opportunity to photograph an amigurumi sloth which I had crocheted during the long drive north. I crocheted this for my Mum’s birthday as she had spotted it in the current issue of Simply Crochet magazine. The pattern is by Storylandamis and was a free download from www.lovecrochet.com

We returned to Seaham the following day for more sea glass hunting… and it wasn’t just me that seemed to enjoy it. Our eldest who’s 15 surprised us by really wanting to find it too… he found some really beautiful pieces. I think it’s because there are such special and unique pieces to be found that you feel compelled to keep looking. It became a family affair as we’d also arranged to meet my parents on the beach who were visiting the area too!

We met and spoke with fellow sea glass searchers on the beach that day. One couple had flown all the way from Cornwall that morning and were flying back the same day! They travelled all that way just to search for sea glass on Seaham beach… I asked if they were using it to make jewellery or for any other business purpose but no, the lady said she just found it so therapeutic and it was something she loved doing.

After a few hours of wandering on the beach and searching between the stones I found this little gem…

I can assure you I let out a hugh cry of excitement when I spotted that! 🙂 🙂 It’s a piece that Seaham is famous for…the two coloured pieces that must be from the more elaborate glass that was made in the factory a century ago. To think it’s been swirling in the sea for 100 years and then I found it there at my feet is a very special thought!

And then very soon after this I spotted the amazing red piece…

I felt my sea glass hunting was complete!

We’d walked a long way along the beach that morning and the tide was coming in so we then explored the town itself…

There’s a shop called Seahamwaves which makes jewellery from local sea glass but unfortunately it was closed…

We did find another shop which had some cute crochet inside…

We did go back to the beach for one last visit the following morning, just for a quick 20 minute stroll (it’s pretty addictive this sea glass hunting!) and I’m super glad we did. Because a fellow Instagram follower Daisy Sea Glass  who is based around Seaham had seen my crocheted pebbles and been inspired to do some of her own and yarn bomb the steps at Seaham!

Through our contact on Instagram I knew she had done it but by the time we arrived on our first evening they had all gone! 🙁 🙁  But she put up just a few more around an information board and I’m so happy to have seen it… Crochet at Seaham inspired by some of my own crochet- Wow!

So there you have it…sea glass hunting at Seaham. We had a great time doing something so simple… 🙂 🙂