Blyth Battery

Standing on the dunes overlooking Blyth beach is a group of buildings which are noticeable but somehow not prominent. This is especially so as they now stand beside the iconic and colourful beach huts. The buildings probably look as though they belong to some utility company or other, especially as half of them are painted grey. And, they do often go unnoticed. But inside is a real treasure and one of the finest jewels in Blyth's crown.

The buildings weren't actually erected to be noticed though. They had their beginnings one hundred years ago (1916) as a wartime battery. The Battery served as a fortified gun emplacement and observation post. It protected, from enemy ships, the river mouth and port of Blyth, which during WW1 was a secret submarine base. It was also an inspection base for ships entering the port. Shipping would have to contact the Battery by radio for clearance to enter.

The Battery has in recent times been turned into a visitor attraction and military museum run entirely by volunteers. The volunteers have put together a wonderful website http://blythbattery.org.uk/ which gives just enough of a teaser of what the attraction has to offer. This includes the five display areas of The Shelter, which is the cafe and main information/display place, The Magazine, which is the main museum area, WW2 Battery Observation Post, reconstructed as to how it would have looked at the time and including a WW1 officers dugout recreation, a room from a 1940s house and a Searchlight Building. The website also gives the latest details on special events, such as the Blyth Battery Goes to War Weekend of re-enactments and 1940's style fundraising dances.

But I wanted to know a little bit more in-depth information than the brochures give away and went along to meet stalwart volunteers Colin Durward and Tony Hodge. I chatted to them as we had a cup of tea, in the same cafe and rest room used by those troops many years ago, but now I was surrounded by displays of memorabilia and photos, as the guys were busily preparing for the big event of the year, that is the Blyth Battery Goes To War Weekend.

I first asked Colin and Tony why the Battery was worth preserving and turning into a museum?

It was explained that Blyth had been a large and busy port, even deeper than the Tyne. It was strategically important and suitable for a submarine base. Because of this it had an observation post. This is the only surviving observation post in the world. It is unique and is protected as a listed building by law. There had been smaller batteries at Tynemouth, the Robert's Battery at Seaton Sluice and not too far along the beach at Gloucester Lodge, where there were two six inch guns hidden in the dunes. All of these have since been obliterated and so it was important to keep the Blyth Battery for posterity.

What was daily life like in the Battery during operational times of WW1 and WW2?

During WW1 the Battery had been manned by five officers and seventy-five men, at different times from the Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery and Tynemouth Volunteers. The soldiers were housed in temporary wooden huts and sometimes huge tents in the fields to the rear of the Battery. Colin showed me a post-war photo of the field filled with tents for some civilian event and he believes these were the tents connected with the Battery. The large gun was never apparently fired "in anger" at the enemy so it seemed like a huge amount of personnel to be employed at one battery. Wouldn't they be terribly bored? Colin pointed out that it took eight men alone just to man the gun. The men were kept constantly busy with the maintenance of equipment, everything having to be kept in good repair and they spent much time practising.

The large gun pointing out to sea in readiness for enemy shipping may not have been fired at the enemy but during WW2 the smaller anti-aircraft guns were. These were sited in concrete bunkers in the field to the rear of the Battery. I had assumed the bunkers were magazines for surplus ammunition with a tunnel leading to the battery. My mistake! No tunnel has ever been found as it happens. The magazine within the Battery complex, as Colin explained, was designed to take a direct hit from enemy bombing. It had a blast-proof roof made from re-enforced concrete. It was, in fact, a room within a room covered by a thick layer of sand. In the latter part of WW2 it had been the job of the Home Guard to man the Battery.

The Battery website states that in 2004 the Civic Trust Conservation plan came into being and the call went out to a dedicated group of local people to become involved. Colin and Tony elaborated. The Battery conservation is the responsibility of the local authority and about thirty years ago they commissioned a feasibility study into the best way to protect and preserve the Battery. By November 2007 funding had been secured for conservation. Around this period the county archaeologist was opening the Battery for visitors to have a look around during the Heritage Open Days during a weekend in September. A proposal had been made that the Battery could be turned into a visitor centre. Various local history groups, Tynemouth Volunteers and members of Colin's family attended the initial meetings and the team of volunteers was born. Colin's daughter, Holly, had been a volunteer tour guide at Horton Church. She wasn't particularly expert in this field, it was just something she enjoyed doing. She led the family in getting involved with the Battery. Colin had been a member of a shooting club, but knew very little of wartime history or the Battery, but once he pledged to volunteer he was soon immersed in the task.

It is remarkable that just a few years ago Colin and a good number of the other volunteers were so lacking in knowledge of the site's history as now to ask a question of the team is like having an encyclopaedia to hand. Obviously many hours have been spent in research and work behind the scenes.

When I put it to Colin that volunteering at the Battery seemed to have taken over their lives he rolled his eyes in an expression which said: "I didn't mean for it to happen, but I enjoy it really".

There are about thirty volunteers currently with the Battery. Some, like Colin, are heavily involved in maintenance work, building new displays and taking part in re-enactments. Some are entertainers, some local historians, and some just make tea for visitors in the cafe. But all are vital and welcome. Tony was asked to bring his jeep along to events and ended up becoming a dedicated part of the team, passionate about the future of the Battery. I hinted to Colin and Tony that the team seemed to be like one large, extended family and were working together with great unity. There was no disagreement to this comment.

The Blyth Battery Goes To War event in May has become an annual spectacle in Blyth's calendar. Other special event weekends are held throughout the  spring and summer months too. Many re-enactment groups, estimated to be one hundred persons this year, from all over the country, descend on Blyth to show off military hardware and uniforms. The culmination is a staged battle on the beach complete with more pyrotechnics than an AC/DC concert. It is also one of the highlights of the re-enactors year and they rough it for the weekend by sleeping in a true wartime spirit on the floor of the museum.

The special events had their beginnings right from the start of the Battery becoming a visitor centre. They had planned to ask the Duke of Gloucester to do the honours and cut the ribbon, but thought they also needed some entertainment on the day. (A Duke of Gloucester paraded his troops in a large military exercise in the late 18th century to the west of what is now Gloucester Lodge Farm, near the Battery.) They booked Colin Bourdiec, a George Formby tribute act and re-enactor. He became one of the volunteers at the Battery. More re-enactors followed till they had the size of event where the services of the Duke of Gloucester were not needed. Colin Bourdiec is a regular entertainer at 1940s style dances arranged by the Battery volunteers as social and fundraising nights.

The team also spend a great deal of time during the winter months, when the museum isn't operational, attending fayres and other events, trying to raise a few bob, otherwise they do have maintenance grants from the local authority, Blyth Town Council give some financial support and, of course, donations.

I asked Colin and Tony about the five main exhibit areas listed on the website. Where did all the stuff come from?

Colin explained that a lot of the volunteers had various bits and pieces in their own private collections anyway which they have loaned or donated. The Volunteers purchased three display cases to house small items in the cafe area. The rest came as the result of house and loft clearances. Although it is not an accredited museum they do keep meticulous and proper records of donations. And, although they are primarily a military museum they do display other exhibits from time to time.

2016 is the 100th anniversary of the Battery what have you got planned?

The "Goes To War" event will be larger than ever but 2016 is also the year that the Tall Ships Regatta comes to Blyth for the first time. The Battery will be open for a full week, with a field kitchen, a room with slideshows of local history displayed on a large screen, nautical-themed stuff, Killingworth Model Boat Club and a twenty-eight piece dance band will be playing.

And what of your future plans?

Last year a major piece of conservation work was undertaken on the turret which was shot blasted then painted. They hope to carry on in this way to get the site looking "nice" again and the buildings fully usable as there are still a few areas in need of improvement. The volunteers have a relationship, and a plan, with the local authority and English Heritage as obviously consent is needed to carry out work on a listed property, but generally the team are for the moment regarded as the custodians. Colin also said he would like to develop an idea of themed weekends where different displays are shown to give returning visitors something new to look at.

Both Colin and Tony were keen to stress their passion for the place and what they are doing. Blyth beach attracts thousands of people every day and they would like a lot more of those people to drop in to the museum or cafe. They like nothing better than to show off the results of all their hard work and to have a chat with visitors.

I felt the enthusiasm come through and was made to feel welcome. I am sure you will too.

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A Town Hall on the Blyth Bus Station Site

On the 26th March 1943 the Morpeth Herald printed a short piece stating that land Blyth Council had purchased for the purpose of constructing a town hall, would now be sold to the United Automobile Company who would build a bus station on the site. The site had been used as an "ornamental space for many years". The money from the sale would be used to fund a new town hall.

The sale obviously went ahead as the site, in Post Office Square and Bridge Street, was turned into a bus station and still has that function today.

There is an artist's impression of a proposal for the town hall which appeared in the Blyth UD Council Brochure of 1912. The view is looking from the junction of Union Street and Bridge Street with the corner shop newsagents at your back and is a very ornate building.

Link to Town Hall Photo

The site had once been a small tributary of the River Blyth often called The Gote. A bridge crossed the stream at this point, hence the name Bridge Street. A marine construction site, known as a raft yard, and a saw mill operated on this site as shown on the early Ordnance Survey mapping, and some sketches, of the 1860s and 70s.

The stream was filled in piecemeal to accommodate new building from the 1880s. The sinking of the nearby Mill Pit in 1885 providing a great deal of the infill material. Gordon Smith in his book "Blyth: Through Time" states: "Wright's timber yard moved from here to the new Import Dock between 1905 and 1907 and the area has been used as a bus station from about 1923." The Ordnance Survey mapping of c1937 shows the area to have already been developed into an ornamental area. Several photographs which pre-date the announcement of the sale of Post Office, or Town Hall, Square to United Buses in 1943 show buses lined up collecting passengers on the West side of the square. Clearly the site had been used as a de-facto bus station for some time. The wooden building was also shown on the 1937 map and would probably have been connected with the bus company.

Photographs and maps after 1943 show a canopy for shelter to have been built on the West side of the square but it was not until the late 1960s early 1970s that the bus station was developed into something like the site we know today with offices and rest rooms.

Blyth Urban Disrict Council already had premises in Seaforth Street in 1912 and continued to use them after 1943. The "Blyth Official Handbook" of 1952 lists the Borough Engineer, Borough Treasurer and Housing Officer working from these premises, but the Town Clerk was operating from the newly-acquired Dinsdale House on Marine Terrace.

Location Satellite Image (Google Earth) 

The rather grand, six-bedroom, Dinsdale House was originally the private residence of the Thompson Family of Red Stamp Stores fame, and was first occupied by them in 1899. It remained as a private residence for many decades.

The United Bus Company was founded in Lowestoft in 1912 and expanded operations into Northumberland during the 1920s. The Corporation buses ran out of Newcastle and extended their services with a bus to Seaton Sluice on 16th May 1921. On the 1st July 1936 the red United buses took over operations of the blue Corporation buses out of Newcastle. United was nationalised in 1948. In 1986 prior to de-regulation and privatisation the company was divided into three with the northern division being called Northumbria Motor Services Ltd. 

A bus depot and workshops was built on land previously occupied by 19th century housing on Bridge Street which was demolished in the 1960s. A depot had been sited on Plessey Road in former times. Blyth Valley Borough Council in 2008 presented a planning document which set out the re-siting of the bus station in favour of developing an office and retail complex. It can be viewed at this link... Bus Depot Plan 2008

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Laying the Foundation Stone for Blyth Library

Blyth Library 1930

Blyth Library on Bridge Street is one of the main landmarks in the town. It has recently been refurbished and now incorporates Local Authority services.

The building began its life as a mechanic's institute. The Morpeth Herald of 1st January 1881 reported on the laying of the foundation stone in a ceremony of the previous Thursday 23rd December 1880.

The stone was laid by Lady Ridley in front of many dignitaries. She was presented with a commemorative silver trowel to mark the occasion. Sir Matthew White Ridley was also present. The Ridley family were the main landholders in Blyth having purchased the estate in 1723. They lived at Blagdon Hall a few miles to the west of Blyth. The funding for the building came mostly from public subscription. The Chairman of the committee set up to raise funds and manage the mechanic's institute praised the residents of Blyth for having donated two thirds of the sum needed to start the building work in an act of commendable self help. This self reliance was even more commendable in the light of the austere times Blyth was facing. The 1870s had been a time of trade recession across the whole of Great Britain.

When the Mechanic's Institute was finally opened in 1882 a trade directory of the time (Kelly's 1894) described it:

"...erected in 1882 at a cost of £2000 [About £217,000 in 2015] on a site given by Sir MW Ridley bart who also subscribed £200 is an edifice of brick with a central clock tower, containing a clock costing £150, the gift of Robert Bell esq, shipowner [resided at Bath Terrace 1871 census]. The building comprises on the ground floor, a reading room, well supplied with newspapers and periodicals, a library containing 5,500 volumes and the offices of the local board for Blyth. On the upper floor is a lecture hall 56 feet by 26 feet and three class rooms. Petty sessions for the Bedlington Petty Sessional Division [are held here]."

The Wikipedia article on mechanic's institutes  gives a summary of their function:

"Mechanics' Institutes are educational establishments, originally formed to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men. As such, they were often funded by local industrialists on the grounds that they would ultimately benefit from having more knowledgeable and skilled employees (such philanthropy was shown by, among others, Robert Stephenson, James Nasmyth, John Davis Barnett and Joseph Whitworth). The Mechanics' Institutes were used as 'libraries' for the adult working class, and provided them with an alternative pastime to gambling and drinking in pubs."

A tea was held later in the day at the Central Hall where Thomas Burt MP spoke of the benefits that mechanic's institutes had brought to the working man and praised the residents of Blyth in making this one possible after the disaster of the previous one having been burned down.

Kelly's Directory of 1894 states: "The Mechanic's Institute was first established in 1847 and in 1858 transferred to the premises of the Old Phoenix Inn [Northumberland Street/Bridge Street]." The Parson and White directory of 1828 lists the Phoenix as one of five pubs in Northumberland Street, the others being Star and Garter, Ship, Nag's Head and King's Head. Whellan's trade directory of 1858 states: "There is a Mechanic's Institution in Northumberland Street, Mr John Robert Forster sec and a news room in the same street which is well supplied with London and local papers, Mr John Dent sec."  It was thought the fire that destroyed the Mechanic's Institute had been started deliberately. During the 1870 and 1880s a great deal of property had been damaged in mysterious fires. It was found hose pipes had been cut and large rewards were offered for information leading to the capture of the culprits.

Sir MW Ridley used the occasion to give a speech to the persons assembled to witness the laying of the foundation stone about the current state of commercial development in Blyth. Ridley was the new baronet. His father, Lord Ridley, had died in 1878 and Sir Matthew White Ridley was still becoming acquainted with his business interests.

Speech by Sir MW Ridley MH 1st Jan 1881

Despite the fact that Blyth was a productive coal mining town not much of the coal was being shipped through the port. The coal was being taken South by rail  to be shipped on the Tyne. The North Eastern Railway Company had not been persuaded to build a quay and put a railway through to the port of Blyth.

Although there had been considerable investment by the Blyth Harbour Company Ltd in improving the harbour it was not enough. Engineers had advised that a considerable extension of the pier and dredging of the channel to a depth of at least 15 feet was needed to cope with the types and size of ships now being used to transport coal and other goods. This advice had been met with procrastination. Now, these improvements needed to be made with some urgency if Blyth was to not lose out permanently once the depression in the coal trade came to an end. It was recommended that a harbour commission be formed to manage the port. This would be able to access public funds as development capital which a private company could not. This eventually happened in 1882 and the port began to develop in stages and by the 1960s was the busiest in England.

In 1911 the committee of the Mechanic's Institute were complaining the building was being used more for recreation, eg snooker, than for educational advancement.

In 1930 the mechanic's institute became a public library and the Official Development Handbook for Blyth of that year states:

"An up-to-date public library has recently been provided in Bridge Street. The library which comprises a lending dept, magazine room, juvenile reading room, reference room is well equipped in all its departments."

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