Cullercoats

History of Cullercoats and Handyman Cullercoats

Early history Cullercoats was established as a small settlement. The Hodskins were a town 8,000 years ago, and human remains were also found to be over 5,000 years old. The first mention of this settlement in records dates from 1372, but it was not until 1539 that the word “Cullercoats” appeared in this hearing. Cullercoats was characterized by large rock flow during the 1370s, but by the 1530s the area had become prosperous, and by 1557 some people were trying to build a harbor. 1673 saw the first written reference to a packhorse route from Tynemouth to North Shields with Cullercoats at the midpoint. By 1752, the settlement had become famous for boat building, and a decade later for salt panning, while ship and sail making emerged at a later date. This was largely because in 1748, the turnpike route to Whitley improved in engineering, with a new road branching off at the top to beat the coast road to get to Tynemouth through Preston. The village of Cullercoats was almost entirely confined to the seafront between Marden Lane and Coquet or Sandspit.

Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash

Growing village The population of Cullercoats was recorded as an estimated 150 in 1673, 165 in 1700, and 148 in 1801. The 1801 household census shows an estimated population of 766 (664 of them who were not children), with 32 percent of the adult male population counted as mariners in trade. Two important groups of the remainder were 18 percent agricultural laborers and 28 percent engaged in crafts, manufacturing, and retail services including mariners’ wives who in this community at the mouth of the Tyne were full-time fisher-wives. By 1801 Cullercoats was already amazingly close to the population it would have at the turn of the twenty-first century. The first decades of the nineteenth century saw Cullercoats grow back to be the size of a major village. That trend was responsible for a lot of the first part of the century. When all forms of coastal shipping were by sail, and millennia of community experience in the clinker-built boat design of Northumbrian coble was growing by laborious community experience. Cullercoats was leading in the development of the right kind of fishing coble for line fishing.

3. Notable Landmarks and Buildings in Cullercoats

The Watch House is an iconic viewpoint and heritage site in Cullercoats, perched on stilts between the café and the sailing club. The Watch House was constructed in 1879 as a shelter for the boatman; the story of Cullercoats is very much a story of the sea and the work below the cliffs. The current building dates from 1944 and was used for this purpose until 1975. Following a campaign by local volunteers, the council bought it in the 1980s, and it is now open to the public. Made from brick and concrete with a bitumen-coated asbestos-cement roof and on timber piles, a mix of old and new, modern housing developments sit alongside the historic Dove Marine Laboratory and the scattered ruins of the village’s origin. The main shopping area, St. George’s Road, was named after Cullercoats’ 12th-century chapel to St. George that belonged to the Priory at Tynemouth. The building itself is now a guest house and was only discovered under plaster in 2006. The new dive center has been built in a sympathetic style of 19th-century Cullercoats with its distinctive Yorkshire stone cladding. The village pub has always been an intrinsic part of the village and still takes pride of place at the head of the gully; it even lent its name to the walkway. In the days of rowing boats, when access to houses was across the dangerous foreshore, the Black Midden boats pulled into Cullercoats Beach, and the boatmen rowed their passengers into the landing below the gardens and up the stairs to the waiting pub. As the lifeboats moved further down the bay to save lives, the new lifeboat house was built in the 1930s. Today, the building has been lovingly restored, and Cullercoats Community Lifeboat Station is a training center for the RNLI and is maintained by the Friends of Cullercoats Lifeboats.

Photo by Jay Alexander on Unsplash

4. Handyman Traditions in Cullercoats

Cullercoats has a long-standing tradition of handyman practices, which were carried out in two domains: those of the lifeboat and fishing industry, and those of the local community’s many trades and manufacturing practices. The former were goods that men in the village could sell to those who lived there but who worked in the two Great Houses’ grounds — the Hunting Lodge and Preston Grange. In other words, this part of the ecomuseum shows beautiful and practical objects. The practical objects would include tools, and the local trades included coopers, joiners, tailors, and blacksmiths. Down the years, as fishing began to dominate the village, the trades would reflect this, with blacksmiths turning themselves into boat builders. Our handyman traditions certainly originated in the community and flourish now in relation to a wide number of food and drink businesses.

These men would have peddled their wares from door to door at weekends. Who these men were would then be talked about behind those doors and in the politics of the tradesmen and craftsmen. Again, in this way, it was important that one-upmanship was shown, and those nearby became the butt of village tales. Bonny Billy Newton, blind as a bat, would make and repair boots and shoes to support his family while Grace was away from home. In the 1950s, work came into the house once or twice each week, and Maud Hodgson continued her reticulation of brooches until a few months before her death, aged 90 in 1978, charging 5p to make a tiny line of fine silver solder all along the pointed edge of the oval brooch.

5. Role of Handyman in Cullercoats Community

The role of the handyman is irrevocably linked to the wider community. In Cullercoats, one trade or business relies on another, and the handyman fills the spaces in between. Whether to make a repair that would otherwise stop life; to help bring an idea to fruition; to keep craftsmanship skills alive; or to keep open paths of contact between people from the past to the present, the handyman is appreciated for all of these skills and more. While the area of North Shields, traditionally known as the “low town,” is known for its trades and businesses, Cullercoats has fewer. Businesses that focus on repairs, such as the bicycle repair shop and the handyman, offer not only the facility to get an item repaired but are also a network for the community. Indeed, as online community spaces and noticeboards have made roles of previous community gathering places gradually redundant, the interpersonal links and knowledge base within trades and repair businesses, such as the handyman’s shop, could see them having a central role during times of need or crisis, such as in the advent of severe winter weather closing off the road routes in and out of Cullercoats.

Photo by Alina Belogolova on Unsplash

As times change, so does the role of the handyman. The skills that builders and property maintenance workers, such as handymen, have reflect the modern need for work on domestic properties, the choice between using modern and traditional techniques where appropriate. In the past especially, the buy-in of property maintenance workers to the local area and the wider coastline of Tyneside seems to chime with people’s choice to use the handyman’s skills and appreciate them for their varied expertise. The offer of a diverse skill set by handymen is important; our research reveals that a “fire service” would help users of handymen undertake wet work in the house, work that residents feel is sensitive and personal due to the close relationship they have with the handyman. It is also, slightly surprisingly, a role that some residents also expect the handyman to help perform for them. A traditional service offered by the handyman is to help bring to fruition DIY projects. Within the wider toolkit of Neighbourhood Goods and Services, the benefits of DIY skills offered by handyperson services as a neighbor and buddy network are acknowledged. In addition, it is recognized that handymen also have a unique role in offering advice on property improvement and have the shop and vehicle space that the very elderly find useful. A handyman’s vehicle too is useful to let residents without a vehicle give donations to charity. As well as offering DIY life skills to residents, it seems that the handyman has the ability to ease the day-to-day living of Cullercoats in small ways. Some of the services offered by the handyman begin to brush around what the Local Links bus service offers. In part, the wider manifestations of the handyman’s business perhaps reflect the ways in which the area and the role in it are subject to larger forces and changes in the local community as Cullercoats becomes a place using shops for infrequent special purchases and wider home improvement rather than micro-local daily needs.

If you need a handyman in Cullercoats get in touch.

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