The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1Finden, W. (William)
History
The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1
Finden, W. (William)
Coasts -- Great Britain -- Pictorial works; Great Britain -- Pictorial works
The chief exports from Newcastle, besides coals, are pig and sheet lead;
anchors, and chain cables, with other articles of wrought iron; bottles,
plate and crown glass; brown and white paper; common leather gloves,
manufactured at Hexham; leather; hams and butter; grindstones, obtained
on Gateshead Fell; fire-bricks; alkalies; soap; and Epsom salts. This
list comprises the principal articles which constitute the cargo of a
Newcastle trading vessel proceeding to London.
[Illustration: BLYTH.]
BLYTH.
The view of Blyth, or more properly of the entrance to the harbour, is
taken from the north side of the river, and looking towards the
south-east. The cottages seen in the foreground are in North Blyth,
which consists only of a few houses, chiefly occupied by fishermen and
pilots. On the opposite side of the river are seen the lighthouse of
stone, and the "basket light" to the left of it, in which lights are
exhibited at night when there is eight feet water on the bar.
Blyth, which is a small seaport town on the coast of Northumberland, and
about thirteen miles north-east of Newcastle, derives its name from the
river Blyth, on the south side of which it is built. The principal trade
of Blyth is in coals, of which more than 120,000 tons are now annually
exported. The earliest notice of Blyth as a harbour occurs in _Bishop
Hatfield's Survey_ in 1346, from which it appears that the Bishop of
Durham claimed fourpence for every ship which anchored there, and that
the sum received for that year was 3_s._ 4_d._ At what time the
coal-trade was first established there is uncertain, but so early as
1610 a complaint appears to have been made to Parliament on account of a
late imposition of a shilling a chalder levied on coals shipped at Blyth
and Sunderland, "not by virtue of any contract or grant, as in the coals
of Newcastle, but under the mere pretext of his majesty's royal
prerogative." In 1624, Blyth is again mentioned in a proclamation, as a
place exporting sea-coals; and in 1643 an order of Parliament prohibits
ships from bringing coals or salt from Newcastle or Blyth, as those
places were then in the hands of the Royalists.
Within the last forty years the trade of Blyth has much increased in
consequence of the opening of new collieries in the neighbourhood. A
commodious dry dock was formed in 1811; and there are several slips for
the building and repairing of ships. A considerable quantity of articles
of cast and malleable iron, manufactured at Bedlington, about three
miles up the river, are shipped at Blyth.
Blyth is a member of the port of Newcastle; and a number of vessels
belonging to persons residing there are registered at the latter port.
Nearly the whole of Blyth is the property of Sir M. Ridley, Bart. At
spring tides there is about fourteen feet water on the bar, and about
twelve at neaps; but at low water the bar is nearly dry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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