Create Your First Project

Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}

Seaham Townscape:artwork

Project type

Photographs, art work, writing.

Date

1st July 2025

Location

Seaham, Co. Durham, England

Photographs, Art work and writing relating to my knowledge of and feelings about my home town Seaham, Co. Durham.
This is a town in transition from an industrial history dependent primarily on coal mining and shipping into an increasingly popular tourist destination that draws from the past but repurposes and sanitises it for the edification of visitors.
The town is designated as a 'dormitory town' in the Durham County plan and as such, its surrounding countryside and natural places are in danger of obliteration by housing and associated development.
Its pre-industrial history centred around the 7th century St. Mary's Church is also being reshaped by the luxury development associated with Seaham Hall.

Textile and lino print collage 2024. Produced for EDAN exhibition to mark 40th anniversary of the miners' strike. Depicts Church Street, Myrtle MacPherson and the Vane Tempest Women's Vigil Banner, and Rocky a local character who lived in caves and refused to be housed until the very last days of his life.
Private collection

Woolies Facade
Photograph of the the boarded up facade of what was once Woolworths' Store in Church Street. After the demise of Woolworths', the store was used by the Co-op to sell electrical goods. When the Co-op went into decline, eventually closing completely in Seaham, the store was Taken over by Ethel Austin, selling budget clothing. Then it became a second-hand furniture and clothes shop bearing the name of 'Charity's' but beware, this was no charity shop but a private enterprise. Finally, at the time when the photograph was taken, it the store became an axe-throwing venue.
At the time of writing, summer 2025, the store is being refurbished, the broken hoarding has been removed and a new frontage is emerging. This is being achieved under the auspices of the Townscape Project. Perhaps it signifies something of the regeneration process underway in Seaham.

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}