SeaScapes Project in Brief

Our vision was to:

To reveal and better manage the hidden heritage of our unique seascape and create opportunities for learning, access and enjoyment in order to ignite stewardship of this special place for generations to come.

The area of the project included unusually for a landscape partnership an area of sea to the 6 miles off the coast and only a narrow stretch of coastal land as the primary focus area on the map below.

The project had five Strategic aims:

1. Bring our hidden heritage to life using innovative methods and participative approaches, ensuring that we reach beyond our usual audiences.
2. Work with coastal communities, sea users, landowners, managers and other partners to ensure our seascape heritage, whether natural, built or cultural, is better recorded, managed and in better condition.
3. Tell the stories of our dynamic seascape, from geological, industrial, wartime and cultural perspectives, revealing how it has shaped our coastal communities and set the scene for the next exciting chapter.
4. Improve access gateways and opportunities, breaking down barriers and allowing local communities to make full use of the seascape’s coastal and marine assets.
5. Provide opportunities for learning, training and enjoyment, so that the heritage of the area is better appreciated; engendering a stewardship of our unique seascape for generations to come.

To achieve the SeaScapes vision 4 themes were created:

1. SeaScapes over Time – Telling the incredible story of the Tyne to Tees seascape from Zechstein Sea, through ice ages, wars and significant industrial history up to the present day.
2. Revealing Hidden Heritage – Using innovative methods and participative approaches to ensure our heritage is better recorded, in better condition and better understood, engaging beyond our usual audiences.
3. Accessing the Sea – Improving access gateways and opportunities, breaking down barriers and allowing local communities to make full use of the seascape’s coastal and marine assets.
4. Blue Future – Providing opportunities for learning, training and enjoyment so that the heritage of the area is better appreciated; engendering a stewardship of this unique seascape for generations to come.

Funding

The project was funded by the SeaScapes partnership and a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).

The funds from the partners amounted to £2,072,787 including volunteer effort to the value of £676,541 with a NLHF grant of £2,787,200.

The project was a 4-year project and commenced in March 2020 and completed active activities by the end of September 2024 with final project close by 31^st December 2024.

Partners

The partners involved in the project were:

Delivery Partners

1. University of Sunderland, City Campus, Chester Road, Sunderland, SR1 3SD
2. Durham Wildlife Trust Rainton Meadows, Houghton-le-Spring, DH4 6PU
3. Durham University Geography Department, Lower Mountjoy, South Rd, Durham DH1 3LE
4. Hartlepool Borough Council Civic Centre, Victoria Road, Hartlepool, TS24 8AY
5. Living History North East The Donnison School Heritage and Education Centre, Sunderland SR1 2BJ
6. Northumbrian Water Limited Northumbria House, Abbey Rd, Pity Me, Durham DH1 5FJ
7. The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty Heelis, Kemble Drive, Swindon SN2 2NA
8. Seaham Marina CIC Unit 10, The Waterside, Seaham Harbour Marina, Seaham, Co Durham, SR7 7EE
9. South Tyneside Council Town Hall and Civic Offices, Westoe Road, South Shields, NE33 2RL
10. Sunderland City Council Civic Centre, Burdon Rd, Sunderland SR2 7DN
11. University of Newcastle upon Tyne King’s Gate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU

Collaborative Partners

1. East Durham Heritage Group, Seaham Harbour Marina, Seaham, SR7 7EE
2. Environment Agency Tyneside House, Skinnerburn Road, Newcastle Business Park, Newcastle, NE4 7AR
3. Groundwork North East & Cumbria Grosvenor House, 29 Market Place, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7NP
4. Heugh Battery Museum Moor Terrace, Headland, Hartlepool, TS24 OPS
5. Marine Management Organisation Lancaster House, Hampshire Court, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 7YH
6. Natural England Lancaster House, Hampshire Court, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 7YH
7. North East Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority Town Hall, Bridlington YO16 4LP

The Projects

The project consisted of 23 sub projects split into: Heritage, Wildlife, Community and Engagement

Heritage

The Highlight at Hartlepool Marina was restored ready for the Tall Ships Race in July 2023.

The Wave Basin Battery in Sunderland port will be stabilised in the Summer of 2024.

There were projects done by Tees Archaeology in Whitburn and Seaton Carew.

There was also a buildings survey done in Seaton Carew. Reports for these are in the Resources page.

The new Whitburn Community Conservation Centre was built at National Trust Souter Lighthouse.

The Red Acre Steps at Seaham Marina were repaired.

The Marsden Steps at Marsden were are installed.

Along the SeaScapes Tyne to Tees coast there was a number of interpretative signs placed along the coast to illustrate the natural, cultural, or other heritage of the coast.

Wildlife

The two partners leading the wildlife related projects were the National Trust and their restoration of the coastal grasslands and the propagation of plants to be planted along the coast. The Durham Wildlife Trust worked with local volunteers to support the Little Terns colony at Seaton Carew. The protection of these birds over their summer ground nesting period resulted in over 125 fledgling Little Terns being ringed in 2023.  The National Trust was also working on restoring the grassland as a key habitat for the rare Durham Argus butterfly, only found in County Durham, and is even rarer than the scarce Northen Brown Argus. The citizen science recording projects conducted along the coast by the Durham Wildlife Trusts Intertidal Interactive project has resulted in many species and locations being recorded via Wildlife Trusts database.

Collaborative projects with Northumbrian Water Bluespaces project included tree planting and hedgerow restoration at Crimdon dene, new ponds were created at Lime Kiln Gill and bird boxes and habitat piles were created at Hazel Dene, Seaham.

Community

There were a number of community groups who benefitted from the SeaScapes Community grants scheme. These small-scale grants of up to £2000, were awarded to a number of organisations to help their activities along the coast.

In addition, as part of the engagement activities there were a number of community groups, schools and businesses who attended various activities. These were widespread across several of the projects. See the Resources page for more information. In addition, the OASES educational team also worked with schools to create a teachers pack for the Sound Mirror project.

Engagement

Throughout the project there was a significant amount of public engagement in the broadest sense. This included the volunteer divers whose photogrammetry work went into both the SeaScapes Coastal app and the SeaScapes Wrecks app and the printed 3D models at Newcastle University. The Durham Wildlife Trust also engaged with members of the public on nature walks and talks. With age ranges from their highly successful Beach Tots for toddler all the way up. The beach cleans which covered many of the coastal beaches and resulted in so much rubbish being removed from the beaches. And the businesses, school groups and public groups which came to clean up their local beaches. The National Trust’s, BlueScapes project conducted activities in, on or near water whether this was paddleboarding, yoga on a beach or a walk these activities were encouraging groups of people to be active around our coasts. The Hartlepool Borough Council also created a walkway and a cycleway expanding the network in the borough. The Newcastle University, FoodScapes project also worked hard to understand our coastal cuisine and encourage people to know more about our food stories. The Sunderland Universities, Sunderland Co-lab activities included making ceramics, dance and other sound related activities along with a 6-month exhibition at The Word in South Shields which illustrated the diverse artistic nature of the creative outputs of SeaScapes activities.

The ReadingtheRocks.com was the culmination of the work by Durham university on the Magnesian Limestone of the coastal cliffs and why they are so special. The website and its 3D tours provides a legacy version of the coastal geology walks conducted during the project.

The King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP) was the focus for many engagement activities from walks, flower plant. The SeaScapes Coastal App which covered the whole Tyne to Tees coastal path and enabled people to understand the nature of their coast, its history, wildlife and culture and a little about the wrecks off the coast.

The Team

The diverse team which was the SeaScapes team has a wide range of expertise. The team was lead by a SeaScapes Delivery Manager based at the lead partner of Durham County Council (DCC). In addition, at DCC there was a Beach Care Officer (paid for by Northumbrian Water), an Access and Volunteer officer and a Finance and Admin Officer. The wider team consisted of an wildlife educational specialist for the Durham Wildlife Trust and outdoor activities specialist from the National Trust’s BlueScapes project, a creative producer from Sunderland University, a historical archaeologist from Newcastle University for the FoodScapes project and two underwater researchers from Newcastle University’s Beneath the Waves wrecks project and the successful SeaScapes wrecks app.

The Board

The Board consisted of a representative from each partner along with two independent representatives one of whom acted as the chairman of the Board.