My late mother used to tell a tale which was handed down to her by her mother, about the Treasure of Seaton Beach. Being a lover of folk tales, but also a natural sceptic I always took it to be a romance of her imagination. Recently I decided to find out if there was any truth in the matter and to my pleasant surprise I found proof - a - plenty of the event.
It happened in the year 1867. The stretch of coast at Hartlepool between Newburn and Seaton Carew has always been a hazard to shipping. In the days of sailing ships the beach was often littered with the wreckage of ships which had fallen victim to the high winds and treacherous tide, usually being driven onto the notorious Longscar Rocks.
From the land this area can be recognised as you travel by road from Hartlepool to Seaton Carew along Coronation Drive. Just near the bend of the road approaching Seaton there is a car park set in the grassy area on the sea front. This is the base of what was once the swimming bathes. The area of sea opposite this was often marked on sea charts as “Wreck Hole” because of the number of vessels which had met their doom there.
At the time of which I write, the sea defenses were not nearly as developed as they now are, and when one Saturday night in March 1867 a severe storm pounded the coast it washed most of the sand off the beach towards the mouth of the river Tees to the south, leaving the clay and rocks uncovered near Wreck Hole.
In the half light of Sunday morning, two men, cold and miserable, trudged along the beach, en rout to Middlesbrough to seek a days work. Even in those days it was not always easy to find employment.
On reaching Wreck Hole the ground seemed to be covered in sea coal and as a person often does when feeling a little down, one of the men was kicking at bits of this sea coal and having a good old grumble to himself as he walked. He picked a piece up intending to throw it towards the sea, it didn’t feel much like sea coal so, after wiping it on his coat sleeve he had a good look at it. His eyes widened and his heart seemed to jump into his mouth at what he saw - a gold coin!
“Hey look what I’ve found” he shouted to his friend. Both men examined it in detail, then decided to look to see if there was anything else of value about - some hope!
Can you imagine the excitement and delight as they found the beach to be littered with Spanish doubloons and dollars?
Naturally all thoughts of Middlesbrough and work completely disappeared from their minds as the two friends stuffed their pockets with coins, the problem now was what to carry the coins in. There was only one thing to do, they took off their overcoats and improvised bags from them. When the “Bags” were full with as many coins they could cram into them, the men set off for home, struggling under the weight of their unexpected windfall.
On reaching home all the members of both men’s families were immediately mobilised, and with every container they could lay hands to they set off at a gallop to the treasure beach.
Newspapers lay about the floor where they had been dropped; teacups were left half full on the table; a razor was stuck into a mug of shaving foam where the half shaved Grandfather had left it in his haste; a bowl containing half peeled potatoes stood on the kitchen table and a pile of sea coal lay in a heap in front of the fire where it had been tipped out when the scuttle had been commandeered to carry more precious things!
With buckets, bags, sacks and a chamber pot they rushed towards the beach, Mother pushing the pram at breakneck speed whilst the red faced baby screamed and hung on to the hood, which had fallen forward, for it’s very life!
By the time they reached Wreck Hole they found that they were not the only ones to have discovered the gold. People were running about excitedly, picking coins off the beach and putting them into every type of container they could find. One little girl had a tin money box with a coin slot in it into which she was ceremoniously putting anything which looked the right shape!
There were only a few people at first, but the numbers quickly grew until the beach was teeming with them. The gold rush was well and truly on! The crowd raked about looking for the now scarce treasure until the tide returned to cover the site, and even then many people waded in to the water to try to find the last of the bounty. It finally got too deep even for those intrepid prospectors and the hunt was abandoned for the time being.
It was night time before the tide was low enough to allow further searching and the beach was illuminated with fires made from drift wood as the crowd which had been waiting all day continued their hopeful search, but the pickings were lean and by the next day things had calmed down and the crowd began to drift away.
Local traders soon got into the act and signs such as “SPANISH DOLLARS CHANGED HERE” were displayed in the local shops for weeks afterward.
About a month after the “Gold Rush”, a young lady was paddling in the sea near the site, when she stumbled on something about the size and shape of a brick. This was a lucky trip because the “brick” turned out to be a gold ingot!
There are various theories as to where the treasure came from, it was obviously some ship which had fallen victim to the Longscar Rocks, but which ship and when is not known, having found my Mother's story to be true I will not try to guess as to it's origin, but will do what the good people of Hartlepool did back in 1867, and just accept things as they are. So this story will stick to the facts as known.
I don’t know if such laws as “Treasure Trove”, whereby anything of value washed up on the beaches of Britain belong to the Crown, applied in those days, but I do know that if my ancestors got any of the spoils, I am still waiting for my share!
