Old blyth pier

[batt22]

one of my most vivid memories fishing down the river was a young kid pulling in this bloody great big conger eel out from the river opposite the dun cow pub, same day i caught a great big lobster from the ferry steps i remember some good size specimens of all types being caught from the river and the king rag worm down on the rocks at low tide ahh i can smell it still anybody remember the polish fishing trawlers that used to come to Blyth, new years eve all the ships hooting at midnight wonderful memories apart from newlands school hated it worst years of my life lol

[canman]

Great memories it was my playground too spent many a great day up on the staiths, i feel quite sad looking at the old photos was a great time growing up around Blyth if only you could turn back the clock eh ! i can still picture the old hand-line, bait from harpers fish shop catching poddlers by the score some of the older guys trying to cast over to cambois from the dun cow pub
and the sand dunes were massive i could go on and on

Used to go out with the daughter of the landlord of the Dun Cow when I was at school.

[canman]

Does anyone else remember the big fishing boat that was up on wooden blocks, outside the Chandlers shop on the old road into the docks? It was there for years; I think there was a painting of that scene up on a gable end wall next to Wilkinson's; don't know if it's still up there.
There used to be a public toilet on the right hand side on that old road into the docks too; someone nicked my bike from there one day.

Anyone remember the two Lifebelt boxes that used to be on the straight section of the pier before the bend? We knew them as the 1st box and the 2nd box. Both good marks at high tide in a big sea. My dad lost a monster just past the 1st box one night. Trying to hand ball it up, it snapped his line and I can still remember the "Spla-doosh" as it dropped back into the water. He clashed his rod down on the pier and broke three of the rings so we had to go home. Happy days..............well that one wasn't!

Do you mean the one at the top of the ramp at Campbel's boat yard, with the entrance from Wensleydale tce with wright's timber yard on both sides of the road which had a railway line connecting the two yards and the toilets on the right. It was called, the "Gee-Bee" a fast boat, painted white. Did see it out a couple of times, looked great ctting through the water at full throttle.

[canman]

one of my most vivid memories fishing down the river was a young kid pulling in this bloody great big conger eel out from the river opposite the dun cow pub, same day i caught a great big lobster from the ferry steps i remember some good size specimens of all types being caught from the river and the king rag worm down on the rocks at low tide ahh i can smell it still anybody remember the polish fishing trawlers that used to come to Blyth, new years eve all the ships hooting at midnight wonderful memories apart from newlands school hated it worst years of my life lol

Can remember when the Polish and Dutch trawlers coming into the docks. From where I lived, you could smell the tobacco smoke with a light easterly wind. Used to go down the dock with a bag and buy, (with neighbours money), cartons of, Pal Mal, Phillip Morris, Chesterfield. 2/6D for 20. The Dutch sold baccy, (shagtobac), 3/- a pouch. They hung around for about six week chasing the herring.

[ChrisH]

All this talk of Blyth pier has got me interested in it's history. I have spent most of today trawling the internet searching for anything I could find about it's history. There is surprisingly little to be found. I did find a site which listed chronologically the history and development of Blyth Harbour and Blyth Harbour Commission.

Chronology:

* 1689 Quay established on the north side of the River Blyth, c.1689.
* 1723 First facility appears on the south side of the River Blyth with the construction of a coaling quay.
* 1727 Ballast quay built.
* 1728 800 yards (c.730 metres) of quay built.
* 1729 Pilot's Watch house built.
* 1730 Lighthouse and quay extension built.
* 1882 Blyth Harbour Commission established by Act of Parliament.
Entities Involved:
Blyth Harbour Commission: Established.
* 1884 By 1884 the NER had constructed 1,100 feet (c.335 metres) of staiths at Low Quay, a new dredger had been bought, the entrance channel was improved and a ridge of rock in mid harbour was removed.
Entities Involved:
North Eastern Railway (NER): Commissioned work.
* 1885 New west breakwater completed, 2470 feet (c.753 metres) in length.
* 1886 East breakwater extended by 1000 feet (c.305 metres) using mass concrete.
* 1887 A new channel with a depth of 3 metres at low water, was dredged about 65 metres to the west of the old channel, thus clearing a reef of rocks on the line of the old channel which extended for 1,500 feet (c.457 metres) outside the pier head.
* 1888 Two additional coal staiths constructed by the NER on the south side of the harbour.
Entities Involved:
North Eastern Railway (NER): Commissioned work.
* 1896 With new collieries being sunk to the north of the river, four additional coal staiths were erected by the NER on the north side.
Entities Involved:
North Eastern Railway (NER): Commissioned work.
* 1898 Entrance channel widened and deepened.
* 1899 New South Harbour with some 23 acres of deep water opened.
* 1913 New harbour offices opened.
Entities Involved:
River Wear Commission:
* 1928 New West Staiths opened.
Entities Involved:
Blyth Harbour Commission: Commissioned work.
North Eastern Railway (NER): Commissioned work.
* 1934 Two more south-side staiths opened.
* 1964 South Staiths closed and replaced by a general cargo quay.
* 1967 Cowpen North Staith closed.
* 1972 North Staith area developed as a bauxite handling facility with a deep water berth capable of accommodating 22,500 ton, 32 feet (c.10 metre) draft vessels.

In everything I read, I found no mention of a "Middle Pier".
I know that in the early 1700's a crude stone breakwater was errected on the East (Cambois) side of the river; this was when they were starting to develop the port.
In 1730 a lighthouse was built; this is the one behind Bath Terrace and was known as "The High Light"; it worked in conjunction with "The Low Light" which was a smaller and lower structure seen in one of Alan's attached photos. Ships would line themselves up while out at sea so that they could see one light directly above the other and this gave them a straight and safe run into the harbour.
In 1884, a large ridge of rock was removed from mid-harbour. It doesn't say how it was removed or where it was removed to. I wonder if this was broken up and now forms the Peeping Toms Rocks???
1885 the West Breakwater (Blyth Pier) was completed and in 1886 the East Breakwater (Cambois Pier) was extended using concrete and the lighthouse was errected on the end.
I can't find any mention of any other piers. So I enlarged the image in Alan's attachement up to 400%. It is quite blurred but the dark spot which appears to be at the end of a structure in the middle of the harbour is actually the very top of a pole in the foreground alongside the railway carts on the track, probably a light or something. The thing that seems to be a structure in the middle of the river in my opinion is probably the jib of the steam crane mentioned in the text below the photo.
If you look on Google Earth in close up you will see that the stone jetty runs almost exactly parallel to Cambois pier and in a direct line with the end of Blyth pier. The possible structure in Alan's photo seems to be running at about 45 degrees to the stone jetty and out towards the entrance to the harbour; I can't think of any reason for a pier to be there or for it to run in that direction. It's a strange one but I'm fairly certain that it's something other than another pier; and I don't suppose there is anyone left alive that could comment on it.

[ChrisH]

canman; you've got it. Yeah; Campbell's Boat Yard, that's it.
My dad used to work in Wright's Timber yard when he was a young'un.

If I had a quid for every time I've cycled from Cowpen and along past Campbell's on my way to the pier; I wouldn't need to work now.

[Kev1n]

I remember fishing from the end of the pier in the early 1980’s even though it closed off. You had to climb over the railings along the edge of pier then hold onto the vertical railings that formed the gate. Then you could swing out over the water and get round the spikes. The railings had been greased to deter people like me. Once past the gate there was a gap in the rotten timbers to the end of the pier, someone bridged it with a thin plank and strung a length of loose wire across as hand rail. I was one of about twenty lads spinning for mackerel right off the end of the pier when the shout went up that the harbour master was on his way. Some people hid behind what I think was a yellow crane, the others all headed to walk the plank, more of a run really. With a gang of lads all bouncing across the thin plank of wood then swinging round the spikes and out over the open water it was more exciting than the fishing.
Later in the season, the crane was used to drive piles into the seabed as part of the repair work. Every time the hammering started the fishing went dead, and when they stopped the mackeral showed up again.

[Henry Wood]

All this talk of Blyth pier has got me interested in it's history. I have spent most of today trawling the internet searching for anything I could find about it's history. There is surprisingly little to be found. I did find a site which listed chronologically the history and development of Blyth Harbour and Blyth Harbour Commission.

In everything I read, I found no mention of a "Middle Pier".

Hi, sorry I'm a year late coming to this thread. I was actually looking up "The Willick" pub at Cambois and came across NESA. Not sure if you found any further information on the "middle" pier, ChrisH, but I have a little here. According to the book "The People's History - Blyth Then And Now" (pub. 1999, ISBN 1 902527 44 5) there was a middle pier. Of course, when it was constructed it would not be a "middle" pier as the wooden Blyth pier was not then built. There is a photo in the book of the pier in question and here is the description:

"The Harbour entrance, circa 1890. On the left can be seen the construction work for the pier known as the Blyth Wooden pier. The pier in the centre is the Inner West or Harbour Master's Pier. This was shortened after Blyth pier was constructed but its former end can still be distinguished by a marker with a red light in the harbour entrance."

Hope that helps.

[ChrisH]

Thanks Henry; that's interesting. If you zoom in on the Google Earth photo of Blyth harbour entrance, you can see, under water, the remains of something extending out from the small stone jetty to the red light on the post. I had wandered what it was. This is obviously the remains of that original west pier.
It's strange there was nothing mentioned about it's construction in the material I read about the development of Blyth harbour.
Thanks for researching that and posting it. Is there any chance of getting the photo you mention up on here for us to see?

[canman]

There is one person who could shed a light on some of the things in this thread. he was a pal of mine as a kid, he works at the royal quay's marina, drives the mobile boat lift etc: called David Lowrey. He worked at Campbel's boat yard from leaving school.

[Henry Wood]

Hi ChrisH,

I've made a couple of scans of the book page but they won't upload using the forum answer/upload attachments system, I think the scanned size may be too big. Do you want them sending to an external email address and maybe you could sort out how to upload them to the forum?

Henry

[Henry Wood]

I've shrunk one of the pics to fit the posting limits but I'm afraid a lot of the detail is lost. (The original .jpg is 283 KB, this one is only 68.4 KB) I'm sure I'm doing something wrong posting but I've never done much uploading of pics.

[Henry Wood]

I've labelled the details on this copy of the pic. If anyone wants a full size scan of the photo let me know.

[g.ordon]

Good info mate, cheers for that

[ChrisH]

That's an excellent find Henry. That puts an end to the discussion on whether or not there was ever a middle pier.
I've seen lots of old photos of the piers and the harbour entrance but I've never seen that one before. Is there any indication as to when it was built or how long it stood for?
Thanks again for your post.