Designing the harbour is the next part. I know the Seahouses/Lindisfarne/Bamburgh area reasonably well so Seahouses was my first choice. On to Googlemaps (I cheat. Do a house for sale search for Seahouses and then printscreen the map and satellite pictures, save into Publisher then crop and save as a picture!). Seahouses has some nice fish and chips restaurants.
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| Satellite picture of the harbour. |
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| Satellite map - ignore the red dots with the white centre - they're houses for sale! |
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| I have a few photos of the harbour area from my last visit - also useful for boat colours! |
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| One of those information posters you get showing the harbour in the past. |
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| This picture gives an idea of the tide in this area! I spent a lot of time fishing off that wall in the past - pollack and coalfish mainly. |
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| The land side of the harbour. |
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| This is the other side of the inner harbour. A nice view showing how the boats line up. |
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| This one gives an idea of the harbour mouth. |
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| Other possibilities on the Northumbrian coast include Amble... |
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| ...And Craster. Craster is quite famous for it's kippers. Sadly, I don't have any photos of these two. |
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| Lindisfarne or Holy Island is a nearby island connected to the mainland at low tide. Stayed there a few times - one of my wife Sandra's favourite places. The fun part is standing by the end of the causeway as the tide rises and watching people who missed the tide - but still try to cross. Been quite a few cars that didn't make it... |
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| Sometimes bits of car get left behind. This particular one tried to get across, failed, but managed to get most of car back to the island! Yes, we were watching... These days the island is seen a lot on the TV detective series Vera - the titular character lives on the island. In the past, more famous for Viking raids! |
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| Another 'famous' place nearby is Bamburgh which has quite a nice castle! |
Keep thinking the Cornish coast might also be a good place to look. Or Whitby. Should have some pictures of Whitby lying around somewhere... famous as the setting for Dracular of course... Other famous exports include Whitby Jet jewelry. Jet is basically sea coal polished by the sea. Whitby has some nice fish and chips restaurants.
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| And from comments section...quite right, Beadnell added! |
Cornish coast has loads of potential, well worth a look.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Agreed. Final product will have a lot of influences...
DeleteAs Alan suggested Cornish harbours could offer lots to your Lovecraft / Admins inspired Games vibe. Tintagel and Arthur, Boscastle and its very own Witchcraft Museum, Polperro and its Smugglers Museum, Falmouth Bay pirates, castles, tall ships from around the world and Morgawr sea monsters ... even the Spanish Armada (Penzance / Mounts Bay) and the Spanish burning of Mousehole, Paul and Newlyn, well covered in Winston Graham’s Grove Of Eagles historical novel.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, has a lot of potential. Certainly if I wanted a completely isolated community nowhere better! The final product, when it evolves, may have a Cornish look about it. It's an altrnate reality so nothing is ruled out, even geography. My Newhaven world is already part British, part American at the same time!
DeleteCompletely biased, but you didn't include Beadnell where I grew up - the only west facing harbour on the NE coast! Also has C18th lime kilns and IIRC evidence of a medieval harbour near by.
ReplyDeleteNeil
Quite right, Beadnell added.
DeleteNeil's comment reminds us that what are now quaint fishing harbours (and Seahouses) often have a history as small industrial ports. Craster, for example, also retains relics of an industrial past. You see it in Cornwall too - Charlestown, famous these days for its tall ships, was an industrial port. Gives you another dimension of abandonment and decay to build in.
ReplyDeleteSmaller ships, lots of coastal vessels - lots of these were trading ports as well. Something that is forgotten in these days of major container ports. Plus a lot of the 'old' ports have suffered from silting up.
DeleteYour images remind me of the harbours along the east coast of Scotland between Aberdeen and Dundee...which really just goes to show, all small harbours are quite similar, making your task of creating a generic one a bit simpler....you really just need to decide how to deploy your two sea walls and the layout of the inner harbour and where to put a lighthouse!
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much it, take ideas from them all...
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