8 Ways to Improve Prior’s Haven

12th Feb 2025

Forgotten or taken for granted by many, here’s how this little gem of a cove could really shine as it should:

Build a landing jetty onto the Pier and operate boat tours up and down the bays in the summer.
Illuminate the Castle and Priory, like Whitby Abbey does. It makes the place a more famous landmark and a source of local pride. The Priory was lit up in the 80s but as with many things in the borough, pessimism and costcutting set in.
Reopen the Pier lookout deck, with stairs going safely down to the Pebble Beach. Put a telescope on it.
Put telescopes on the Spanish Battery. You get the finest views from there, down the coast, out to sea and up the river and beyond.
Transform the Pier Keeper’s House. It’s owned by the Duke of Northumberland, but what should be a lovely and unique cottage has become an embarrassing wreck. The Council should exercise their powers over it if they have to, as it is a disgrace. If Cliff’s Bakery on Linskill Terrace can be transformed into a home and a business, Pier Cottage can be.
Reopen the Castle Banks. They were open at the bottom until the 2000s. It makes no sense to have them fenced off, and as public land it’s a massive right of way issue. At the end of the day, children should be able to play down there without a barrier to the beach. Anyone who grew up in Tynemouth hates the fact English Heritage did that. A first step would be opening it for periods, as there is a locked gate within the fence.
Do something with the Sea Scouts hut. It’s a resource in a key place and should be a local amenity and enterprise.
The Howlings needs managing. In the last twenty years it’s become very overgrown. You can spin it as some kind of wildlife corridor but actually the scrub just prevents people enjoying what could be an idyllic little valley.

What say you?

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Penbal 1 – Lee Stoneman

No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.