66 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1899 



SEATON DELAVAL AND SAINT MARY's ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE, — 



By Benjamin Morton, Sunderland. 



The district selected for the Club's excursion was one of 

 very different scenery and surroundings to those in which 

 it has been accustomed to meet, and although the landscape 

 may fall short in beauty and variety to many scenes we 

 have explored, yet it is of equal interest, and the deeds 

 enacted here go as far back in English history as those 

 which have occurred in the castles, towers, and localities, 

 the field of the Club's previous visits. 



Situated in the south-east corner of Northumberland, sur- 

 rounded on the one side by collieries, and lying midway 

 between the important ports of the Tyne and Blyth, the 

 district is compensated, for its tame outline, by mineral 

 wealth, which contributes so largely to the commercial 

 prosperity of England. 



Hamon de Laval, of the province of Maine,* one of the 

 companions of the Conqueror who distinguished themselves 

 in the subjugation of England, commenced the building of 

 a castle at Seaton Delaval for his own protection and for 

 that of the lands which had been granted to him in reward 

 for his services. 



The site of the ancient castle was a little to the south- 

 west of the present structure, but its walls have been 

 entirely razed, its ditches levelled, and nothing is left of the 

 first abode of the family except the chapel. This venerable 

 building is a pure and perfect specimen of Norman archi- 

 tecture, and seems, except in its roof, to have undergone 

 very few alterations.! Above the west door, within and 

 without, are six shields, charged with the armsj of the 



* c/. Planche, The Conqueror and his Companions. 



t For an architectural description of the chapel see Notes on the 

 Chapel of Our Lady, Seafon Delaval, by W. S. Hicks — Arch, ^l., Vol. 

 XII., p. 229 ; and for a description of the monuments, as they appeared 

 about 1840, see Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places (ed. 1842) Second 

 Series, p. 373. 



X These shields armorial are critically examined by Mr S. S. Carr 

 in the Proceedings of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, Vol. ix., 

 p. 179. 



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