Craster, A Brief History

By Crasterfarian

Most people slow down the first time they visit Craster. As they crest the brow of the hill into the village, the view takes hold — the harbour appears, tucked into a natural fissure in the Great Whin Sill. It’s a breathtaking sight, no matter the weather.

In storms, Craster comes alive. Huge waves crash against the seaward piers, sending white spray high into the sky — raw and dramatic. Then come the calm days, when the sea is flat, the skies are blue, and the fishing boats sit still in the harbour. On days like that, it’s as picturesque as anywhere in the country.

As you dip down the road into the harbour and climb the other side, turn back and look north. The view stretches along the coast to where the Whin Sill ends at Dunstanburgh Castle — a panorama that easily ranks among the finest in Britain.

Surprisingly, Craster village and its harbour aren’t all that old.

The original settlement sat just below the archway you pass through on the road from Craster Tower. That road once had twelve houses on each side — home to the early villagers, who walked to the inlet where their boats were drawn up on the shore, ready to head out fishing.

Long before the piers were built, the early fisher folk moved down to the inlet and these initial dwellings along the north side of the inlet were called Craster Seahouses.

There is evidence of eight fishermen living here in 1625. The walled gardens that you can still see on the northern side of the walk along to the Castle are what remain of these early Crasterfarian properties.

Fishing has always been a huge part of the village, and the vast shoals of herring saw boom times. Hundreds of herring girls followed the shoals of fish down the coast from Scotland to Norfolk and helped pack salted herring into barrels for sale all over the country and wider world. Herring also provided the basis for the villages kipper industry. There were up to four smokehouses at one time, but now only one remains: the world famous Robson’s and Sons.

It is still ran by the great grandson of James Robson, making Neil Robson a fourth-generation kipper guru. They are still cured and smoked in the traditional way. No dye is added, it is a truly natural preservation process providing a unique flavour. They are simply the best kippers and smoked salmon in the world and a far cry from the pre-packed brightly coloured nonsense you see on sale in supermarkets.

Between the wars there where so many herring boats fishing from the village that it was possible to cross the harbour without getting one’s feet wet. There were up to 25 vessels fishing at that time from the village. They were all cobles, the traditional northeast coastal vessel whose blueprint was said to be based on the Viking longships. Easy to launch from the shore with a shallow draught, it made them the ideal vessel for inshore waters.

If you head along the path to the North Pier, past the World War II tank block with its war commemoration, and look to the left, you will see the remains of what looks like a barbecue. This was used for ‘barking the pots’. It was basically a metal dish over a fire and a thick black tar-like substance called cutch was melted then applied to the fishermen’s gear before it was put in the sea. This helped to preserve their gear in the days before synthetic ropes. This tar hearth is the only one left standing from the dozens that used to populate the harbour area.

The oldest property still standing in the village is the Summer House. It stands right above the South Pier and has been modernised several times. It is pictured here as the single story two room building on the left of the larger building, which was at that time a smokehouse. It was built in 1769 as a bathing house for the Craster family, allowing them to come down and enjoy the natural cove created by a northward pointing whin outcrop which is now hidden beneath the South Pier.

After a period as the village public toilet, it was purchased in the early 1980’s for the grand sum of £10,000 and turned back into a family dwelling. I can still remember the conversations in the Jolly about the sale and the consensus was ‘Whee wants to pay ten grand for the auld nettys?’ My guess is that now, the much-modernised property would be well into 7 figures having one of the best views in Northumberland.

It is seen here to the very left of this photo. The larger building joining it to the right was once a smokehouse, and a pub in a recent episode of Vera.

Rent Receipt

My mother, her parents, and three sisters lived in that house in 1946. Mam said there was no electricity, so it was lit by oil lamps and candles. There was no indoor toilet, the netty was a wooden structure on the side of the house (eastern gable end) it was a “dry closet” and it was emptied by Alnwick District Council. That’s what the 2 shillings on the receipt was to pay for

The left-hand pic shows the outside netty at the time, the family dog Rex and pet rabbit next to the lean-to outside netty. There was no hot water, no heating and cooking was on a big black range with a boiler to heat water on the side. There was only one bedroom with a small fireplace. It’s incredible now to think of my Nana, Granda, Mam and three sisters lived in there, Aunty Christine being born in there Dec 2nd 1946. They had to go to their Granny’s council house at 5 Heugh Crescent, now Heugh Road, for a bath once a week.

The harbour itself is the heart of the village. It is the hub around which the growth of Craster has taken place. Although a place of relative tranquillity now, the harbour hides a very busy past. The piers were not constructed at the same time; the North Pier was built first in 1906 and has a plaque commemorating Captain J.C.P. Craster, who was killed in the British expedition to Tibet on June 28th, 1904. The plaque is located about halfway along the Pier and the construction was dedicated to his memory.

The South Pier wasn’t started until the end of 1907 and took much longer to complete due to issues with piling the seabed, it being finally finished in 1909.

The idea behind the piers was not for fishing, it was a commercial enterprise based around the quarrying and export of whinstone for road construction. It is this Craster whinstone that was used to pave many of London’s streets, making the village nationally famous for its two exports.

This picture shows my own Great Grandfather, George Butters, cutting whinstone setts in Craster Quarry in the mid 1920s. It’s provides a great sense of family pride to think that many thousands of these these setts, along with thousands of tons of Craster road stone, helped to pave London.

Transporting the Stone

You will see that the South Pier protrudes a little further east than the North Pier, allowing large ships to berth. In around 1915 permission was granted for the construction of large metal bins on the end of the South Pier, the only part of these now remaining is the ‘cover’ that protects some of the hardier rod fishermen in the winter seas.

Connecting these bins to the quarry was an aerial ropeway that carried the stone above the heads of the Crasterfarians and fishing boats, depositing it in the receptacles at the pier end. Large ships would then come in on a high tide to be filled from chutes. The remains of the engine houses for the aerial ropeway can be seen in the public carpark on the way into the village.

The bins were removed from the end of the pier as Britain headed into the dark days of World War II. Old stories of them being a landmark for German bombers may have been dispelled with more recent investigations suggesting that they were removed as their metallic construction interfered with the Chain Home radar system that was situated on the North Hills along towards Dunstanburgh Castle. The remains of the buildings and the later POW camp that held Italian prisoners can still be seen as you walk to the north.

The fishing fleet is now very much reduced, and the harbour is now owned by the fishermen themselves. It’s predominantly fished by the Hogg family whose boats land shellfish and take fishing charters out.

There are no cobles in the harbour now. The last one was owned by Eddie Gray, who moored his boat at Beadnell so he could fish the beach for salmon and sea trout.

Craster also has a RNLI D Class lifeboat situated just over the road from the slipway. It’s crewed by the brave volunteers who are all villagers. The annual lifeboat day is on the 9 th of August this year and is well worth a visit as it’s a fantastic cause.

Please visit Craster, enjoy a pint in the pub after a walk to Dunstanburgh. Or pop into the smokehouse and pick up some of the fantastic smoked fish that have made the village famous. But don’t forget to tip a nod to the history of this beautiful place. Everything around you is here for a reason.

With Love from the Crasterfarian xx