Summer Walk No8, TVLB Watch House Museum - Tuesday 2nd August 2022.
On Tuesday 2nd August, Walk No8 on the Camera Club summer programme was slightly different to our usual format
with an out of hours visit to the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade Watch House Museum. Members met in the Priors
Haven car park and walked up onto the area known as Spanish Battery. This headland was the site of a 16th century
fort, where Spanish mercenaries manned the cannons to protect Henry VIII's fleet of warships as they assembled in
the Tyne.
Looking out to sea from this prominent position, the TVLB Headquarters and Museum houses a fascinating collection
of artefacts that recreate the dramatic history of the organisation and their involvement in heroic coastal rescues over
the last 158 years. On arrival at the Watch House, we were invited into the main room and warmly welcomed by two
TVLB volunteers who proceeded to give us a whistle-stop history of the brigade from its humble beginnings in 1864
to the declared facility rescue service that it is today. This was an informative and absorbing insight given in an
enthusiastic and humorous manner by two excellent hosts.
Members were then free to explore the quirky but sympathetically restored building that contains a treasure trove of
objects. Early examples of photography, beautiful old paintings, documents, charts and drawings cover every wall. No
space is wasted with breeches boys, lamps, ropes and ships bells among the many items hanging from the ceilings.
Every room brought something different or unexpected, model ships, rocket firing life saving equipment, ships wheels,
carved wooden figureheads, telescopes and a working searchlight amongst the hundreds of things on display.
Climbing the north and south towers of the Watch House gave stunning views of the mouth of Tyne, the north & south
piers, the view across to South Shields, upriver to the fish quay and of the huge Admiral Lord Collingwood statue to the
rear of the museum. To conclude the evening members walked around the headland to photograph this grade II listed
monument, flanked by cannons from HMS Royal Sovereign, Collingwood's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar.
Davy.
with an out of hours visit to the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade Watch House Museum. Members met in the Priors
Haven car park and walked up onto the area known as Spanish Battery. This headland was the site of a 16th century
fort, where Spanish mercenaries manned the cannons to protect Henry VIII's fleet of warships as they assembled in
the Tyne.
Looking out to sea from this prominent position, the TVLB Headquarters and Museum houses a fascinating collection
of artefacts that recreate the dramatic history of the organisation and their involvement in heroic coastal rescues over
the last 158 years. On arrival at the Watch House, we were invited into the main room and warmly welcomed by two
TVLB volunteers who proceeded to give us a whistle-stop history of the brigade from its humble beginnings in 1864
to the declared facility rescue service that it is today. This was an informative and absorbing insight given in an
enthusiastic and humorous manner by two excellent hosts.
Members were then free to explore the quirky but sympathetically restored building that contains a treasure trove of
objects. Early examples of photography, beautiful old paintings, documents, charts and drawings cover every wall. No
space is wasted with breeches boys, lamps, ropes and ships bells among the many items hanging from the ceilings.
Every room brought something different or unexpected, model ships, rocket firing life saving equipment, ships wheels,
carved wooden figureheads, telescopes and a working searchlight amongst the hundreds of things on display.
Climbing the north and south towers of the Watch House gave stunning views of the mouth of Tyne, the north & south
piers, the view across to South Shields, upriver to the fish quay and of the huge Admiral Lord Collingwood statue to the
rear of the museum. To conclude the evening members walked around the headland to photograph this grade II listed
monument, flanked by cannons from HMS Royal Sovereign, Collingwood's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar.
Davy.