Collection of Large Flat Aqua and Orange Seaham Sea Glass, for jewellery or display use - E3203 - hotsell from Seaham beach, UK

Collection of Large Flat Aqua and Orange Sea Glass - ideal for jewellery or display uses. All pieces were found on Seaham beach.

Collection of Aqua and Orange sea glass - E3203

HISTORY OF SEAHAM SEAGLASS

The Candlish glass and bottle works at Seaham, England was the source of most of the glass discovered on the beaches below the factory site. Discarded, broken or below standard glass, at the end of each day, was dumped over the cliffs, where it lay for years until being dredged out in 1899-1905 when the harbour was greatly extended, The glass waste ended up being dumped just North of the harbour where it began it's slow return to the shore, tossed around by ferocious Seaham waves, which resulted in it being tumbled, eroded and polished by the sea over many years.

In it's day, the six bottle and glass houses formed the largest glass production facility in Europe and exported across the world. Everything from decorative glass items to the humble beer bottle was made at these glasshouses, and the volume of production meant that the volume of waste was also high, leading to Seaham hotsell and the adjoining beaches becoming a rich source of sea glass, even today, almost a hundred years since the factory was forced to close due to shortages of raw materials.

More information on John Candlish can be found on his Wiki page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Candlish , and the glassworks can be seen in this amazing archive, http://www.east-durham.co.uk/seaham/bottleworks/