A little off the main drag linking Holy Island to the mainland are a pair of curious erections known as Snook House and Snook Tower. Located on the sticky-out bit on the landward side of the island known as, in fact, ‘The Snook’, these isolated buildings are universally ignored by those intent on making the most of their window of sea-less opportunity who strike on regardless along the Causeway to Holy Island village, some 2 miles eastward.
There isn’t a great deal to say about them, as not a lot is known – at least by me. Any input would be most welcome. The first, Snook House, looks for all intents and purposes like any other domestic dwelling – which I’m pretty sure it is. However, it was once a ventilation shaft for Scremerston Colliery some 7 miles NW and very much on the mainland. From Scremerston the coal seam dips down deep below Holy Island and out to sea. The old colliery closed in 1965.
There isn’t a great deal to say about them, as not a lot is known – at least by me. Any input would be most welcome. The first, Snook House, looks for all intents and purposes like any other domestic dwelling – which I’m pretty sure it is. However, it was once a ventilation shaft for Scremerston Colliery some 7 miles NW and very much on the mainland. From Scremerston the coal seam dips down deep below Holy Island and out to sea. The old colliery closed in 1965.
Snook House, Holy Island …(© Copyright Ron Rooney and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence )
… and nearby Snook Tower.(© Copyright Les Hull and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence )
Of Snook Tower, however, little is conveniently known. Build, presumably, in the nineteenth century, its purpose seems to have been nothing more than that of an observation tower or look-out point.
According to the locals; and the lady living in the house; there was no ventilation shaft or mine workings. The tower was built for fishermen... there is a discussion on the fb site NOrthumberland Tales this is the owners own reply on that site: ‘There seems to be 2 schools of thought re the Tower either the head of a mine shaft or not. We have seen no evidence that it has any mining links but it is possible that they may have been covered up when the fisherman started to dry their nets in the tower and house their donkeys. We've asked various older members of the community on the island especially the fishermen and they have no knowledge of a mine. Geological maps do not suggest a coal seam for miles around. I have looked in the archives in Berwick but there is little about the Tower.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anonymous - most interesting. I have since read that... "On the north side of the island lime quarrying took place and two groups of limekilns were built in the 1800s. A bold attempt to find workable deposits of coal for the lime works was accompanied by the building of a windmill, the tower of which can still be seen today at the Snook." This can be found in the 'Lindisfarne Landscape Conservation Action Plan of 2013-14' at http://www.peregrinilindisfarne.org.uk/files/documents/Peregrini-Lindisfarne-LCAP.pdf
DeleteI am a Snook who was married to a lady from Northumberland who always claimed that she had psychic connection with Grace Darling. I cannot remember the year but I insisted that we visit Lindisfarne having noticed on a map that there existed a Snook promontory. We stayed overnight on the island and the next morning drove to the estate. We approached by foot in an unexpected gale. My wife refused to go any further BUT I carried on to the Tower and House to find no evidence of occupation other than the shutting of shutters and no reply to my knocking. I returned to her to find her in a state of shock.Since that visit , my wife died and today is her birthday.
DeleteThis morning, I opened Google to find Grace Darling as the topic!!!!????
This last weekend circumstances beckoned me from Hampshire to stay in Devon - where the "only" memorial to Grace stands!!??
I used to stay in The Snook Cottage for holidays as a child in the 70s. My parents were friends of the owners who, lived abroad at that time. The cottage was split onto two parts and we stayed in the first part visible from the road. In the 70s there was no running water at the property and you had to go along the dunes to pump the water to the cottage. There was not electricity -lights were oil and the cooker was calor gas. There was a large open fire in the sittingroom. The toilet was outside and was a chemical one!! We believed they had ben fishermen's cottages in the past. Some relatives of the owners would not sleep in the building as they felt it was haunted, they had experienced children's voices and cries. Our family only had one experience and this was a vision of a bandaged man in a hospital bed with a drip. The detail of the vision was historic and the child who described it would not have this knowledge had they not seen it. The cottage held extremely happy memories for our family and we only stopped going when the family sold the property due to a bereavement. I believe it is still owned by the subsequent buyers.
ReplyDeleteI was interested to read the previous comment as it was my sister and her husband who owned Snook from the 1970s to the early 1980s. We spent much time at Snook and looked after the house while my sister and her family worked abroad. It was me and my husband who are mentioned in the previous comment who experienced the ghostly incident at Snook - we were awoken early one morning to see three children happily playing at the bottom of the large old bed we were sleeping in ( the bed was in the main living room) . It certainly unsettled us and from then on we slept in our tent erected in Snook’s front garden!! It was my sister’s husband and my husband who planted the trees now growing so well as you approach Snook - we also laid a plastic irrigation system to keep the young trees watered. We regularly visit Snook and it’s good to see that Snook is still more or less intact and that many of the trees we planted have survived😊 we had plans to erect a wind mill for electricity and we made good use of the water pumped from the near by well. Where’s the well now? Is it covered over but still utilised? We understood that Snook had some involvement with the local salmon fishing in the late 1800s early 1900s and we heard various rumours about the tower - many similar to those previously mentioned. We always look forward to seeing Snook appear on Vera!! Although it is hard to imagine how she managed to work in Tyneside and live on Holy Island? High tide would have been a big problem for her? We still look forward to seeing Snook - a mixture of mostly happy memories - wish the family hadn’t sold it😕
DeleteAs an addendum- we wondered who the anonymous family were who stayed at Snook in the 1970s - we are intrigued🤔
DeleteMy partners, cousins, wife's parents bought it in the 1990s. Me and my partner and her 2 boys have been staying there over the weekend. Its an incredible place. Water is now drawn from the well electrically when the gas powered generator is running, though this year the well is running low so we use bottles and bottles of tap water brought over from the mainland.
DeleteIts all one building now and me and my partner and her children have been staying in the bedroom above the kitchen. The generators gets put on for a few hours in the evening but aside from that we use candles and the open fires have been replaced by log burning stoves which are amazing and if all 3 are lit and maintained, the building is lovely. The largest room is now a huge dining hall but to save lighting the stove in there we eat in the kitchen.
So far no ghosts but my partners, cousins 2 year old daughter I forever talking about skeletons. My partners 10 year old twin boys are loud enough also to drown out any otherworldly sounds.
I hope we cam stay here again in future as its such a lovely location.
Snook house is used as the location of Vera's home in the TV series.
ReplyDeleteMy father in Law was born at the Snook The Hope family lived on the Island a good long time.
DeleteMy father in law was born at the Snook in 1908 The Hope family lived there for a long time .
ReplyDeleteMy grt grt uncle John Hope lived at the Snook raised a big family there was a fisherman
DeleteI believe my great grandfather JakeFindlater a Salmon fisherman lived at The Snook with his family in the early 1900’s. My grandmother was terrified of water and story goes that when crossing from the mainland they got caught in the tide and had to grab on to the horse who swam to the shore with granny hanging on!
ReplyDeleteThank you all very much for your comments on this strange corner of the North-East. Boy, those stories are so interesting - you could write a book on the place! And I shall be asking my wife about the Vera connection - she's a big fan of the show!!
ReplyDeleteMy parents owned Snook House from about 1959 to 1980. They sold it to some people who lived abroad. They received a higher offer but sold it to the prospective purchasers they liked better, at a lower price. I believe the husband died abroad a short while later. There was no evidence of a ventilation shaft. There was no running water, just the well. We used bottled gas for cooking and had oil lamps. We burned driftwood in the large fireplace in the big room. There was a chemical toilet.The building was in effect two cottages but know a doorway has been knocked through now.
ReplyDelete