Seaham vs Sunderland

Or: exactly where did all the pretty seaglass come from?

A man bends over searching the beach for seaglass — Seaham Hall Beach, County Durham, England

The unassuming little seaside town of Seaham, located on England's Durham Heritage Coast, has become famous for the beautiful multicoloured seaglass found on its beaches.

These highly-prized 'multis' are as renowned in seaglass communities as the stunning 'mushrooms', 'onions' and starburst canes found at Davenport beach in California, or the 'sea coins' of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands — these thick, flat, sea-frosty discs of seaglass are gaining traction thanks to Captain Ky and his dog LC (find them on Facebook @SunsOutTonguesOut).

Controversy!

There is some disagreement as to the true source of Seaham's multis. The town was famous for its Londonderry bottleworks, the country's largest at the time it closed in 1921. Meanwhile, a few miles further up the coast was the Hartley Wood factory, which produced coloured glass sheets (used for stained glass windows) between 1836-1889.

So: back in the 1800s, bottles tended to be made with black, brown, green and, to a lesser degree, blue glass. Stained glass came in lots of fancy colours like red, yellow, orange, pink, and so on. Make of that what you will with regards to the kind of seaglass found on Seaham's beaches, especially its famous multis.

PROOF! ... or is it?

Colourful rainbow swirl glass vase, made by Hartley Wood — Antique Hartley Wood vase

This is an old vase I found on eBay a few years ago, made at the Hartley Wood stained glass factory in Sunderland. I'm not sure how old it is, but it bears all the hallmarks of having been made by a glassmaker at HW who was "having a go" (as they did) — a rough pontil, bubbles in the glass, and an uneven lip. This, to me, is incontrovertible evidence as to where Seaham's multis come from.