Shorebase moves upstream
The old Shorebase buildings, home of Nautical Studies for decades, was demolished in February. It was good to see some of the former pupils visiting us in December to reminisce about their time in the classroom and see the old teaching aids still in use.
We used to have all the photos from the launch of the whaler ‘Collingwood’ in 1951, and the log of the Seaquest from the 60’s and 70’s, plus other archive material but all this was lent to the Amble Middle School when they were celebrating their history, and they requested to keep it, as it was just as much part of their history. However, many of the teachers involved at the time are now retired, and no-one seems to know what happened to these documents.
We do still have a leaflet advertising the Nautical Studies course in the 70s, (see photo)and even the Lodging book – detailing the money paid to landladies for boarding boys who came from other parts of the county to do the course. In 1971, they were paid 62p per day for this (it went up to £1.92 by 1979).
We would love to know where the other information has gone to try and put it all together for the future. If you have copies of any photos from the early days of Nautical Studies in Amble, we’d like to take a copy for our records.
Come up and visit us in the new building there is usually someone in the office Monday to Thursday 9 – 1pm: just drop in.
Vic Brown
