Peter Falconer

Seaton Snook was a small town on the coast of County Durham, on the north bank of the River Tees. To its north and west, the village of Seaton Carew, with the towns of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool beyond; across the river to its south, the village of Greatham.

 

It was a thriving community of fishermen, blacksmiths, teachers, seacoalers, labourers, and musicians. There was a church, a school, a fairground, an indoor market, a zinc refinery, an RAF station… then in 1968, it disappeared. There are no government records or newspaper reports referring to the town after that year, and apparently no former residents still living. 

 

Having grown up in Seaton Carew, I had spent many hours playing on the sand dunes of Seaton Snook, with no knowledge of the town that had once stood there. And yet I always felt I could hear the voices of a not-so-distant past, barely shimmering up from beneath the inescapable washing of the waves. For my PhD, I have built an archive of sounds and music from the area, its residents, and its workers, to try and form a picture of the town and what happened there.