The cottage hasn’t always been called Little Auk. When it was built, it was given the name Shoreston and was only renamed Little Auk fairly recently after new owners of the property, on their first night staying at the cottage, discovered one of the migrating birds seeking shelter on a window ledge during a terrible storm. The little auk is a small sea bird similar in size to a starling. It is a winter visitor to the waters around the UK in small numbers each year.
The wall panelling and wooden floors that you see throughout the cottage have an interesting origin. They are from the first class lounge of a ship called the “Berengaria” which in it’s hey-day was the pride of the great Cunard fleet. Originally named “Imperator”, she was launched in May 1912, the same year as the Titanic disaster. At the time, the “Imperator” was the world’s largest ship but after a terrible fire in New York harbour in 1938 she sailed no more and her parts were sold for scrap.
The historic industrial background of Beadnell has it’s roots in coal, lime – and smuggling! In 1762 a famous smuggling haul captured over 2,500 gallons of illegal brandy. By 1827 the coal and lime industry had peaked and was diminishing throughout the area and the prominent lime kilns (which date from 1747) at the harbour were abandoned. They were later used for curing herring when small-scale fishing became the staple industry and the harbour continues to be worked today. It is privately owned after being gifted to the local fisherman in 1947 by the owner Sir John Craster.
The parish church situated in Beadnell village is the Anglican Church of St Ebba (named after Saint Ebbe the Elder, founder of abbeys and daughter of King Ethelfirth) which was built in the eighteenth century as a chapel and rebuilt in 1860. Remains of a sixteenth pele tower, which provided protection from the Border Reivers attacks, are preserved within the public house The Craster Arms.
Behind the harbour on Beadnell Point you will find what remains of Ebbs Neuk Chapel, which was built in the thirteenth century by King Oswald of Northumbria for his sister St Ebba. This historically important site was investigated by the BBC Time Team in 2011.