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Once upon a time, my great-uncle Joe had a beach bungalow at Coulderton near St. Bees, where I spent some very happy hours in the 1960s. Amazingly, it's still there, more-or-less, in 2007, along with a great many others- many of which these days are substantial brick structures, most unlike the quaint mixture of timber bungalows and old railway carriages I remember.
For the past few years, I have been gathering information on the bungalows of Lowside Quarter (Coulderton, Nethertown and Braystones, plus a few technically over the border in St. Bees). The ultimate intention is to make all of it (including images of original architects' drawings, and pictures loaned to me by fellow enthusiasts) available on computer for customers at the Whitehaven Record Office and Local Studies Library, but as they don't yet have computers available there for the public to use, I am just putting some basics online:


Images of the bungalows, 2004-6 (you may need broadband for this!)

List of ratepayers etc., 1920s to 1940s

List of planning permission files held at Whitehaven Record Office

Relevant items from local council minutes, 1930s to 1970s

Relevant items from newspapers (a rather random selection)

Newspaper stories of beach/surf rescues

Miscellaneous information, from a variety of sources

Map of the shore area in 1838, from the Tithe Award


Information in rough north-south geographical order:


Tomlin View, Coulderton, in the 1960s

Sea Crest, Coulderton and the Pickthalls

Plessington, Nethertown, the Henrys- and Dr Cardwell

Holidays at Tresco, Braystones, by Helen Strickland

Braystones north end, pictures from the Banister album

Braystones and Nethertown in the Perriman family collections

The Perriman (extended) family at Braystones

Braystones bungalows, pictures from the Henson collection

Braystones bungalows, pictures from the Irving collection

Generations on the beach, by Connie Irving

The beginnings of Snafell, Braystones, 1923

'Waverley' and the Grahams

Memories by Susan Graham (née Labourne)

More from the Grahams, and Jimmy Ousby

The Hensons' stories from the 'Lobster Pot' (and 'Seacote' too)

Some unexpected visitors to Braystones

Latona, Braystones, 1936-45, by Tom Dalzell

Latona again (and more) by Miles Gaythwaite

Latona (etc.) again, by Judith Yates (née Barclay)

Latona in its early days, by Joseph Gaythwaite

The James family, The Kabin and The Cabin

The Allen family at Seabank

Northolme, Braystones, by Dot Walker

Bitten by the beach bug- Stuart Flett

Sunnymede etc. from Bennie's album

The 1977 railway smash

The big sewer under the railway by 'Belvedere'


I hope to add more pages about other individual bungalows in the near future, based on other people's pictures and memories. Also, if you feel inspired to create your own beach bungalow web page, I'd love to link to it.

Also here's the first of the promised pages about Nethertown Camp:

The opening of the Tow Bar Inn, 1963