Seaham sound mirror
Ivor Parrington sent the Seaham Family History Group a 1976 photograph of the now demolished acoustic mirror at Seaham.
The design looks like the World War I sound mirrors at Boulby, Redcar and Sunderland in the northeast, and the one at Selsey in Sussex. The sketch of the reported mirror at Hartlepool looks the same too.
This evidence could date the Seaham mirror to about 1916.
There is some discussion from people who remember it and a painting of it at Seaham Scenes.
Location
There is nothing left at the site now.
David Angus of the Seaham online community history project www.east-durham.co.uk has tracked down the probable location of the Seaham sound mirror, though cautions “it is at least 55 years since I saw it and then only once.” He found two men who agree on the location shown. Apparently the mirror may have been used for shooting practice by the local Home Guard during World War II.
