Untitled

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9062, 22 April 1937, Page 2

The merry wives of Alnmouth, in England’s Northumberland, will be able to say with Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare’s "Merry Wives,” “Go. and we’ll have a posset for’t soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire,” owing to an unexpected present from Father Neptune. Recent heavy seas off the north-east

coast provided a gift of hundreds of tons or coal for the Alnmouth residents. When the storm was at its height deposits of coal were noticed on the beach near the mouth of the River Ain. Hundreds of people arrived to cart it away. The seas added to the spoils, and it is estimated that at least 1000 tons of excellent fuel were washed up on the shore. Many families obtained supplies sufficient to last them throughout I ■ next winter. There were as many as I

500 people at a time on the beach making the most of the chance to get free fuel. It is thought that«.the coal is washed from the outcrop of a seam which comes to the surface on i the sea bed not far off the coast. ]