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Situated on the Suffolk Heritage Coast, a few miles north of Felixstowe, this single row of assorted buildings faces the North Sea just metres away across shifting banks of shingle. A dead-end road from Hollesley, a couple of miles inland, runs behind the houses, and a rough footpath runs along their front. There are no facilities here for visitors except for two car parks.

The first habitation of Shingle Street appears to have occurred in the early 1800s, at the time when the Martello Towers were built along this part of the east coast, and when fishermen began to build cottages from driftwood. The only land link with the outside world was a track to Bawdsey, to the south.

At that time the mouth of the River Ore was just to the south of Shingle Street, and some of the fishermen also acted as pilots. The Martello Tower at Shingle Street is known as AA or A2, Towers W, X and Y being to the south towards Bawdsey. When the danger of invasion had passed they were used to house coastguards. By 1881 the coastguards had moved into the 2-storey purpose-built Coastguard Cottages at the north end of the beach. In a map dated 1881 the low brick-built building just to the south of Coastguard Cottages is marked 'Coastguard Station', although by that time it appears to have been bought by the Fonnereau family of Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, as a holiday home. It is unclear from the available records when 'German Ocean Mansion', as it was then known, was built and what it's original purpose was.

The 1881 map shows Coastguard Cottages and German Ocean Mansion at the north end of the hamlet, the clapboard cottages Windy Ridge and Kate's Cottage some distance to the south, and after another sizable gap a cluster of homes either side of the LIfeboat Inn. The gap to the south of Kate's Cottage gradually filled until by 1900 the row of house was more or less continuous.

Shingle Street, about 1900

In 1940 the inhabitants were evacuated so that the beach could be mined against invasion. The army took over the houses and there were complaints from the residents that their homes were being vandalised. Later the Royal Air Force used the buildings for experimental bombing What else happened at Shingle Street during WWII is still secret, and it has been the subject of a number of speculative books and television programmes. The weather and neglect also took its toll. Many houses were uninhabitable when they were eventually returned to their owners some 5 years after the war ended, and had to be rebuilt.

Amongst the surviving buildings are the Coastguard Cottages, 'The Mansion' (formerly 'German Ocean Mansion' until the 1914-18 war when all things German became unfashionable), 'Kate's Cottage' and 'Windy Ridge', and Martello Tower AA. The Lifeboat Inn was not rebuilt and the foundations can still be seen.

A recent report (October 2004) suggests that unless the sea defences in the area are strengthened Shingle Street could disappear within 20 years.

Residents of Shingle Street
Since all Shingle Street entries in the censuses come under Bawdsey, it has not always been easy to judge
where Shingle Street starts and ends, so I have erred on the generous side.
The census enumerators do not seem to have recorded each dwelling in a linear way, south to north or north to south,
so that adjacent familes are not necessarily neighbours.


1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Shingle Street from the Martello Tower.
The 2-storey building, centre, is the Lifeboat Inn.
Photo supplied by Michael Lucock.

This photograph, supplied by Phil Shimmon, was taken in the 1930s.The Lifeboat Inn is the 2-storey building,
and the cottage on the left is Veronica Cottage, where the Lucock family lived.

Left to right: unknown, Bert Shimmon, Gladys Shimmon, Rover and Gordon Grout.
Taken at the rear of Coastguard Cottages, where the Shimmon family lived.

Shingle Street is a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the rare flora and fauna to be found here.

For such a tiny village, there are an extraordinary number of web sites about Shingle Street. The following are just a few:

General
Suffolk Pages Suffolk Coast Images Aerial view German Ocean Mansion

Coastguards
Details of coastguards who served at Shingle Street can be found here www.genuki.org.uk/big/Coastguards/ Search for 'Bawdsey'

Accommodation
Coastguard Cottages Windy Ridge

World War II
The Bodies on the Beach The Secret War at Shingle Street Question in Parliament (search page for Shingle Street)

Book
Alde, Ore and Blyth Rivers by Robert Simper

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