Allonby and its buildings

For such a tiny village, Allonby contains a remarkable number of interesting and historic buildings. In this postcard view, from around 1900, the group of buildings on the left were originally the Fish Yards, operated by the Beeby family. Here herring were gutted, salted and packed into barrels which were made at a cooperage there. In the centre of the picture is the Reading Room and, on the right, with the balcony, are Allonby Baths.

A busy day at the fish yards

In the fish yard, herring were gutted, salted and packed into barrels which were made at a cooperage there.

Some of the herring were turned into kippers. The Costin family ran this operation in their smokehouse, seen above. A wood-burning open hearth was located on the first floor. The herring could be hung in this room or, on the floor above in the roof space.

The chimney passed through both floors and flagstones could be removed from it to allow the smoke to belch out into either of the rooms as required. When the kippers were ready, the louvre shutters on the front of the building, bearing the family's name, were opened, allowing the smoke to escape.

The outline of the old smokehouse can still be
seen; it is now a cottage.

The Baths opened in July 1836. They have a fine, portico which faces into 'The Square' away from the sea.

There was a basement floor with warm, cold, sulphur and vapour baths and, above this, an assemby room 50 feet long and 25 feet wide. The baths were fitted out in marble and were supplied with water drawn from the sea in pipes by a small steam engine. The engine’s furnace also heated the water for the hot baths.

The Meeting House (Sketch by David Butler)

The Quakers formed a large and influential section of the local community. Their Meeting House stood at the north end of the village. It was originally converted from a cottage in 1703, extended in 1732 and continued in use until 1991. It is now a private dwelling.

A little further along the coast road stands North Lodge, seen below in its original state, around 1907.

North Lodge was built in the 1830s by Thomas Richardson who had married an Allonby girl, Martha Beeby, in 1799. The central pavilion was to provide a holiday home for the Richardsons. At either side of this, were six cottages for local widows and spinsters who were to live there rent free and receive £5 per year from an endowment fund which Thomas provided. The building is still in use as low-cost housing and is operated by the Allonby Alms House trust.

Thomas Richardson, the builder of North Lodge was a Quaker banker and held shares in both the Stockton & Darlington Railway and Stephenson’s Locomotive Works. 

He was one of the original proprietors of Middlesbrough Docks and founded the nearby Ayton Friends’ School.


At the back of North Lodge, there was a stone-faced, six-sided privy. Each resident of the cottages had their own door which admitted them to their individual earth closet.

Allonby Reading Rooms opened in 1862. The construction was largely financed by Joseph Pease, M.P., a wealthy Quaker industrialist from County Durham who was a cousin and business associate of Thomas Richardson.

Pease commissioned a 32-year old Quaker architect from Manchester, Alfred Waterhouse to design the building.

Waterhouse went on to become one of the Victorian era's most celebrated architects. He designed the Natural History Museum in London, Strangeways Prison and Manchester Town Hall.

The Reading Rooms closed in the 1970s and fell into serious disrepair. They have recently been converted into a private house.

Allonby Church dates from 1845 and replaced an earlier building on the same site. The adjoining Sunday School was originally used as the village school. This rather plain, undistinguished building fits particularly well with its landscape.

In this postcard view of Allonby Square in the 1920s, the pediment of the Baths is just visible on the right. The old cobbled street was the original main road through the village.

Another postcard view, from the late 1800s, shows the Ship Inn, Allonby's main hostelry, on the right over the old cast-iron bridge which was destroyed when a traction engine ran into the brook in 1907.