Death knell for the seacoalers: Workmen who hunt along the shore for washed up coal denied access to beach after 30 years

'Sea -coaling' has taken p lace in Hartlepool, County Durham, for centuries

Workmen painstakingly harvest tonnes of coal from Seaton Carew beach

They use a modified Land Rover to transport their hauls



Only 19 people keep up the ancient trade, which helps fuel power stations

But last week Hartlepool Council closed the beach to vehicles, making it impossible for sea-coaling to continue



An ancient trade which has sustained workmen in the North since the 7th century has come to an end thanks to council health and safety rules.

The last 19 'sea-coalers', who gather coal washed up on Seaton Carew beach in Hartlepool, County Durham, have been denied access to the beach after the local authority erected bollards and dug a deep hole overnight to keep them away.

They are now unable to bring their modified Land Rover on to the beach, which allowed them to bring their painstakingly-harvested coal scraps back to land for sale.

Black gold: Tony Reed, pictured, is a 'sea-colaer' who spends all day scraping coal off of a beach in Hartlepool, County Durham

Fuel: Mr Reed and the 18 other sea-coalers harvest thousands of tonnes of coal a year, which is burned for energy

Sea-coaling has been a part of life in Hartlepool for centuries, and is made possible by the tides, which erode coal from the bed of the North Sea, which is then washed up on the beach every day.

Each man can harvest more than a tonne of coal each day, which is then sold on to power plants to produce energy.

Tony Reed, 51, was a sea-coaler for 30 years before he found his livelihood cut off last Saturday by the building work.



'It just absolutely shocked me,' he said.

'I did not have a clue it was going to happen and my first thought was, they [Hartlepool Council] have gone behind our backs again – they have been trying for ages to get rid of the sea-coalers.'

Collection: This back-breaking labour allows Mr hall and his colleagues to collect around a tonne of coal each every day

Transport: Mr Hall uses an adapted Land Rover to transport the coal, but bollards erected by the local council mean he can no longer get it on the beach

Stoic: The work is incredibly arduous and the men must move quickly to harvest the coal

He was confronted with the bollards and hole on September 28, just hours after he finished his previous shift at 4am.



He said: ''It’s all well and good for them, but I’m 51-years-old, have three children and I’m self-employed so all my living has gone and I’m stuck – they have dumped it straight on me.'

'No reasons have been given for the closure and when I went to try and get to the bottom of it, I was not allowed on the site because I was not wearing a hard hat. Ridiculous.'

Heft: The seawater makes the coal particles very heavy, and the only way to lift the dust onto the Land Rover is by hand

Dispute: Hartlepool Council says sea-coaling must stop as the beach is for pedestrians only

Hartlepool Borough Council defended its decision by saying the beach was only for pedestrians.



It said: 'The access to this particular area is for pedestrians only but sea coalers have been using it to transport coal in motorised wheelbarrows from the beach up to the promenade.

'This is compromising public safety, defacing the promenade and causing noise nuisance which is why we have taken action to install the bollards.'



Ancient: The coal was first gathered by monks in the 7th Century

Uncertainty: Coal-fired plants are under threat, throwing doubt onto the future of sea-coaling's future



Scraping together: An average load on the Land Rovers is two tonnes

But Mr Reed said that local people approve of the work he does as it keeps the beach clean, and that nobody complains.



He said: 'All we ever get is compliments from the pubic - we’re doing everyone a huge service clearing up the coal and as for the cars, the horses that are allowed on the beach are more of a threat to it!