Spottee

Last updated February 23, 2019

Spottee was a character from the eighteenth century, thought to be a stranded French sailor, who after living rough and begging, found a Sea cave, north of the River Wear estuary, to the north of Sunderland, and which he made his home.

A sea cave, also known as a littoral cave, is a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as relict sea caves on former coastlines. Some of the largest wave-cut caves in the world are found on the coast of Norway, but are now 100 feet or more above present sea level. These would still be classified as littoral caves. By contrast, in places like Thailand's Phang Nga Bay, solutionally formed caves in limestone have been flooded by the rising sea and are now subject to littoral erosion, representing a new phase of their enlargement.

The River Wear in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At 60 mi (97 km) long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through the cathedral city of Durham and gives its name to Weardale in its upper reach and Wearside by its mouth.

Legend

Some rumours say that he was thought to be a stranded foreign sailor (some say French) who could not speak English. Other tales tell of his ship being wrecked on the rocks along the Roker coast and as he couldn't afford to rebuild it he became, in effect, shipwrecked. As he could not speak the language he could not converse with the locals, Spottee was thought by some to be a poor lunatic, and is so referred to in The Bishoprick Garland by (Sir) Cuthbert Sharp.

Roker is a tourist resort and affluent area of Sunderland, North East England, bounded on the south by the River Wear and Monkwearmouth, on the east by the North Sea, to the west by Fulwell and on the north by Seaburn. It is administered as part of the City of Sunderland.

Sir Cuthbert Sharp (1781–1849) was an English soldier, official and antiquary.

He earned his name from the spotted shirt he wore.^[1] He set up his home in a cave, which eventually bore his name, becoming Spottee’s Cave. He earned his living by begging and doing odd jobs for local farmers.

Spottee’s Cave is a cave formed in a limestone-magnesium ravine on the seafront of Roker, North East England, between Sunderland, and Whitburn.

Rumour has it that he eventually died in the cave and his ghost has been spotted on stormy nights warning ships to stay away from the rocks, or alternatively that he (and now his ghost) lured ships onto the rocks and that his cave was a place of evil. The cave still retains the name of Spottee’s Cave over two hundred years after he was considered by locals as the “boggle bo” of the children of Sunderland and Whitburn.

The story of Spottee appears in The Bishoprick Garland by (Sir) Cuthbert Sharp.

Recording

A recording of the song is available on YouTube here

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References

↑ "The Bishoprick Garland page 51" (PDF).

External links

• The Bishoprick Garland 1834 by Sharp • Spottee and his cave

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[1] "The Bishoprick Garland page 51" (PDF).