About

About Allonby


About Allonby - Today Allonby reflects it's colourful past in its buildings and remains a picturesque coastal village unspoilt by modern industry. Visitors can enjoy a stroll along the Bay, a vast sand and shingle beach stretching some five miles. The open bay and shallow waters make Allonby Bay a popular spot for windsurfing and kitesurfing.

Despite its size, Allonby has several interesting buildings of note including the Old Baths, North Lodge, Christ Church, and the workingmen's Reading Rooms, currently being renovated.

The village has a long history of being a sea-bathing resort, going back to the 18th Century, when the fashion for bathing, and even drinking sea water, was considered a health cure. The village keeps much of its Georgian and Victorian charm, with cobbled lanes, curious corners to explore and some interesting old houses. In what was once the main street stands an imposing colonnaded building, which was once the indoor baths where delicate Victorians could have their sea water comfortably warmed, in a suite of hot, cold, and vapour baths. The upper classes used one floor as a ballroom.

Through the centre of the village, running parallel to the coast, is Allonby Beck, a fresh water stream spanned by one road bridge and several footbridges.

A little way north of the village, is North Lodge, built in the 1830s by Thomas Richardson, a Quaker banker who married local girl Martha Beeby. He used the central portion of the building as a family holiday home. In each of the wings were two single storey cottages and a small double storey cottage on each end (six in total). These were set up as Quaker alms houses and were occupied rent free, by local widows and spinsters, each receiving a yearly pension or allowance of £5. The building is still owned by The Society of Friends and used as low-cost housing. A small burial ground is attached.

Now go and treat yourself to an ice cream from Twentyman's and enjoy all that Allonby has to offer.

A brief history of Allonby.

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Celebrating the Great British coastline

On the Edge of Beauty
Posted 23 December 2013 Breton Seasider