Greetings Cards - St Mary's Island

St Mary's Island, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear, (N 55° 04' 08"  W 001° 27' 03") Card 150x150mm with recycled envelope and biodegradable cello. Detailed caption on the reverse of the card. Card is blank for your own message.

Just offshore at the north end of Whitley Bay is St. Mary's Island, which at low tide can be reached on foot. Hermits most likely lived on the island in the early days of Christianity but the Viking invasion in 800 would have had its effect and the island would not have been inhabited until after 1066. A light had been lit on the island since medieval times to warn sailors of the rocks and the lighthouse was built in 1897 but ceased operations in 1984. St Mary's was also known as Bait Island, after an inhabitant of Tudor times called Thomas Bates who purchased it when he was a surveyor for Queen Elizabeth I in the 1580s. It has a colourful and sometimes violent past with the island being used by smugglers. Photograph copyright of Adrian Warren & Dae Sasitorn