     seaham, formerly seaham harbour, is a small town in county durham, situated  south of sunderland and  east of durham. it has a small parish church, st mary the virgin, with a late 7th century anglo saxon nave resembling the church at escomb in many respects. st mary the virgin is one of the 20 oldest surviving churches in the uk. seaham is currently twinned with the german town of gerlingen. ==history== the original village of seaham has all but vanished; it lay between st mary's church and seaham hall (i.e. somewhat to the north of the current town centre).pevsner, n., the buildings of england: county durham, penguin books, london, 1953/1983. until the early years of the 19th century, seaham was a small rural agricultural farming community whose only claim to fame was that the local landowner's daughter, anne isabella milbanke, was married at seaham hall to lord byron, on 2 january 1815. byron began writing his hebrew melodies at seaham and they were published in april 1815. it would seem that byron was bored in wintry seaham, though the sea enthralled him. as he wrote in a letter to a friend:  thumbnail|left|seaham harbour the marriage was short-lived, but long enough to have been a drain on the milbanke estate. the area's fortunes changed when the milbankes sold out to 3rd marquess of londonderry, who built a harbour, in 1828, to facilitate transport of goods from locally encouraged industries (the first coal mine was begun in 1845). however, this harbour later proved inadeq
Populated_coastal_places_in_County_Durham Post_towns_in_the_SR_postcode_area Towns_in_County_Durham