Dove Marine Laboratory

 lab, department of marine sciences

The Dove Marine Laboratory celebrated its centenary in 1997. Initially the laboratory was a small wooden building sited next to the Salt Water Baths in Cullercoats Bay and was officially opened in October 1897. Regrettably this building was to last only 7 years. It, along with the Salt Water Baths, a common feature of Victorian seaside towns was gutted by fire in March 1904.

On 1908 the current laboratory was built as a result of the generosity of a local benefactor, Mr W.H. Huddleston, F.R.S. and named in memory of his ancestress Eleanor Dove. The Dove family was well known locally and mentioned in Mr Hudleston's book The Dove Marine Laboratory (published by Andrew Reid & Co, Newcastle, 1910).

For the last 90 years the Marine Laboratory has flourished as a major centre of research in the region. The situation with buildings on the North Sea coast offers immediate access to typical fauna and flora. The closeness to examples of most types of temperate marine habitats rocky, sandy and muddy shores, major estuaries and the North Sea provides ideal locations for the study of Marine Biology. The knowledge on the local plants and animals mean that the natural history of the area is now one of the best known in the world. The Dove Fauna Lists provide detailed information on fauna and flora in the ' District' defined by amateur naturalists as stretching from Berwick to Redcar. The archive is being maintained, the 27 volumes of local records in which the oldest record is from 1820 includes new reports of species found locally for the first time.

www.ncl.ac.uk/marine/facilities/dove/

Photo: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4041976