Tynemouth Watch House given funding boost

The Watch House displays artefacts, pictures and relics from old shipwrecks

A North Tyneside coastal rescue charity has been awarded lottery funding to repair its distinctive headquarters.

Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (TVLB), founded in 1864, performs coastline and cliff rescues and its watchtower base is also a museum.

The £23,000 grant will enable it to press ahead with an application for a further grant for essential repairs to the historic watch tower.

These include structural repairs such as underpinning and rewiring.