Geograph - photograph every grid square

'Charybdis' by artist William Pye is a water sculpture installed in front of Seaham Hall Hotel in 2000.
The sirens Charybdis and Scylla resided in the Sicilian Sea. Homer tells us that because Charybdis had stolen the oxen of Hercules, Zeus struck her with a thunderbolt and changed her into a whirlpool whose vortex swallowed up ships.
In Charybdis the circular movement of water inside a transparent acrylic cylinder forms an air-core vortex in the centre. Steps wrap around the cylinder and allow spectators to view the vortex from above. The cylinder was manufactured in Grand Junction, Colorado.
See Link for this and other works of William Pye
Article in the blog, 'Travelogue of an Armchair Traveller' Link

Seaham Hall was the home of two very important families both locally and nationally, the Millbankes and the Londonderrys Link

The Hall was built by Sir Ralph Milbanke, a Whig MP and Baronet, in 1792. His daughter, Anne Isabella Link married the poet, Lord Byron in the Hall in 1815. Byron is said to have written 'The Siege of Corinth' and part of 'The Hebrew Melodies' there and the village road is still known as 'Lord Byron's Walk' Link. The marriage was not a happy one and ended within a year. His unfortunate wife was later ridiculed in one of Byron's poems as 'Lady Millpond'.

Byron does not seem to have enjoyed his time at Seaham. In a letter to a friend, he complained; 'Upon this dreary coast we have nothing but county meetings and shipwrecks; and I have this day dined upon fish, which probably dined upon the crews of several colliers lost in the late gales' Link

The estates of Seaham and Dalden were sold to Lord Charles Stewart, the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. Together with his coal heiress wife, Frances Anne Vane Tempest Link he developed the port at Seaham Harbour with rail connections to the coal mines. It was designed to rival Sunderland.
In 1922, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry deserted the Hall and gave it to Durham County Council who used it as a hospital until 1978. Its later use as a private nursing home ended in 1995.

Seaham Hall along with its 'Serenity Spa' is now a luxury five star hotel Link

For more details see the Seaham history site Link