The bones of a sperm whale that washed up on a Northumberland beach are to be displayed in a supposedly haunted tower - almost 200 years to the day since the gargantuan creature washed up.
On August 8 1822, the people of Cresswell and Lynemouth spotted a giant sperm whale beached on the shore between the two villages. It appeared to be injured after crashing onto some rocks.
An initial attempt to put the whale out of its misery by fisherman and labourers building the nearby Cresswell Hall was unsuccessful, before they tried again with a harpoon fashioned by a local blacksmith. The carcass delivered nine tons of whale meat and around 150 gallons of oil which were claimed by two local landowners including the Baker-Cresswell family, before the Admiralty stepped in and declared the remnants of the whale to be property of the Crown.
