Cambois

Cambois (/ˈkæməs/ KAM-əs) is a village in south-east Northumberland, England.^[1][2] It is situated on the north side of the estuary of the River Blyth between Blyth and Ashington on the North Sea coast.

Cambois
Cambois Fishing Fleet
Cambois Location within Northumberland
OS grid reference	NZ305835
Unitary authority	Northumberland
Ceremonial county	Northumberland
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BLYTH
Postcode district	NE24
Dialling code	01670
Police	Northumbria
Fire	Northumberland
Ambulance	North East
UK Parliament	Wansbeck
List of places UK England Northumberland 55°08′42″N 1°31′16″W / 55.145°N 1.521°W / 55.145; -1.521Coordinates: 55°08′42″N 1°31′16″W / 55.145°N 1.521°W / 55.145; -1.521

Etymology

According to earlier scholarship, the etymology of the name is probably Gaelic cambas 'bay, creek'.^[3] However, the name could equally be from the Cumbric cognate of cambas, *camas 'bend in a river, bay', which would fit with Cambois's location at the confluence of Sleek Burn and the River Blyth. In either case, the spelling seems to have been influenced by French bois 'wood'.^[4]

History

 

Winding wheel from the Old Cambois Colliery

Cambois was a township in Bedlingtonshire which, until 1844, was part of County Durham. It was a coal mining village from 1862 to week ending 20 April 1968 when Cambois Colliery closed.

Cambois is now closely related to the area known as North Blyth. The main commercial activity was the importation of alumina for the manufacture of aluminium at Lynemouth, but that smelter has now closed. Alumina is still imported and moved by rail to a smelter powered by the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme, near Fort William on the west coast of Scotland.

In 1883, the Coal Company gave a list of the property it owned, or leased:

North Blyth Staithes	7 houses
Mr Moore, colliery Manager	1 house
Mood & Scott	2 houses
Stable Cottage	1 house
Schoolmaster's House (at Boca Chica)	1 house
Sea View	12 houses
Quality Row	18 houses
Sinker's Row	20 houses
Chapel Row	20 houses
Mawburn Terrace	30 houses
Gee's Houses	30 houses
Watergate	29 houses
Cowgate	26 houses
Bridge Street	40 houses
Boca Chica	46 houses
Boat House Terrace	46 houses
Mr Freeman	5 houses
New Cottages	18 houses
Store Row
Institute Row	3 houses

Britishvolt

Main article: Britishvolt

In December 2020, Cambois was confirmed as the location for a new Britishvolt battery manufacturing plant.^[5] In July 2021, plans for the £2.6bn gigafactory employing 3,000 people were approved, with the new plant to be located on former coalyards adjacent to the now-demolished power station in Cambois. It will produce lithium-ion batteries for the automotive industry.^[6] Britishvolt appointed ISG as its construction partner who began work on clearing the site in late 2021.^[7] In January 2022, the UK government, through its Automotive Transformation Fund, invested £100m in the Britishvolt project, alongside asset management company abrdn and its property investment arm Tritax,^[8] developing what was planned to be Britain's fourth largest building.^[9] However, construction work was halted in August 2022 amid funding concerns,^[10] with manufacturing now set to start in mid-2025, more than a year later than initially planned.^[11] On 17 January 2023, Britishvolt went into administration, and its factory site was put up for sale.^[12][13]

References

1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 81 Alnwick & Morpeth (Rothbury & Amble) (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2014. ISBN 9780319242094.
2. "Ordnance Survey: 1:50,000 Scale Gazetteer" (csv (download)). www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Ordnance Survey. 1 January 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
3. Bethany Fox, 'The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', The Heroic Age, 10 (2007), http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html (appendix at http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox-appendix.html); (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. Bethany Fox, 'The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', The Heroic Age, 10 (2007), http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html (appendix at http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox-appendix.html).
5. Sheehan, Sam (11 December 2020). "£2.6bn Gigafactory planned for Blyth". Pistonheads. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
6. Harrison, James (4 July 2021). "Northumberland gigafactory set to secure planning permission". BusinessLive. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
7. "Britishvolt begins construction on Blyth factory". Electrive.com. 7 September 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
8. Jolly, Jasper (21 January 2022). "Britishvolt gets £100m boost to build UK's first large-scale 'gigafactory'". Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
9. Whitfield, Graeme (22 January 2022). "Britishvolt: how a start-up found £1.7bn to make gigafactory vision a reality". BusinessLive. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
10. Lowe, Tom (16 August 2022). "ISG pauses work on £2.6bn car battery 'gigafactory' amid funding delays". Building. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
11. Gayne, Daniel (30 August 2022). "Britishvolt delays production plans for 18 months on gigafactory set to be built by ISG". Building. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
12. Jack, Simon; Nanji, Noor (17 January 2023). "Britishvolt: UK battery start-up collapses into administration". BBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
13. "Battery startup Britishvolt enters administration as rescue talks fail". The Guardian. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.

External links

  Media related to Cambois at Wikimedia Commons