By the 18th century, tourism was flourishing in Cullercoats. By 1751 the town was so fashionable that one diarist noted that there was ‘not a room empty’. It was also home to an important artists’ community, which included the American artist Winslow Homer. He arrived in 1881, and spent the next eighteen months painting the local fisherwomen. Here, little girls paddle in the sea, while the boys watch from the seawall.