Show on mapThings look pretty un-inspiring when you start behind the ‘Navigation’ near to the Riverside Stadium with the beck just being a concrete sided trough with clogged rubbish traps.
As you move east things take a turn of the better.
A little futher on are some gates, perhaps some sort of flood defence as this area will be tidal ?
After these it becomes rather pleasant with some ducks being seen.
The beck then takes a sharp turn to the north and join up with River Tees.
This would have been a very industrial location in the past surrounded by iron works, although the area to the south was a marsh. It doesn’t exist on the 1858 map as the beck flows under the railway near to the Navigation Inn, but this redirection to the opposite side of railway exists on the 1894 map perhaps due to the construction of the Ormesby Ironworks.
In picture 3, they are tidal gates or flaps, they are held closed by any high tidal water to protect the upper reaches of the beck from tidal ingress, similar protection is often found on drain ( storm sewers )and pumping station discharges.
When I worked at the old Teesside Bridge and Engineering works, the beck flowed through a culvert alongside the N side of the plant (AKA the old 1 Bay) parallel to Cargo Fleet Road. It was known universally as the ‘tidal beck’ and on odd occasions overflowed into the works.