Hidden Teesside

Despite having no railway, Kirkleatham does have a row of railway cottages from 1847, they were dismantled and moved from Redcar in 1861 when the railway line was extended to Saltburn.

Designed by John Middleton, these are the last remaining buildings of the Middlesbrough & Redcar Railway.

Spigot Mortars had a range of 100 meters with 20lb anti-tank and 450 meters with 11lb anti-personnel mortars.

The impressive octagonal mausoleum was built in 1740 by Cholmley Turner and designed by James Gibbs.

The Mausoleum was in memory of Marwood William Turner, who died at the age of 21 whilst on a the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe.

The Gibbs design is very similar to two pavillions at Stowe, although they are now missing their pyramids, and his Octagon Room at Orleans House Twickenham

Hidden away in a staff car park and with no information board.

Iron was poured into this vessel and taken to the caster plant and tipped into “pigs”

The other unusual item is apparently a scale car from the Cleveland Iron Plant. It picked up the charge for the blast furnace before dumping it in the furnace hopper cars.

The “Old Hall” museum itself is always worth a visit, although it was actually the Free School built in 1709 perhaps by William Wakefield or Robert Hooke

The garden ‘defences’ are believed to have been built around 1740 by James Gibbs

Unfortunately many other garden features were lost recently. A Pavillion Temple of the same date also by Gibbs demolished in 1953 and a Pigeon Cote by John Carr demolished in 1964 (Although I believe a modern garden feature by the roadside is a homage to it)

The stables are the only surviving part of the Hall which stood on the site of the current modern school, they have stood moth-balled for all of my lifetime and must be in a poor state internally by now despite being a Grade II listed building.

An interesting look circular tower can be seen from the outside.

The Local Development Framework released today specifically mentions the regeneration of Kirkleatham so lets hope it delivers.
“ The Core Strategy recognises the importance of addressing these issues to conserve the historic environment at Kirkleatham, and the aims of the Spatial Strategy for the Redcar Area include safeguarding and enhancing the conservation area, listed buildings and historic parkland as well as improving visitor facilities at Kirkleatham village. “

I’m unsure of the origin of the phrase, as it only seems to appear in local council literature relating to this specific arch.

The arch was constructed for Charles Turner around 1770 by the architect John Carr

Here again on a less photogenic day.

Visible from the main path through the woods at Yearby, although the tree cover made GPS reception tricky.
There appears to be a second chamber through the doorway at the rear, although i had neither a powerful torch or a ladder to venture any further to photograph it.

Some sort of ladder is needed if you want to get inside (or more importantly get back out afterwards)
There is a record of a hermit called Mick Plummer actually living here.

The only part of the Kirkleatham stables thats accessible. A few out buildings to the NW on the verge of complete collapse.

Gateposts to the now demolished Kirkleatham Hall. The stable block is still intact and mysteriously undeveloped or renovated in decades.

Kirkleatham was surrounded by defensive positions during the second world war, this ornamental tower from the now demolished Kirkleatham Hall was converted into a gun emplacement as part of the ring of nine pillboxes, four roadblocks, three anti-craft guns, minefields and three miles of anti-tank ditches.