Hidden Teesside

The Birger was the vessel that collided with Victoria Pier on 18th October 1898.

13 of the 15 crew lost their lives so the anchor which was recovered in 1999 by the Cleveland Divers Club is now used as a memorial to mariners.

Samuel Plimsoll devised the Plimsoll Line (not just the pub on he High Street) to indicate the maximum legal limit to which a ship could be loaded, it became law in 1876 after a long strggle including Plimsoll calling members of the House of Commons ”villains” and shaking his fist in the Speaker’s face

The plaque on marks the location of the house in which he stayed when visiting Redcar.

Unveiled as part of the recent wave of Redcar Heritage plaques.

The New Inn, Coathams first Hotel was built 1760 “for the accomodation of sea bathers”, become the Waterloo tavern in 1825, closed 1865.
 

Red Barns has the family home of Gertrude Bell, writer, traveller, political analyst, archaeologist.

Bell and T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) helped to create the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan and define the outline of the modern state of Iraq.
 

The Zetland Lifeboat Museum houses the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world, from 1802

A coastwatch station, is located above the museum, they have a memorial plaque on the other side of the building

Redcar Pier was built in 1873, it suffered numerous mishaps with ship collisions, fires, deliberate breaching in WW2 , damage by a mine explosion and storm damage before finally being demolished in 1981.

The remains of the foundations can still be seen on the beach.

Update 22/07/09 - The location of the pier has just been marked with a new heritage plaque.

Sir William Turners school stood here from 1869 to 1963

Who knows what inspired the demolition of this attractive building to be replaced with the current Redcar library ’shed’

These bungalows built in 1931 were the first local authority homes for the elderly in the whole of England and Wales.

As a result they are actually one of the few listed buildings in Redcar.

The Victoria Pier was built in 1875 and intended to be 2000ft long, the Griffin and Corrymbus collided with it in a storm in 1874 before it was even complete and it was shortened by 200ft.

The pier had two two pavilions, the first an indoor skating rink. The second pavilion located in the middle of the pier, was for band concerts.

In 1898 the Birger collided with the pier,  splitting it in two and leading to its closure closed.

In 1923 the end of the pier was renovated and a glass and metal pavillion placed on top.

In 1928 this was in turn demolished and the New Pavilion Theatre built which finally became the Regent Cinema in the 1960s

The original 1846 Redcar railway station was located just near the town clock, its long gone and the site is now a modern building. However one of the new Redcar Heritage plaques has very recently been erected there.

 
The location can be seen marked as “Central Hall” in this previous post about the railway cottages

The clock was originally intended to be built for the coronation of King Edward VII but insufficient funds were raised and it was not built opened until 1913 after he died.

The clock was built on the boundary of Redcar and Coatham, William Duncan was the architect, Robert Richardson made the clock’s mechanism and the builder was John Dobson.

The opening ceremony took place on Wednesday 29th January 1913.

After many years of campaigning by Vera Robinson, the clock was finally restored to full working order in 2006

The Zetland Club was hit by a bomb on 21st October 1941. Amongst those killed were the mayor, councillors and a doctor. The garden of remeberance also has plaques for those lost at sea and Dunkirk.

Built around 1916 to detect approaching Zeppelins, now sits surrounded by houses but safe due to being a scheduled ancient monument.

The base of the column where the listening trumpet was mounted is a few feet in front of the mirror.

Information on other Sound Mirrors in the UK can be found here