Hidden Teesside

An archaeological dig around 1911 / 1912 investigated the remains of a Roman signal station probably constructed in AD 367 and used until AD 390. A chain of these existed along the North Yorkshire coast to warn of coastal attack.

A well was uncovered with the remains of 13 bodies inside, some artifacts from the dig are currently in the Whitby museum.

All traces of the site have now disappeared over the cliff due to erosion, and it doesn’t look like the information board will last much longer either.

I believe this is the control bunker for a Starfish decoy site from WW2, I suspect the area was a decoy for the nearby Marske aerodrome which was used during the war.

I’m sure it will be fully explained when the relevent volume of Defence of the UK by the North Yorkshire and Cleveland 20th Century Defence Study Group is published.

The pipe on the site is stamped with the name of the North Bitchburn Fireclay Company, which was apparently the brick making subsidiary of Pease & Partners who owned the nearby Upleatham ironstone mine.

UPDATE : As of August 2010 this site has been completely flattened and cleared by the farmer.

Theres another opportunity to explore the ironstone remains in Errington Woods with local expert Simon Chapman.

INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE WALK
Sunday 13th September

Around Grosmont and Esk Valley

Meet outside St. Matthew’s Parish Church
At 1pm for a short walk
Over Lease Rigg
Return approx. 5pm

Details will include Hagg’s mine and Esk Valley mine, description of mining methods and tour of loco sheds.
Exhibition inside the Church.

Walk led by Simon Chapman
Author of Grosmont and it’s mines.
Refreshments included

The North Riding Infirmary donated to the town by Ironmaster Henry Bolckow in 1864 was demolished in late 2006 to make way for a much needed Aldi and Travelodge (ahem)

The portico was saved after pressure from locals, although initially hidden behind road signs the owners have still not seen fit to remove the numbering and clean it up properly

Apparently only demolished in 1963 but I can locate no photos on the internet, does anyone have one ?

All that remains is this plaque very hidden away in a back alley.

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’

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

Continuing todays theme of recently demolished buildings, in Jan 2009 the old college was demolished after completion of the shiny new one

I don’t think the 1963 structure will ever be remembered for being a beautiful lost building, but i’m sure lots of people will have fond memories of their time there.

I visited this one a couple of months back for the pillbox nearby, it was in pretty bad shape already heavily vandalised and gutted by fire.

Some time in early February it finally seems to have been demolished to make way for a new health village (whoppee)

The village of Warrenby was pretty much wiped from the face of the earth in the late 1970s, although people lived there as late as 1983.

The Warrenby Hotel remained standing and during my childhood was the Turners bus depot and in more recent times a car workshop.

On the evening of Friday 13th February 2009 a Morrisons truck reversed into the building which brought about a major collapse, it looks certain the building will now have to be demolished completely.

The 265m long French aircraft carrier Clemenceau arrived on the Tees on Sunday 8th Feburary 2009, drawing a very large crowd at South Gare.

It was towed from Brest by the tug Anglian Earl which moved it into position to be dismantled by Able UK on the North bank if the Tees.

A short series of posts inspired by looking through my older printed photos, before going digital and before this website existed.

I’m afraid I don’t remember the date this happened, but I got informed about it due to my job. The general public however were unaware and it must have come as a big shock to the people driving down the Trunk Road that day.

I suspect it was this event recorded in a corporate report I found online.

The old Lackenby open hearth steelmaking building at Teesside, which was built in 1953, was demolished in 2004. The building contained over 20,000 tonnes of structural steel and cladding, which was then recycled at a rate of about 1,000 tonnes each week over a five-month period.

A friend of mine has the whole thing on video, which i’ve now got on YouTube (no sound unfortunately)

This substation building was built in 1914 next to the tramway between the Eston and Chaloner ironstone mines and was one of the few standing remains left from the Eston mines.

Although you’ll not see it any more as it was apparently demolished in the last couple of days.

No idea if the French chalk graffiti underneath the Regent was done officially by the film crew or just spontaneous by the extras, its long since disappeared and been replaced by the modern variant.

The Royal Exchange was sadly lost to the A66 flyover in the 1980s.

The are some nice pictures of it on the Lost Teesside page

One small scrap of it remains outside the Corus Steel House offices near Redcar.