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Before its well known cliff lift, Saltburn had a cliff hoist between 1870 and 1883.
The wooden structure built by John Anderson of the Saltburn Improvement Company dropped people 120 feet to the pier level and must have been a pretty intimidating journey.
The new plaque to mark the location was unveiled by Councillor Vera Rider on Thursday July 28 2011.
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The Flaming Stump was an inn that stood on Portrack Lane, by the banks of the Tees. It was rumoured to be heavily involved in smuggling and featured the eloborate ‘Angel Room’ sculpted by a craftsman called Palini
The course of the Tees was shortened and straightened by the Tees Navigation Company and the Portrack Cut was completed in 1831, although the old course of the river is still very apparent on this 1899 map before the area was developed. This change lead to the inn closing and becoming Portrack Grange Farm also shown on the map below.
The buildings were still in existance as late at 1959 before being demolished, fortunately a photograph exists of the Angel Room in 1950
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Tees Archaeology’s Excavations in Stewart Park
The pictures on this page show the Time Team Big Dig which took place over the weekend of 28th – 29th June 2003 at Captain Cook’s birthplace cottage in Stewart Park
All pictures on this page:
© Captain Cook Birthplace Museum.
The Stewart Park and Marton History Group was a small local history group that now, no longer meets . It had a website that was in the process of being updated with local history when the group disbanded and these are the pages that survived.
The lasting legacy of the group is the graves of Bolckow and Vaughan in Marton Churchyard, a project the group started and fund raised for and it eventually came to be, through the work of Middlesbrough Environment City.
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Inspired by a request from Kev Oyston for photos of the Gas Holders in Redcar.
Redcar Gas Company was originally formed in 1857, by various mergers and nationalisations I suspect it was part of Northern Gas in its later years. I recall there being one gas holder remaining on the site in the 1980s but I can’t remember exactly when it was removed, does anyone remember ?
The following photos have appeared on Redcar.net and Redcar.org and seem to show there were originally three gas holders.
OS Maps over the years show many changes on the site.
1894
1929 
1954
1966 
1983 – 
The site is now the location of the McDonalds Drive-Thru and Morrisons petrol station.
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The Pig and Whistle was demolished in 2001 when Redcar was redeveloped, Dave Woods has kindly contributed the following photos and his memories of the pub.
The location for anyone who does not know was where Morrisons car park now stands just before the railway crossing.
Not being brought up in Redcar and moving there in 1970 I don’t know too much about it’s early years. It was well liked for the quality of the beer pulled with a massive creamy head that they called a boiler. As you can see from the door it used the be The Alexandra Hotel in former years
The original entrance on West Dyke Road can just be made out below the Fosters Lager sign
The name Pig and Whistle, I was told years ago was a nickname for the place. The whistle from the trains and I’m assuming pigs nearby. People brought ornamental pigs from all over the world to give to the pub. Some of these can be seen in this photo taken in the bar.
The landlord at the time told me that he had boxes and boxes full of pigs upstairs but had nowhere to put them. I wonder where they all are now. When the pub was relocated to Station Road as much as possible of the old bar woodwork was reinstalled there but to me it’s not like the old place.
Dave Woods.
As a footnote, I located these two photos of the Alexandra in 1935
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Clara Lady Dorman School opened in May 1926. It was named after the wife of Arthur Dorman co-founder of Dorman Long and Co Ltd.
This photo was taken in early August 2011 shortly before the building was demolished, at that time it was just known as Dormanstown Primary School.
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One wing of the Coatham Hotel was never completed in the style of the rest of the building and the Windsor Ballroom was added at a later date. In later years it became a nightclub and a gym.
The lop-sided appearence of the hotel made it perfect to be a bombed out Dunkirk ruin when Atonement was filmed in Redcar in 2006
The building has remained derelict since with its French set-decorations still on display, until August 2011 when its been given a fresh coat of paint and is now covered.
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Redcar once had an outdoor swimming pool and paddling pool next to the existing boating lake.
I recall perhaps 20 years ago the curve of the large pool was visible in the waste land between the boating lake and the swimming baths (now demolished)
This area is currently being redeveloped for the Tuned In / myPlace centre, while this was happening I noticed a lot of concrete has been dug out of that area.
Its possible these are the remains of the swimming pool, although I also have a recollection of some concrete steps leading into the ground in this area, so it could also just be an old drainage tank of some sort.
Update : Some discussion below has pointed out the concrete was actually the skating rink, thanks to those involved for clearing that up.
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The Lingdale Branch junction went south-west to the Lingdale Ironstone Mine and south-east to the Kilton Ironstone Mine.
The central cutting was for the never completed Paddy Waddells Cleveland Extension Mineral Railway. The substantial remains of the bridge supports for the junction still stand on the edge of Kilton Thorpe
The site is back up and running after being unsuccessfully hacked to sell dubious pharmaceticals (but breaking it in the process). I’ve had to make a lot of changes and updates as everything was pretty much untouched since 2007, part of the reason it was vulnerable to hijack.
For anyone who’s interested the following upgrades have been made.
If you spot anything broken let me know.