Hidden Teesside

 A hatch in the middle of moorland leads down to a short entrance passage, which then drop down into a larger room.

The main room was a backup receiving area for the Chain Home radar station during the second world war, I am omitting the exact location on purpose as its filthy and flooded to the ceiling and you’ll only end up getting as wet as I did or worse.

The area around Runswick has a number of wartime defences, as the break in the surrounding cliffs would have made a potential invasion point.

The pillbox is now on the beach due to erosion around its base.

There are a number of anti-tank cubes in the immediate vicinity next to the sailing club, which was once the area of a minefield.

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.

The two mounds carried 4.7″ Hotchkiss QF guns during WW1.

The mound closest to the river was re-used during WW2 when it held a BL 6″ Mk7.

An extensive battery covered the whole site, with much underground, but very little remains visible on the surface now.

These plinths would each hold a Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun, there are a total of four at the location 14ft apart.

The second mount for a 29mm Spigot Mortar that I located today.

I had previously misidentified something on the other side of the road as this several years ago.

This concrete base with its stainless steel pin would have been used to mount a anti-tank spigot mortar, also known as a “Blacker Bombard”

This one is almost buried by some recent work nearby, but the pin still looks almost new.

Some people say this is a First World War jetty, it may well have been reused / rebuilt then but the 1894 OS maps already shows a tramway running from the powder wharf in the direction of the gare, joining up with the tramway on which sail bogies were also known to run. This would tie in nicely with 1880’s submarine mine loading complex on the gare which presumably needed a supply of explosives.
   

The small inlet immediately to the south east is known as Powder Hole.

More from the archives.

I’m struggling to find any reference to the origins of the naval mine that stands next to Saltburn Pier, presumably its from the war, but I don’t know which.

I do recall that from time to time munitions are washed up on Saltburn beach from wartime wrecks.

Its seems like an eternity since I posted any new pillboxes, so here’s one from Hummersea above Skinningrove

Its flooded inside, so no internal shots.

This painted sign has somehow survived 65 years and indicates the site of a likely still intact Second World War air raid shelter for 367 people.

The cannon has a long history and has been in several locations since arriving in 1858, it overlooked Cannon Lake in Albert Park until 1947 before being dumped in Stewarts Park, recovered after an Evening Gazette campaign in 1965, with the Territorial Army until 1978, then to the Dorman Museum for 23 years and finally over the road into the Albert Park Memorial Garden in 2001

The right inscription mentions 1824, which is the year the cannon would have been cast.

There are a number of other plaques to other conflicts and causes in the Memorial Garden

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

I’m afraid I’m keeping the exact location of this one off the site.

Its clearly been forgotten by the local kids due to the lack of any recent litter/beer cans, its only a few hundred meters from a playground and the condition of the place is very poor looking liable to collapse in places, so I don’t want to put it back on their radar.

There are three main areas inside, with several open vertical shafts running to the surface as well as two side entrances.
If you think about ironstone mines still open during the second world war, you may deduce where this is located.

The Rosedale ROC post has a good complete set of surface features.

The circular metal plate on the main hatch is a mount for a Ground Zero Indicator (GZI) which was an arrangement of 4 pinhole cameras to indicate the direction of nuclear blasts. The metal pipe emerging from the side would have connected to the hand pump at the bottom of the shaft.
A louvered air vent is located at each end, one is part of the main hatch the other standing alone.

The large metal post is a Radiac mount which would hold equipment to measure radioactivity levels.

The smaller metal post is part of a Bomb Power Indicator (BPI) which was connected to a gauge underground to measure the pressure or shockwave from the blast.

The first enemy aircraft shot down over England crashed here on 3rd February 1940, the radar station at Danby was involved in the detection of the plane.

A full account of the incident can be found here

Photos from 2003 before the guard house building was badly damaged by fire.

The mound behind the house holds a two storey ROTOR R2 bunker built in 1951, and destroyed by fire in 1958. The underground areas reached through the red door in the floor are flooded and contaminated with asbestos.

Further info on ‘RAF Goldsborough’ (’JEX’) R2 CHEL

Update Dec 2007 :

Some more photos showing the badly damaged guard house in late 2007

Update Feb 2009 :

Geoff Pallett has kindly provided me with a picture of the site taken in the early 60’s, he can be contacted directly at geoffrey.m3uxb@virgin.net, there is also much discussion of the site in the comments section.

I really have no idea what this short tunnel/shelter just below the cliff top is for, it seems too neat and too short to be mine related. To me it gives the impression of being a shelter from where the view can be admired. It looks to have been cut by hand.

Does anyone have any idea of its age and purpose ?

Just a short distance away to the north, this unusual item is visible by the side of the Cleveland Way, the metal part still freely rotates and there appear to be the remain of powerful springs attached.

It is some distance away from both the Sandsend and Kettleness tunnels.

UPDATE : Dave Richardson has kindly come up with an answer for the second one, its a Motley Mount for Twin Vickers “K” Machine Guns for light anti aircraft defense, there were originally four as the Goldsborough Cliff Radar Station was here from 1940 to 1945.
The pictures here and here backup the point, cheers Dave.

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

Memorial plaque to Lockheed Hudson which crash landed near Captain Cooks monument on 11th February 1940.

Full details of the crash can be found here 

This plaque was unveiled on 17/12/2008, 66 years after the crew of Lancaster bomber W4319 SR-N were all killed, shot down by ‘friendly fire’. 

The Evening Gazette report say it came down near where Steel House is now located, although thats about 200 yards North East, not 200 yards West as the plaque says.

The plaque is on Lord McGowan Bridge (built in 1951, named after a chairman of ICI) 

Also adjacent to the plaque is a nice way marker for the Teesdale Way, apparently there are 6 more sculptures of footware by Jim Roberts, between South Bank and Coatham Marsh.