Hidden Teesside

Seven Red Plaice by David Kemp was unveiled on Wednesday October 16th 2002 when the Regents Walk development was completed.

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.

This carved marker stone is located at the top of the short climb up from the Ship Inn in Saltburn onto the cliffs

This sculpture of the hospital with a nurse and miner was unveiled in June 2010

It was made by blacksmiths James Godbold of Egton for the Eston Residents Association, it is located on the site of hospital which closed in 1980 and has since been demolished.

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.

Cliffe was a small ironstone mine worked from 1866 to 1887. Virtually nothing remains on the site except depressions and discolorations in a field which mark the locations of the shafts.

A railway siding which runs to the shafts and parallel to the current live railway can be identified.

Some remains of the base on which a Fowler traction engine was mounted exist, but I was unable to locate them in the long summer grass.

Anyone who has read the “Cleveland Mining Incidents” series of books will know the injuries sustained underground could be horrific.

Bulmers directory of 1890 list the following staff
Miners’ Hospital - Messrs. Merryweather & Dunn, medical officers

Kellys directory of 1909 lists the following staff

Skelton Cottage Miners Hospital - John Thorner. LRCP Edin, Surgeon.
Skelton Cottage Miners Hospital - Frederick P Wigfield MB, Surgeon.
Skelton Cottage Miners Hospital - Miss Clara Baldwin, Matron.
The hospital built in 1883 is now a private residence.

I’m back, after a few technical gremlins with the site.

An old hand-painted sign for a local surveyors office can be found on the corner of Knights restaurant on Fountain Street

This little gem is hidden away in nettles at the top of Lawns Gill, the spring was the water supply for Skelton Castle. Old OS maps call it Spring Head.

The inscription reads :-

Leap from thy cavern’d mossy bed,
Hither thy prattling waters bring
Blandusia’s Muse shall crown thy head
And make thee too a sacred spring

Some attribute the words to John Hall Stevenson eccentric playboy owner of Skelton Castle, it is said the “Crazy Castle” in his “Crazy Tales” is Skelton. The are numerous tales of his exploits such as not getting out of bed when the wind was blowing from the east and racing roman chariots on Saltburn beach. His group of friends knows as the “Demoniacs” sounds like an interesting bunch with names such as Rev. “Panty” Lascelles and Zachary Moore

Other attribute the words directly to Stevensons friend and fellow “Demoniac” Laurence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy in the 1760s. There are other Sterne links as just to the North East of Skelton Castle are areas known as Sterne’s Seat and Mount Shandy.

“Blandusia” is a corruption of Bandusia which was an ancient Roman spring

Apart from the very obvious Guibal Fanhouse closer investigation of the site reveals some more details.

Running due east from the fanhouse is a culvert with a metal pipe inside, it runs for nearly 200 feet and remains of a building can be seen on the surface where it ends.

Further east again in the undergrowth appears to be the base of a chimney (or the base of a privvy depending on your personal interpretation)

Slightly to the north of that a stone engine base can also be found hidden in the undergrowth.

The Tees Link footpath starts/ends here and connects the Cleveland Way with the Teesdale Way

In the stream are the footings for a rail bridge which connected Waterfall Ironstone mine to the branch for Skelton Park and Skelton Shaft mines.
A number of rails presumably originally from the bridge appear to have been reused to strengthen the bank on the right.

I can’t find an specifics about this one, but strongly suspect its by local favourite Andrew McKeown

Originally a corn mill, the building was converted for the manufacture of Roman Cement around 1811 (a hydraulic cement which can set underwater) , a drying kiln can be seem to the rear of the building.

The Anish Kapoor sculpture Temenos is nearing completion

A few facts a figures on the scupture.

The original tower was built by John Middleton in 1847, only three sides of the clock tower have a face because they were erected by subscription and its said the businesses on the blank side didn’t want their workers clockwatching.

After numerous redesigns of the docks, the current tower is said to date from around 1870, it doubled as a water tower to maintaining water pressure in the dock gates.

At the beginning of the ‘Boro Brick Road’ outside the Riverside Stadium are a series of bricks to commemorate the 8 Middlesbrough players killed in both World Wars.

• Andrew Jackson died 1917
• Henry Cook died 1917
• Donald McLeod died 1917
• Bobby Atherton died 1917
• Archibald Wilson died 1918
• Dick Wynn died 1919
• David Murphy died 1944
• Ralph Arran died 1944

Their full stories can be read here

The Farnsdale mines operated between 1873 and 1897 under the Blakey Iron Company and later the Farndale Iron Company.

An incline can be followed down to the location from the railway line up at Blakey Junction.

At the bottom of the incline, a tramway ran along the hillside at the level of the ironstone

Most of the remains are obscured by subsequent rock falls, but one small drift is still visible.

At this point the railway link to the Rosedale mines passed under the road.

A cutting can be seen approching the now blocked bridge, with a junction in the left of the photo leading off to the Blakey / Farndale mines.

A row of cottages were also present at this junction but have since been demolished.

I have marked the original location of the Grangetown Power Station built by the Cleveland and Durham Electric Company in 1906 which worked until 1937 and was finally demolished in 1969 to make way for the new steel plant. It was the first in the world to generate at 11,000 volts.

The current position of the date stone and plaque is elsewhere within the Corus site, so cannot be visited by the public.