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Published: September 7th 2021
I named this blog after the Dylan track. Bob was busy in 1964, giving his view on social change that he was seeing in his native land. I am giving my view on the changing faces of Redcar. I last wrote about Redcar 5 years ago and in many ways, time has stood still here. In others, the world has been tipped upside down since the 2016 post and I don't refer to COVID. Steel has been in the blood of the town for generations, but is no more. The huge steel plant had been taken over by the Thai company, SSI in 2011 (although it will always be British Steel Redcar to me). The plant had been mothballed by previous owners, Corus and the UK arm of the Thai conglomerate was hailed for the forray into the local industrual scene. There were promises. There are always promises. The over supply of steel in the world market would prove to be the thorn in the side of this project, as it had in many before. The prosperous future was shortlived and rumours started to circulate in September 2015 that the company was struggling. It officially went into liquidation in early October.
British Steel Redcar
South Gare Fisherman's Huts Association in the foreground The slender hopes of salvation and new buyers rested with the fires still burning. The salvation never came. The end officially came at 1500 hours on October 12 2015. Sahaviriya Steel Industries were the final owners. 170 years of steel making on Teesside came to an end. The times had changed. There was no going back.
The steelworks were of course a tip of an iceberg. Other businesses rely on the spend from the employees. I went looking for the Yorkshire Bank. It closed in 2019. Of course their branch network shrinking had nothing directly to do with the steel plant, but it cannot have helped the cause. At the end of the road, the fabulous art deco Regent Cinema was no more The tide waits for no man. The years of battering by the elements and the North Sea had caused irreparable damage and plans were afoot for a new cinema. The bulldozers moved in in autumn of 2020 to make way for a new £9.86 million complex on the same site. The figures seems very precise. We will see whether the budget is held firm. The new cinema will apparently feature 3 screens with capacities of 34,
56 and 94. The cafe bar will feature "spectacular" sea views. Redcar does not lack opportunities for a spectacular sea view. The new construction is now well underway.
I still mourn the loss of the Coatham Bowl. It was the first real access to live music we had. The fame of the Jazz Club was long gone, but in its day decent sized bands would roll up. The converted bowling alley with its low roof probably appealed to many bands keen to avoid the all seater venues. We would head down there to watch anybody basically - from rock bands to pinks and anything inbetween. Local boy, David Coverdale was a regular with his Whitesnake. I look back through the gig list on the internet with fond memories of seeing such as John Foxx and Ultravox. The flattened site was marketed as a unique development opportunity. It remains so, although new ideas include a plan for a 5000 capacity Coatham Arena. I somehow wonder if Stockton hasn't nipped in ahead and secured the mid size North East venue with thr refurbishment of the fabulous Globe on the High Street. The Mungle Jungle amusements across the way are also missing
in action. The plan there is a £6 million hotel development. I head off towards the South Gare.
Coatham passes into Warrenby. Warrenby was once a thriving community, that has all but upped sticks and disappeared. The streets of terraced houses are long gone to be replaced by industrial units. I stopped to photograph one of the obviously original buildings on Todd Point Road. St Mary's Church was only opened in 1953, but ceased religious activity in 1978 as the population disappeared around it. The rather functional looking building now houses a vehicle repair business. I followed the road down to where the old level crossing once stood. The train line to Middlesbrough once passed this way, but was re-routed inland to accommodate the new blast furnace at the steel plant and serve the brutalist building that was Steel House. The old tracks are gone, but the route is still visible as it headed directly into the steel plant. The majority who use the line nowadays possibly have no idea of the original route towards Middlesbrough.
Once in the other side of the tracks, a sign warns that you are entering private land. Other signs warn that surveillance
eyes are upon you, if you are flytipping. The occasional pile of debris suggests not all have heeded the warnings and the numbers of cars suggests Teessiders don't consider it private at all. Or perhaps they just don't read signs. This was once the extent of permanent dry land. The domain of salt marsh and sands has been transformed by the man made construction into an industrial moonscape, that protects the Tees Estuary. Yes, pretty much the whole landscape is man made. The work started in 1859 and cost a bob or two short of £220,000. It was a lot of money in the day. A series of retaining walls run for a distance of 22 miles to keep the water at bay and the area was backfilled with materials dredged from the River Tees. The walls are mainly blast furnace slag supplemented by concrete. The works finished in 1884 with the construction of the lighthouse on the southern pier. The Pier is now all fenced off with safety concerns being cited by the Port Authority. Fishermen and birdwatchers are not impressed.
The land immediately before the fence is scarred with the sites of the former gun batteries. The
original batteries were installed between 1890 and 1892, but removed in 1902. A replacement was added in 1907 and again decommissioned in 1920. The looming threat across the North Sea prompted further batteries to be added in 1938, but just the bases remain. The main fortifications left form what is now the South Gare Marine Club. The compound was originally used as a maintenance base for the electrically fired mines, which protected the mouth of the Tees in World War 2. The old Lifeboat Station now stands empty. There was always a lifeboat stationed here, but the area is now covered from Hartlepool on the north side of the estuary. Similarly the Teesside Sub Aqua Club building looked a bit unloved, but their website suggests business as usual. We walked down to Paddy's Hole - the harbour tucked into the mouth of the Tees. It go it's name from the many Irish, who were employed to build the Gare. The weather changed every 5 minutes, as we stood and looked out across the industrial landscape. Bright sunshine one moment. Squally showers and gusty winds the next.
The Tees Pilot boats were backwards and forwards in front of us in
the main channel. I read the entrance channel to enter the river is over 700 metres wide. It doesn't look it from where we stand. A huge 240 metre tanker looms closely, patiently waiting his signal from the Pilot to head towards open water. An expectant crowd gathers on the bank to watch proceedings. It is not until you venture to the Gare, that you realise how much of a spectator event the shipping movements into and of the Tees are. The tanker, Lancing, is Bahamas based. It was on the way back to Rotterdam. There was no rest for the Pilot vessels. Ten minutes later and they were escorting the 120 metre, Arklow Breeze. Arklow Breeze was tiny in comparison to Lancing. It was bringing rock aggregate from Scotland.
Vera was anxious to explore, so we headed across towards Coatham Beach. A short walk through the dunes brought us to the wide open expanse of sand. We ushered her away from a dead seal washed up on the shore. The colony across on the north bank is thriving, but not this one. The next obstacle was a dead jellyfish. The beach was covered in all things fascinating to
a small Norfolk Terrier. We walked towards Redcar for a while. The new sight on the horizon was constantly to our left. The old industrial landscape of the Tees now has a new companion - the Tees Wind Farm. 27 huge turbines lie just off the beach. The farm was completed in 2013 and is owned by EDF Energy. The kite surfers in their camper vans waited patiently for their turn with wind. We walked back towards the dunes to get a photo of the steelworks. There is no permanent population at the Gare, but tucked into the dunes and sheltered from the incoming wind blasts from the North Sea are the huts of the South Gare Fisherman's Huts Association. There are supposed to be 101, although I didn't count them. The huts Nestle into their surroundings - all painted signal green to blend in with the scenery. The huts are all 12 feet square - big enough to sleep in, store fishing gear or just avoid the Mrs for a few hours. The irony of this unusual landscape is that as well as the last owners of the steelworks being SSI, this is also a SSI - Site if
Scientific Interest. The micro climate created by the heat of the of the blast furnace made the area habitat for unusual creatures. Rare moths are the subject of a big study recently.
We made our way back down the "private" road towards Redcar. The times they are a changing in the Redcar football scene. After 100 years with no Northern League representation, the sizeable population now has 2 teams in the set up. Redcar Athletic were first to arrive - after Stockton finally gave up winning the Wearside League and blocking the route to upward football mobility. They are now gracing Northern League 1 down Green Lane. The "Steelmen" have now been joined by Redcar Town - the automatic promotions forced by the FA at the upper echelons of the top Division, leaving spaces to fill down below. My last trip to Mo Mowlam Park was in the earlier North Riding Football League days. The opportunity of football progress has seen rapid development of the facilities. The car park has been surfaced. A turnstile has been added. Hard standing has been laid around the pitch perimeter. A small covered terrace has been established behind one goal and apparently plans
are afoot for 300 seats to wrap around the existing clubhouse and changing rooms. The steel structure was rising. A passing and optimistic Boro fan had placed a red Pride of The North East on the barrier in front of me. Redcar Town fans should similarly adorn Awesome Park with their own blue stickers. Mowlam Park is now the title for the wider area of pitches in the complex, but the commercial necessities mean the actual ground is the VibrantDoors Stadium. There is still a lot of love for Mo in Redcar, but you have to pay the bills. Redcar Town have a serious number of pitches and their groundsman has his work cut. However, he has just scooped a national award for his contribution to grassroots football. If you didn't think he had enough on, the groundsman also doubles up as social media man, programme editor and official photographer.
The visitors tonight were Chester le Street from County Durham. A healthy crowd of 201 was bolstered by a few groundhopping men keen to tick off the new venue, whilst the weather was vaguely mild. They might be less keen come December. Redcar Town have made a decent start
to life in the League without setting the world on fire. It was the same story tonight. Goalless at half time. I was hoping that it wouldn't be a repeat of my day out at Guisborough Town at the weekend. I alerted one of my friends to my whereabouts. The Mo Mowlam reference prompted his assumption that Redcar would be strong on the left. The 2nd half showed an upturn in goalmouth excitement. Redcar won in more of a canter than a 4-2 score suggested to set up a top of the table clash away at Billie Synners on Friday night.
Aappendix 1 Northern League Division 2 Redcar Town 4 Chester-le-Street 2 Date Tuesday 31 August 2021 @ 1930 Hours
Venue Vibrant Doors Stadium, Mo Mowlam Memorial Park, Trunk Rd, Redcar. TS10 5BW
Attendance 201
Scorners 1-0 Williams 54 Minutes (Redcar), 1-1 Ward 58 Minutes (CLS), 2-1 Wheatley 61 Minutes (Redcar), 3-1 Bennions 68 Minutes (Redcar), 4-1 Bennet 79 Minutes (Redcar), 4-2 Gray 89 Minutes (CLS)
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Tot: 0.113s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 42; dbt: 0.0673s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Used to store their equipment?