Captain's Log

Thornaby

Today’s route had played on my mind for quite a while. Maybe even two or three years. The England Coast Path (ECP) makes its way about 10 miles inland from the sea along the River Tees and crosses it using the Newton Bridge. Looking at the OS map of the route made my spine shiver. It went through Teesside's industrial heartland, following a railway line for a lot of the route. My mind generated dystopian images of what it would be like. For a long time, I made this section a low priority since there were plenty of other bits I could still do on the ECP. The time had come though where I had to make a decision. Would I walk it or just leave it out of my England Coast Path Venture as a section that ‘wasn’t worth doing.’ I have to confess that I came close to dismissing it, but in the end felt duty bound to give it a try. I even mooted the idea of running it so that I got it over more quickly. Eventually, I decided to walk it. 

I walked to Thornaby Railway Station and took the 16 minute journey to Redcar Central. For mi;e after mile, I looked out of the train window and was aghast at the industrial complexes that went by. There were chimneys, cooling towers, railway lines, massive warehouses, pylons and miles and miles of pipes. There were bulldozer and excavators remodelling the landscape for future factories. Crikey, I’d got to make my back through all of that! I stepped off the train at Redcar. All I had to do now was follow the River Tees back through Middlesbrough to Stockton. Simples. 

Redcar

It didn’t take long to reach Redcar’s seafront from its railway station. It was a sunny morning with a chill in the air. There was a haze too which I suspected would quickly burn off. The windfarm, just off the coast, gradually disappeared into the mist like ghosts. A few walkers were about, some of them with dogs. A horse rider trotted across the beach to the sea and the horse paddled its way along the shore. The haze was thick enough that I couldn’t see to the end of the bay where the River Tees makes its way inland. The ECP doesn’t actually go to the end of the bay, but takes a short cut to the river. It followed a path behind the dunes for a while and then crossed a golf course, before making its way across Cootham Marsh. The route curved around on itself so much that it felt like I was heading back into Redcar. I crossed the railway line and then hit my first problem of the day. An ECP sign indicated a different direction to what I had on my map. I’d formed my route from the official ECP website and so I thought it would be definitive. I wondered about all those bulldozers and excavators I’d seen on the approach to Redcar and decided that their website hadn’t caught up with current developments. I decided to follow the signs, rather than my map and it brought me out at a main road. I started heading along the dual carriageway towards Middlesbrough. Fortunately there was a pavement. 

Teesdale Way

The reason for the diversion was part of the massive Teesworks project. The landscape was littered with earthmoving machines and workers with high-viz jackets. I passed by the main gate that had a large led sign announcing the project. I continued along the road and reached a sign for the Teesdale Way. The ECP followed this trail into Middlesbrough. I dropped down to a track next to a railway line and a huge collection of pipes, all heading towards the river. Every few yards a sign informed me that the area was under CCTV surveillance. The signs would continue for miles, although I never actually saw any cameras. The track swung to the west and would follow a straight line for miles. There seemed to be some sort of slag heap on my left and a security fence on my right. The path itself was maybe 1.5-2m across. Despite all the pipes, railway lines and industrial units around me, the place actually felt quite remote. In my nightmares I’d envisioned the track being used for speedway by the local gangs, but I really couldn’t see anybody making their way along here. The name Teesdale gave a very favourable spin to the place. 

After 20 minutes or so, the slag heap on my left had been prevented from overflowing onto the track by a high retaining wall. This had created a dam like structure and had unfortunately caused the track to become flooded with rain. The depth of the water was well over boot height. The water stretched for about 50m. A wire fence on my right prevented me finding an alternative route and the area beyond it was also flooded anyway. I rolled up my trousers to my knees and started making my way along the wire fence, using the wire as rungs. It was a precarious manouvre and once or twice I thought I’d tumble back into the water. I got about half way across the stretch and gave up. I stepped off the fence and water flooded into my boots. The water level was about 5 inches above the top of my boots. Its smelt grizzly. God knows what contaminants were in it. I waded to the end of the flooding. I thought about emptying my boots and wringing my socks out, but there weren’t any dry places to sit down. I’d just have to walk on further and find a place. It was a good job that I didn’t stop to empty my boots since there were two other stretches of similar flooding, a little further along. I was only mile 4 of a 15+ mile walk and my feet were soaked. I sighed. 

It felt a bit claustrophobic walking between the two lines of security fences. A few decrepit looking pipes ran alongside the track. I wasn’t sure whether they were active or not. I saw ‘oxygen’ printed on a pipe at one point. I passed a huge BOC factory and so maybe the pipes led there. Every so often, I’d come across a small derelict brick building that must have served some purpose at one time. Some of them were just filled with junk, whilst others had valves that looked well past there sell by date…but, who knows. Presumably, all this equipment must be documented somewhere, but looking at old it seemed, it must be paper, rather than digital based. There was so much rubbish along the track too. Beer cans, bits of cars, wires and plastic bags. It seems like they just build over the rubbish on Teeside. Archaeologists will have trouble trying to determine what happened here in a few millennia. They’ll probably need to wear hazmat suits too.   

It had been an hour since I’d gone for a paddle and so I found a relatively clean piece of concrete to sit down and empty my boots of water. I was surprised how much was still sloshing about. I’d been wearing waterproof socks, but the water had poured over the top of them. I spent a while wringing them out and thought about the contaminants I may have got on my hands. My boots felt a good deal lighter when I put them back on.    

I walked for miles in a straight line along the path. I never met anybody. At one point, I saw half a dozen railway workers maintaining a section of track and thought about waving to them, but they ignored me. They must have thought I was some weirdo wandering about in this industrial wilderness. The factories were endless. Some were obvious (e.g. aggregates), others not. Some emitted rather peculiar smells and others hissed and clanged. Teesside reminded me of industrial South Yorkshire in the 1970s and early 1980s. Whereas South Yorkshire has mostly remodelled itself into call centres and logistics, Teesside seems to have got stuck in a time warp.

Out of the blue, I came across quite an interesting metal sculpture of a flower. Given the detritus all around, it came as quite a surprise. A little further on and a road crossed the track. There were ornate Teesdale Way fingerposts on both sides of the road with steel boots hanging from them. It felt like the Teesdale Way creators had spent whatever money they’d had on this one small section of path. A few minutes later I came across an art display that was displayed on a concrete wall next to a large factory of unknown purpose. The art and notes on the wall were actually quite interesting and I hoped that the rest of the track to Middlesbrough might offer a bit more creatively. It didn’t. At one point I came across a huge mound of earth. Two large lorries gradually backed their wheels up to its very edge and then started tipping earth down its steep slopes. Fair play to the drivers, I would never have dared to get that close to the edge.T he path ran along the bottom of the dumped earth and I hoped that no boulders would roll down and hit me. I quickly made my way across the danger zone. A fingerpost indicated the way to the Teesside View Point that was a 300m out-and-back off the main trail. I decided to go and take a look. The path crossed an old railway bridge that had some reasonably good artwork painted on its sides. My expectations rose a little. I crossed an incredibly dusty road with lorries and 4x4s travelling way above the speed limit. On the other side, a tarmac path led me up to the viewpoint. There was litter everywhere. A metal sculpture and seating area had been built at the viewpoint. The area was covered with bottles and cans. I felt a bit sad. At some point time somebody had invested a bit of money in this area to make it a place a family might want to visit. The area just felt threatening now. The worst thing of all was that they’d planted trees just below the viewing area and the branches blocked most of the view along the River Tees. Even so, I could make out Middlesbrough's town centre and even the Riverside football stadium. There was also a curious dual hoop and wire structure  that I couldn’t quite make out. I set off back to the Teesdale Way and my route into Middlesbrough. 

Middlesbrough

At last I got to the end of the long straight track that I’d followed almost from Redcar. I had to cross the railway line for escape, but the Gods had their last laugh by closing the railway barriers and making me wait. Next to the crossing was an old derelict house. A few hundred metres beyond it, I could see the impressive modern structure of the Riverside Stadium. Like so much of Teesside, there was a contrast with the old and new. It seems that some areas get investment and others none.  

The barriers raised and I made my way over to the Riverside Stadium. Middlesbrough FC moved here in 1995 from their old haunt at Ayresome Park. It cost £16 million and took 9 months to build which seems incredibly efficient when you think of how difficult we seem to find building things today. There were some statues near the front entrance of footballers that I’d never heard of before. As its name suggests, it was built next to the Tees and I walked to its side. There I found a massive abstract sculpture known as Tenemos. It is 110m long and 50m high and consists of a pole and 2 rings with steel wires connecting the 3 pieces. It looks like its been created by a three dimensional Spirograph. It was supposed to have been the first of 5 sculptures in the Teeside area, but the other 4 never got built. Maybe they ran out of money or people lost enthusiasm for the project. Probably there was a council tax payers backlash. It seemed like another example of where there had been a significant amount of money spent, but they’d not quite finished the job. This theme seemed to continue as I made my way around the large Middlehaven Dock area. A massive modern college had been built along one side. There was a high rise residential tower and some offices. It was obvious quite a lot of money had been spent building these places, but there were large areas of windswept nothingness in between. If this was London, there’d be some cafes, bars and retail outlets to make it less of a sterile atmosphere. A few ponies had been staked to the grass in the area in front of the college. It seemed a bizarre addition; maybe gypsies had put them there. Nearby was the similarly isolated hydraulic clock tower. The red brick structure was built as a water tower between 1870 and 1903. It ony has 3 clock faces supposedly to prevent workers from ‘clock-watching.’ 

I left the dock area and headed for my next objective. This was clearly visible; it was the famous bright blue Transporter Bridge. It was certainly an impressive structure and seemed to get better the closer I got. There was a small Visitor Centre at the bottom of its south tower and I poked my head in to have a look around. To my amazement, I walked into a room so dark I couldn’t read  any of the information boards on the walls. I heard a click behind me and the lights went on. A greeter had entered the room from an adjoining office and had switched the lights on. Maybe they don’t get many visitors. I chatted with him for a good while. The bridge had been out of action since 2019 due to it requiring significant structural remediation work. The repairs would cost millions and could involve a massive barge crane to lift the high gantry down to ground level to make the repairs easier. Part of the agreement for funding the repairs is that it is put back into service as a working bridge. The greeter said that the bridge used to carry 9 cars, but given the increase in sizes of cars, they probably would only manage 6 now. He reckoned they only used to make £15K a year from transporting cars. It doesn’t really seem to make any economic sense to repair it. The bridge was only ever designed to carry people, rather than cars and so maybe that’s where its future needs to be directed: that is, tourism. I think I’d probably start by installing a sensor light switch in the Visitor Centre first though. 

River Tees

I walked alongside a road for a while and then it cut through a park to reach the River Tees. This was the first clear view I’d had of the river since setting off from Redcar. I’d follow the river bank upstream towards my hotel. Looking upstream, I could see some cooling towers and industrial units on the other side. The Teesside industry seemed to go on forever. The sun was warm now and it felt more mid-summer than March. It was pleasant walking along the riverbank and I enjoyed the more open views. The river headed southwards and I followed it. I could see the distinctive Newport Bridge further along the river. This is where the ECP crosses to the north side of the river. Before I got there I came across a steel sculpture of a seal. There was a young woman sat on a seat next to the sculpture. I was conscious of invading her personal space and so I said, ‘I’ll just take a photo of the seal.’
‘Oh you don’t have to have my permission’ she responded. ‘You might have to erase the fuckers graffiti from your photo’ she added. I thanked her for her advice. 

It seemed to take a long time to reach the Newport Bridge, but I eventually got there. Thankfully there’s a pedestrian walkway across the bridge since it was very busy with traffic. The bridge was another piece of amazing engineering. It was a vertical lift bridge, which allowed the central span to be lifted upwards to allow boats down the river.The huge lifting chains are clearly visible on both towers. The bridge no longer lifts and is left in its lowest position and used as a normal bridge. After about 12 miles walking from Redcar, I’d eventually reached the other side of the River Tees. The ECP now headed back towards the coast via Seaton Carew. I wanted to do that section of the walk tomorrow, weather permitting (spoiler: it was too rainy to do it and so I visited the Hartlepool Royal Navy Museum instead).

I went off-piste a little on the other side of the bridge and found a rough track that delivered me on to the riverside path. I followed this for about half a mile back to the Premier Inn hotel next to the Tees Barrage. The Tees Barrage and the white water circuit, as well as the nearby nature reserve are well worth visiting. Details of these can be found in the Captain’s Log of From From Tees Bridge To Infinity.    

It had been an incredible day. I’ve never completed a walk like it before. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be to everybody’s taste, but I found the traverse of Teesside’s industrial complexes fascinating. You just need to remember to take a couple of rubble bags for that flooded section.