Middlesborough

Redcar steel works

The clocks went back last night, so we had a chance for a lovely lie in with that extra hour we were gifted, but no, both of us decided we wouldn't sleep well and woke up way way too early.  We lost our chance.  Poo!  Today we were heading up to Middlesbrough to stay with Malcom and Kae and James & Amy before heading to Pickering and our holiday let for the week.

They loved Wensleydale when they came over here, so we decided to buy them some cheese, especially as they had got hold of some free tickets for the trains (worth £60).  The creamery doesn't open until 10am so there was no point making an early start, I guess it gave us the chance to actually tidy the house, put clothes away etc before heading out.

We got to the Creamery as it opened and were the first ones in to the tasting room, we did our usual circuit and then bought a cheese cool bag and filled it up for them.  We then headed north east across the dales towards Middlesbrough, lovely drive it was too as we got to enjoy clear blue skies and sunshine, the landscape was certainly looking its best.

Tom and Amy on the beach

Just as we were beginning to get peckish we saw a sign for a farm shop and cafe off the road called roots.  We headed off to find a very very good eatery: Tom had his usual tuna melt (farm made bread, good cheese), Matt some waffles with bacon and maple syrup and I had scrambled egg and smoked salmon - a massive portion: it was a desert bowl of scrambled egg - at least 3 eggs, if not 4.  Just as well Matt's meal was small as I was able to hand over half my egg to him, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to finish it.  Smoked salmon was good too.

We carried on our way to Nunthorpe - which is on the outskirts of Middlesbrough and found the Nicolsons' house.  They knew that it was my and Tom's first time to the area, so wasted no time in taking us out for a tour (plus now it gets dark soon).  They planted James (12) in our car and we followed them.  Now we have met James a couple of times, and were worried it might be too much of an ask for him to do the tour guide thing (especially as he has only lived there 3 years) but he was excellent.  Gave us a run down of the history and also a lot of information as to what cars everyone has in his neighbourhood - he is a real petrol head.

We stopped off at Redcar Steel Works - where we saw the old blast furnace and slag heaps.  The blast furnace was switched off about 2 years ago after 170 years of constant use.  As a result there is a huge industrial wasteland which although not classically pretty does have a beauty of its own.  Lots of chimneys, industrial buildings, pipes, rails etc etc.  Apparently when they first closed it they were going to mothball it, but now it is dead forever, but of course the amount of pollution in the area is significant, meaning they can't do anything with it, and will have to spend a huge amount of time and money clearing it up.  We had a good clamber around, I found some bricks, part of what I think was a toilet, and it I had longer, I'm sure I could have found lots more interesting things.  It is right on the coast, and it was breezy.  The sky was blue, but we could see rain all around, at some point we were going to get hit with it.

Soaked on the prom

We carried on up to the end of the peninsula to South Gare, where we found a community of green fishing huts sheltering in a hollow (apparently now protected as very few of their type exist) and a lighthouse, a cafe, a scuba shop etc etc.  We went for a walk, threw some stones, the kids darted off in the distance and we all got a beating from the wind.  We could see tankers out in the distance waiting to come in on the tide and a pilot go out to meet them.  There was a huge yellow sandy beach in front of the old blast furnace, which if in Spain would be completely built up with hotels etc, but because of its location was pretty empty.  Lovely big surfing waves too.

Next stop was Redcar itself.  We parked up and went for a walk.  This was when we got unlucky as the rain caught up with us.  However, we are all now tough northerners (even Kae who is Thai) and carried on.  The rain got worse and turned into hail!  We all had to stop and were all shouting as the hail hurt us on any bits of exposed bare skin.  Tom wanted to go back to the car - but it was over as quickly as it started so we decided to continue on.  The prom was quite interesting - lots of interesting sculptures, collages etc and at one point a vertical pier - something I didn't know even existed?!  Can't say it was particularly beautiful - just looked like a small block of council flats with a weird sculpture around it.

Tessside from Marske

As we were all cold and wet we decided to head to a coffee shop and actually found a half decent one.  I hadn't even heard of Redcar before and if I had been asked would have guessed it was in the Midlands, it is in fact a resort town, full of amusements, ice cream parlours etc etc and the usual coastal town deprivation.  I would say a bit like Morecambe but a bit more upmarket (but only a bit!).

By the time we had defrosted, the rain had passed by so we decided to head back to the cars, very pleasant it was too in the sunshine. Next stop was Marske - a view point from which you could see the industrial landscape of Teesside.  There were all the old steel works, but also all the current plants (over 50% of the UK's chemical industry is in Teesside at the moment).  The sun was setting on the horizon, so it made for a beautiful picture of an industrial skyline - very different to our usual view of the Dales.

We headed home, then Kae got to work on tea - she had promised us proper Thai food, we weren't disappointed: we had pork curry, Thai veggies and bbq pork with two types of rice.  It was all very good, although the curry was way too spicy for Tom.  There wasn't much left at the end of it.

The kids then disappeared to play games in the spare room, whilst we sat and nattered and drank copious amounts of wine and beer.  We staggered to bed.