The pillbox overlooks the Seaton On Tees channel, where Greatham Creek reaches the sea.
Externally its virtually free of grafitti, perhaps due to its remote location.
Inside the mounting pole for a Bren or Lewis gun still remains.
Monthly Archives: August 2012
North Ormesby Hospital
The hospital dated from 1861 and was demolished in 1982 to make way for these homes.
The two stones in the wall were recovered.
The North Ormesby Community History Group have a series of photos of the building.
Cargo Fleet Road – Toll Bar
This lovely but neglected building was once a Toll Bar on the road between Middlesbrough and Cargo Fleet.
The building looks solid but the missing pieces of roof suggest it will now be ruined inside.
‘Bolckow‘ has this fantastic photo of it on his Flickr account.
The building is said to date from 1854 and Middlesbrough was one of the last towns in the UK to have toll roads, only being abolished on 31st July 1916
Forgotten park at Cargo Fleet Wharf
This area looks to have been developed as a public park in the late 1980s but is no longer maintained and tricky to reach for the public. It was actually opened by Prince Charles
At the top of the hill is a viewpoint which has been vandalised in the past, but looks forgotten about now.
No traces of any older structures are visible, although the view up the river towards Middlesbrough is still good.
Down by the riverside is interesting as this is one of the only points downstream of Middlesbrough you can access the banks of the Tees without being on private property.
A large concrete pillar stands in the water which may correspond to a Slag Conveyer shown in the 1929 OS map, although i’m by no means certain of that.
Rows of rotted wooden posts are also visible at the waters edge which presumably are the mooring posts for Cargo Fleet Wharf, although i’m yet to locate a photo of this area in use.
Bridge between Cargo Fleet Ironworks and Cargo Fleet Wharf
This bridge crossing the main railway now stands isolated behind Dockside Road and the back of the South Tees Motor Sports Park which covers the location of the Cargo Fleet Ironworks
Its inaccessible from either end, presumably to stop vandals throwing things onto passing trains as crossing wouldn’t actually get you anywhere.
Dave Walsh then quickly posed an interesting question about whether this was actually the bridge that carried the Cleveland Railway to the Normanby Jetty, to which I didn’t know the answer. Looking at the 1894 map there are actually two adjacent bridges, the northern one going to the Cargo Fleet Wharf and the southern one going to the Normanby Jetty used by Bell Brothers to transport ironstone to their works at Port Clarence.
The 1915 map appear the show the southerly bridge gone, leaving only the remaining one to the Cargo Fleet Wharf, but i’m by no means certain of all its functions over the years so any additional information would be welcome.
Update : Simon Chapman has kindly shared a 1972 photo of the bridge with me. In front of the bridge on the right can be seen the remaining parapet of the Cleveland Railway bridge to Normanby Jetty which was subsequently demolished. On the left of the photo is Normanby signalbox which controlled the junction for mineral traffic into Cargo Fleet Works.
Turner Coat-of-Arms, Kirkleatham
A decorative buttress on the Turner Mausoleum carries the coat-of-arms of the Turner family.
It was originally from inside and dates from the construction around 1740-1742
Grave of Jean Scargill, Kirkleatham
War graves are a very common site in virtually every cemetery in the country, but its more unusual to see one for a woman.
20 year old Jean Scargill was one of 24 members of the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force who died in Yorkshire during the war. She was killed when her truck was hit by a Halifax bomber on Marston Moor on 8 July 1943.
St Cuthberts Gateposts and Mounting Step, Kirkleatham
Kirkleatham Hall, Kitchen Garden
The are many stages to this wall, built to surround the kitchen gardens of Kirkleatham Hall, some dates from the 17th Century.
I recall this being a council garden centre in 1980s when I was a child but its since become overgrown, although there was some activity in the buildings at the back, suggesting something is happening.
Kirkleatham Free School / Old Hall Museum
Chomley Turner, nephew of Sir William Turner built this school at a cost of £1000 in 1709 thought to be designed by Robert Hooke (although Wikipedia says he died in 1703). It remained a school until 1864 when that moved to Coatham Road in Redcar.
The building was later used for convalescing soldiers in World War 1.
It opened as the Old Hall museum (even though it was never the home of the squire) in 1981.