After the wild, altitude-busting experience of the Andes, few other trips can realistically compete. Unless, that is, it’s a trip back home, to Teesside, on the northeast coast of England. The port town of Middlesbrough is the beating heart of the Tees Valley, a region that has more to offer than meets the (unaccustomed) eye.
Britain’s historic industrial power owed much to exploiting its colonies; it also owed much to places like Middlesbrough, home to iron and steel, and more recently to a mammoth chemical industry. In turn, Teesside’s legacy owes pretty much everything to industrialisation.
A century or two after its heyday, post-industrial Teesside (which for me includes the likes of Middlesbrough, Redcar, Marske and Saltburn - though the region is much more than these towns) has an undeniable ragged, slightly downtrodden feel and look. Of course it does, because as well as half-forgotten industrial architecture and ‘cityscapes’ (our heritage), government after government have neglected this once innovative and dynamic power-house of British industry.
Particularly in the past two decades, areas like Teesside, already facing massive major socio-economic challenges, have suffered incalculably because of austerity and the billons removed from local government budgets. As it is, Middlesbrough, once an anvil on which the Industrial Revolution was moulded, has a legacy of historic buildings, houses and architecture. The mesmerising Transporter Bridge that spans the river Tees is the most striking example.
A few miles along the coast is the Victorian seaside town of Saltburn, famous for its funicular railway, which transports visitors up and down Saltburn bank at the same time as providing stunning seaside views. Ok, it might not be a trip to the Andes, but Saltburn, fish and chips, preferably with a cold beer, and a walk along the pier, is in its own way every bit as satisfying.
Saltburn, Middlesbrough and wider Teesside won’t feature on many travel itineraries, but as these photos show they have much more about them, for anyone prepared to scratch even a touch beneath the surface.
