It’s thanks to Ray Brown for this photo of the pier as it used to be at Saltburn, I should be able to remember it like this but I guess the memory is going because I cannot recall it   but doesn’t it look lovely?  Now I have been reading about the pier and at one time it was 1.500 feet long and the seaward end we see here was removed by a storm on October 29th 1974

Once again a photo believed to have been taken between 1880 and 1895, but it is not as we know Saltburn today.
(photo courtesy of Pem Holiday and thanks to David Richardson for the update)

This photo shows all that remains after the Halfpenny Bridge was blown up a lovely landmark gone but not forgotten.
(photo courtesy of Pem Holiday)

This photo is a bit of a rarity as well. It is of an experimental Bottrail Tractor on Saltburn beach around the 1920s. I couldn’t see this as being very successful due to the length of the treads. Too many parts to go wrong. Perhaps that is why we never see this kind of thing to day. It must have been quite a bumpy ride too.
(thanks to Derick Pearson for the photo and information)

The ’Ovenbeg’ was carrying a cargo of china clay from Fowey in Cornwall to Grangemouth in Scotland when she was driven ashore, just to the west of the pier, by a strong gale.  This photo shows just how close she was to the pier. 

(Image courtesy of Kathleen Hicks, copyright – E. Graham, Redcar)

The upper image shows a view of the ’Ovenbeg’ from the beach.  It was hoped to refloat her as the weather moderated during the day of 7th May.  At nightfall the gales blew up again and repeatedly smashed the ship against the pier.  Eventually she broke through, causing a 70m gap, and finally washing up on the beach at the other side of the pier, a mangled wreck.

(Image courtesy of Kathleen Hicks.  Source of information – ’Piers of Disaster’ by Martin Easdown).

Viewing Huntcliffe from above the chalets which still exist, overlooking the Beach Cafe as it used to be before Rosie O’Grady’s or Stella Mar.

A different view of Saltburn from Huntcliffe, interestingly the pier is is shown with a substantial seaward end (compared to the present day truncation).

First of a series of postcard views of Saltburn, showing a view of Old Saltburn cottages, beside the Ship Inn and a view down the lower section of Hazel Grove from presumeably a bandstand now no longer in existence.

We think this image was taken in the 1950s .  Do you remember this boating lake?

Hiya my grandad remembers it. It was known as just Saltburn boating Lake. Whats left of it now is now the orange beck that runs through the valley gardens into the sea.

Where the cars are is now the car park and public loos, and the little hut behind them is the beach cafe.

I remember going to the kids paddling pool down there when i was little and my grandad telling me, that when he was younger the beck was a lot bigger and wider than it is now and it went under the road bridge too.

be great to find out who it is in the boat.

A fairly recent image of Saltburn taken from the steep climb up the Cleveland Way behind The Ship Inn.
Ray would like to know what the building was next to the Old Mortuary – and Mr(?) Atherill tells us that it was Saltburn’s Lifeboat House (seems logical now you look at it! – rodders).

(image courtesy of Raymond Brown)

This, I think, is when the Zetland Hotel was still a hotel and the lovely Victorian facade of the station, including the canopy was intact. Before expediency destroyed the excursion platform with its beautiful Victorian cupolas and when the station building was still a station building instead of a shopping arcade.
(image courtesy of Russ Pigott)

Another angle of Cat Nab,  looks quite different a long the front, what are the buildings?  There is only one that stands there now the old mortuary.  Look at that beautiful long pier.

Same land mark different angle, the pier can be clearly seen in this photo.

One of Saltburn’s well known land marks, no car park there and is that the miniature railway in the background?

Not the hydraulic funicular we know and love today, but the original vertical lift – quite a scary contraption, no wonder they changed it out!

How often do you see a beach cleaner on the beach these days?

(image courtesy of Mike Holliday)

The second lot of photos and on December 1974 and the bridge falls into the beck.  The cost of  £50,000 to demolish the bridge was far greater than the  cost of building it.

As you can see by the comments a photo of the bridge under construction has been asked for, so I appeal to you people out there do you have one we could borrow?  If so please take it into Loftus library where John will copy it while you wait. Thank you, Joanj

Do you remember the Half Penny Bridge?  Beautiful views as you walked across it but sadly it had to go, there are another two photos showing the bridge as it goes into the beck.  The cost of building the bridge (by Gilkes Wilson of Middlesbrough) was around £7,000 and sadly three men lost their lives whilst working on it.

This image, taken from the Ha’penny Bridge (or Valley Bridge) in 1948, shows the original station of the Saltburn Miniature Railway – it was moved further towards the beach the year after this was taken.  The footpath was in better condition than it is now!  Notice the caravans where the picnic area is now.
(image courtesy of Saltburn Miniature Railway).

Ah, Saltburn with a long pier, a little before my time ,but I do remember the long pier, the end was washed away with a storm in October 1974.

Thanks to Julie Riddiough for the update.

A rather blurred image of ”The Ha’penny Bridge” at Saltburn taken from the boating pool – this beautiful Victorian edifice was destroyed for expediencies sake.
I can remember cycling across the bridge delivering paraffin to White House School and paying the toll to the gate-keeper at the bungalow on the far side in 1963 – rodders
(has anybody got a better image?)

A photograph contemporary with that in ”Saltburn, A Renaissance”, only taken from Cat Nab (as far as I can tell).  This shows the roundabouts where the boat park is now.

I think this dates into the 1960’s.

Here is a picture that shook the cobwebs out of my brain!  Saltburn with its paddling pool (no longer PC since the Health and Safety laws and Litigative Society), Miniature Railway running from the tourist hot spot (even more appropriate today – but sadly no longer possible because of the afore-mentioned reasons) and the beck as a useful facility instead of the debris choked mess we have today.

Notice that the miniature railway (15 inch Gauge) with its rake of toast-rack carriages is still in its original Saltburn Motor Services livery of red with cream lining (although I have been informed that the original colour was green and this was the early Council livery called ’Dustcart Red’ and white!). The 4 carriages were built in the SMS garages in Saltburn and the train was driven  by one of SMS’s regular drivers during the brief summer season.

If you look at the pier you can see how much of its beauty has been lost in the name of expediency as well!

It looks positively beautiful!

Care to date it anyone?

Quite a bit different from the pier as it now stands, it has gone through two shortening exercises in recent years, but look at the buildings – two of them – minus the noisy amusement arcade we have today, but obviously just as popular (there could be a moral here somewhere!).

If you look carefully into the distance the magnificent Half-penny Bridge can be seen, sadly no longer there any more, badly maintained in more modern times it was deemed expedient to demolish it rather than repair it.

This magnificent display is still replenished every year – although the floral masterpiece has changed design over the years.  The gardeners no longer raise the plants themselves on site however – they and their greenhouses and potting sheds are long gone.  The gardening staff are provided by Redcar and Cleveland Parks and Gardens and are just as skilled at providing the wonderful displays.

(I’ve called this ’The Italian Gardens’ – but I have a feeling that this part of the gardens has another name – I’ve no doubt someone will correct me!)

Apart from the broad concrete strip of the promenade, the pier and Hunt Cliffe not much of this seaside view remains – sad really!

Saltburn Mill in the foreground still stands, much modernised, to this day, although no longer a working mill.  The small buildings behind it are now gone – replaced by the sewage treatment plant.  Cat Nab (so named because it looks like a crouching cat) shows the paths from the bootmarks of the boots of adventurous Victorians, eager to try the air – the scars are much deeper these days and beyond recovery.

Number 3 from the picture postcards, this is a duet – the cottages of Old Saltburn and a view from the Bandstand (no longer there) on Hazelgrove, looking down towards the beach.

Another from the picture postcard booklet, this time showing Hunt Cliffe and Old Saltburn (i.e. the part that existed before the Victorian’s Spa craze).  Centre right are the tea-rooms which have since been variously named licenced-bars (Rosie O’Grady springs to mind) and behind them what is now the little cafe/amusement arcade.  The Chalets are also prominent in the centre foreground.

From a booklet of picture postcards, this shows the pier at Saltburn (with a length of 1250ft!), possibly in the period 1924-1939, Marine Parade also shows to good advantage. The original pier was some 1500ft long, but was shortened following an incident with a motor launch in 1874.

A photograph often taken today, although now the skyline is much busier with the heavy industry at Teesmouth and the huge blast furnace.

Thanks to Callum Duff for the update.