For those stumbling across this title for the first time, it is a collection of stories, musings and memories from both myself and people who live in and around Teesside. This is more than just a straightforward history book; it is a volume that examines the cultural significance of the bridge and its impact on the local community.It features over 50 original photographs of the bridge and the Middlesbrough area and, perhaps most importantly, it conveys the bridge’s unique narrative which spans from modernism to the modern-day.

Click here to order your copy of the book today!

The book is 92 pages, printed in full colour and priced at 9.95. Only 100 copies of the second edition will be printed.

THIS BOOK WILL BE SHIPPED WEDNESDAY 29TH OCTOBER 2014
THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE UK. A KINDLE VERSION IS AVAILABLE FOR OVERSEAS CUSTOMERS.

The lock is being repainted next year so I will probably photograph that process and ensure I get some more shots of her before she gets a makeover.

The Open House guide described her as a piece of ‘functional design’ but as she was built during Victoria’s reign she is also rather ornate.

This is a view looking down into the weir from the walkway. A blend of shapes, textures and sounds.

This is the side of the hut that once contained the toll booth. Once over pedestrians had to pay to cross over the river. It is now redundant as it is now free like all the other crossings in London.

Some of the smaller details are captured in this collage. I particularly like the dark brick work around the Richmond Lock sign.

My new book about the Tees Transporter Bridge is due for release on Monday 23rd June 2014. It is a collection of stories, musings and memories from both myself and people who live in and around Teesside. This is more than just a straightforward history book; it is a volume that examines the cultural significance of the bridge and its impact on the local community. Furthermore, it conveys the bridge’s unique narrative which spans from modernism to the modern-day.

The book is 96 pages, printed in full colour and priced at £9.95. Only 100 copies of the first edition will be printed.

Click here to pre-order your copy.

THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE UK

This is the front cover for my first book about bridges. The ridiculously talented Paul Newboult is responsible for the illustration and the design which blends the bridge’s iconic, modernist design with the trademark industrial chimneys of the Teesside skyline. Anyone with a connection to the Middlesbrough and Stockton area is welcome to submit their stories about the bridge for inclusion using the email address below.

This book, which is released in July just after the bridge’s reopening following Lottery grant improvements, is the first in a series of books that explores the cultural importance of bridges around the world.

Stories about the bridge should be a maximum of 200 words and emailed to [email protected] by 30th April.

It’s not a very big secret that I’m a bit of a fan of bridges, especially of those perched on the river Tees. Usually I can be found writing odes to, and books about, the blue one – the Tees Transporter Bridge – but today marks the 80th anniversary of another of Teesside’s most iconic bridges: The Tees Newport Bridge. Furthermore, an announcement has been made that the Transporter Bridge Visitor Experience Project, supported by a £2.6m Heritage Lottery Fund, has uncovered historic photographs that will shed new light on the Tees Newport Bridge. 

Over 100 photographs of the Tees Newport Bridge dating from the early 1930s showcase the landmark’s development from the construction of approach roads that saw the demolition of nearby housing towers to the structure’s anchor span being lowered.  Other images show numerous iron and steel works and workers along the banks of the River Tees, the historic boundary between Durham and Yorkshire.

The unique images, many from historic Middlesbrough-based photography firm W. Haig Parry, were uncovered in Teesside Archives’ yet to be catalogued Cleveland Bridge Collection by Tosh Warwick from the Tees Transporter Bridge Visitor Experience Project, and Teesside University Graduate and Tees Valley Community Foundation Intern Jonathon Hooton.  The pair are currently carrying out research for the upcoming ‘Bridging the World’ exhibition at the Transporter Bridge Visitor Centre, which celebrates the area’s bridge building heritage and features superstructures including Sydney Harbour and Victoria Falls Bridges. 

The photographs, which will appear in the upcoming exhibition at the Transporter Bridge Visitor Centre in Middlesbrough, will also feature in ‘The History of the Tees Newport Bridge:  The First 80 Years, 1934-2014’, a new book due for release in the coming months by Middlesbrough Council marking the Newport Bridge’s 80^th anniversary. 

‘The Green One and the Blue One’ art exhibition celebrating the Newport and Transporter Bridges will also take place at The Heritage Gallery, Cargo Fleet from this Friday (17:30-19:30) to mark the 80^th birthday of Dorman Long’s Newport Bridge.

Often overshadowed by its illustrious neighbour the Transporter Bridge, the Newport crossing was the first vertical lift bridge of its type in Britain and largest in the World when opened by the Duke and Duchess of York on 28 February 1934.  Owing to a decline in river traffic on the Tees the need to lift the Bridge declined and the structure is now pinned down with the last elevation having taken place in 1990.

Tosh Warwick is appealing for members of the public to contribute their memories of the Newport Bridge for inclusion in the forthcoming history of the Bridge.  Contributions can be emailed to [email protected] or in writing to Tosh Warwick, Tees Newport Bridge Memories, 3^rd Floor, PO Box 502, Vancouver House, Gurney Street, Middlesbrough, TS1 9FW.

All images in this post are reproduced with the permission of Teesside Archives and Middlesbrough Council.

When up in Newcastle for a wedding a couple of weeks ago, we stayed pretty much next door to the Gateshead Millennium Bridge on the Gateshead side of the Tyne. It’s the world’s only ’tilting bridge’ and as we were on our way to the wedding it began to tilt. Naturally, I had my camera out like a flash.

Today I went on a psychogeographical wander around Middlesbrough for a chapter in a book I’m working on. I’m not ready to release details yet but towards the end of the year all will be revealed. In this post are several photographs I took on my travels, the relevance of swan-shaped pedalos will not be lost on Iain Sinclair fans – if you haven’t already watched Swandown, I recommend it.

In case you haven’t noticed, I have a somewhat curious obsession with bridges, particularly bridges on the Tees. After writing an article about a trip up one of the best-known bridges of the North East: The Transporter, I was approached by their events officer to host a seminar about the cultural importance of the bridge. During the preliminery meeting I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of a book that had been produced for the bridge’s centenary – Everything Flows: A Celebration of the Transporter Bridge in Poetry.

Expertly edited, this book delivers individually poignant poems and also works collectively as a weaving narrative – pulling together the threads of a complicated local history. Featuring both bold imagery and endearing colloquialisms, these compositions are a heady cocktail of memory, nostalgia and regional pride – but there’s no sugar coating here. Although there is ample reference to the Saturday afternoon football cheers reverberating from Riverside Stadium (situated a stone’s throw from the structure) the bridge’s unfortunate reputation as an iconic suicide spot is also sensitively explored.

For those unfamiliar with the bridge itself, it is one of the few remaining transporter bridges in the world and is one of the most prominent emblems of the Teesside skyline. By day it is an angular marvel, piercing the grey sky with its  steely geometry and at night it is a blue beacon in a swamp of yellow street lights. Its opening ceremony was conducted on the 17th October 1911 and since then it has taxied workers across the river Tees at Port Clarence.

The book offers a truly layered understanding of why this bridge is so deeply embedded in the identity of the North East and why the residents of the much-maligned towns of Middlesbrough and Stockton hold it in such high regard. The carefully-chosen words, written by members of the local community, are peppered with dreamy artistic interpretations of the bridge that are certain to delight. Plus, rhyming the word “daughter” and “Transporter” is bordering on Lilly Allen-esque lyrical genius – I’m sure you’ll agree.

Time to go and write my own lyrical ode to my favourite bridge methinks. Now, what rhymes with gondola…?

As it was my birthday last Sunday I could legitimately drag Manfriend out to a bridge to take photographs, I pitched the excursion as a ‘special treat’. Not wanting to go too far after the alcoholic exploits of the night before we sauntered over to Barnes Bridge which is a short walk from where we live in Kew. I’ve been meaning to photograph the bridge for a while. The lighting wasn’t perfect as it was that irritating time in the afternoon where the sun is in the wrong place whichever way you point the camera but I did still manage to get some half-decent shots that demonstrate the curvaceous nature of the structure.

Ruswarp Iron Bridge, North Yorkshire

Yesterday I walked from Ruswarp to Whitby in order to photograph the various viaducts and bridges in between, obviously when I got to the coast my treat was the usual sausage, chips and scraps. Above is Ruswarp Iron Bridge (opened in 1935, the third bridge to be built on this spot) and crossing the photo is the railway bridge. Ruswarp is a little village that is dominated by bridges, meaning of course that I was quite within my element.

Ruswarp Iron Bridge, railway crossing.

Ruswarp church, through the bridge.

A close up of Ruswarp Iron Bridge

Larpool Viaduct, Esk Valley.

Larpool Viaduct in profile.

High Level Road Bridge, Whitby.

Spital Bridge and Grade II Listed bridge, Whitby.

Whitby Swing Bridge