Today I had a roam around Malton. It was a beautiful, crisp December day and most of the shops were still closed so it was a very peaceful walk. Below are a few photos I took whilst I was wandering.
A view across the top of the bridge.
To celebrate my upcoming book on The Tees Transporter Bridge I’ve put together a free sample for your reading pleasure. In this extract: History, Heritage and Home, Bridge Education, Learning and Events Officer Tosh Warwick offers his thoughts on the iconic nature of the structure. This extract also explains why the bridge was important to the war effort during World War One.
Click here to view your free book sample.
Click here to pre-order your copy today. Only 100 copies of the first edition will be printed.
THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE UK
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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.
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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 80th 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 80th 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, 3rd 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.
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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.
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When I was in Middlesbrough the other day I stumbled across a range of ghost signs, some of which I’ll be sharing through my mailing list in the coming weeks. One of the most impressive examples, however, was definitely this one for Esso. Situated against a backdrop of red brick houses it is a striking dash of design in an otherwise residential environment.
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.
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Although my next book is about London ghost signs I seem to be developing some kind of spider sense when I go anywhere else, as I stumbled across a range of ghost signs today in Middlesbrough. This one was by far my favourite and definitely deserves a post of its own. It’s in remarkably good condition.
This ghost sign seems a little confused about its true self
I had a couple of hours in Leeds the other week and found this ghost sign on the end of a row of houses I used to live on. Little did I know back then that I would one day be a full blown ghost signs anorak and wind up writing a book about them.
This is by no means an extensive catalogue of all the Leeds ghost signs as I only had a couple of hours but it offers a taste of the gems written across the walls in West Yorkshire.
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…?
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