Redcar to Eaglescliffe

Today’s walk passed through the heart of industrial Teesside; not typical landscape for long-distance footpath walkers, but absolutely fascinating. We emerged to the west of Stockton-on-Tees on a typical green riverside path; much more typical! The weather was almost perfect for walking – no rain but not too hot – and although the distance was at the upper end of what I like to walk in a day, there was less walking on tarmac than I’d expected and we had a couple of decent breaks from walking, so it was perfectly manageable.

We had a lovely breakfast at Springdale House, along with a health and safety worker who was doing some work at the power station; it had been an excellent B&B. We left around 8.15am and walked back out through Coatham to Warrenby. The Teesdale Way sign directed us down a rather unpromising alleyway, but this soon emerged onto Coatham Marsh Nature Reserve. We crossed scrubland and went around a pond, complete with swan, then we crossed a footbridge over the railway and continued to the main A1085. The road is a dual carriageway but fortunately there are cycle and pedestrian trails running alongside it - the pedestrian route was somewhat overgrown, so we had to walk on the cycle track; fortunately there weren’t any bikes about! We walked around a roundabout at which a right turn would take us to the Redcar Steel Works whilst a left turn would take us to the Wilton Chemical Works (and yes, the refreshment van mentioned in the guidebook was there). We carried straight ahead and we were just wondering whether we would find the path off to the right when we encountered our first steel “Teesdale Way” sign, with a delightful steel pair of walking boots at its base.

We descended and crossed some scrubland, passing a sign (dated 2012 I think) indicating a temporary path closure of no more than several weeks. We passed underneath a railway bridge, then followed alongside pipelines and under a road bridge on a raised walkway. At the entrance to this section there was a barrier that we were able to walk around, but after passing around a corner we reached the far end – with a barrier firmly tied to the fence on each side. We had no real option but to climb over the fence (as others had clearly done); I found it extremely difficult to get over but I managed in the end. That was a funny few week closure!

For the next mile we were walking along a path with the railway to our right, with a raised service road (with industrial vehicles driving up and down) and various pipelines to our left. The path was somewhat overgrown in places (not surprising given that we’d had to climb over that fence to get here) but the wildflowers were pretty. There was a BOC plant on the other side of the railway, and the chemical works with the power station and the North York Moors beyond beyond on the other side of the service road. Further on, we passed underneath another road, and the BOC plant gave way to a tip and then the former Dorman Long works whilst the chemical works and power station had given way to the some large industrial buildings.

We reached a slightly wider section of scrubland, with a little industrial estate to our left, and emerged by South Bank Station. There was another of the lovely steel Teesdale Way signs (this time with the boots ‘hanging’ from the sign (and further variants of the signs appeared for the next mile or so) and, more importantly at the time, some concrete blocks on which to stop for a rest. A train stopped at the station and then a minibus stopped by us. The driver asked if we were walking the Teesdale Way and was most excited when we replied that we were. The remaining occupants of the van were tasked with clearing the path, whilst being encouraged to walk short sections of it; they didn’t seem particularly keen. We had our photograph taken as “Teesdale Way Walkers” and probably feature on some random website somewhere.

The path-clearers were walking in the same direction as us, which is ironic since it was distinctly less overgrown from this point and the landscape was less bleak. It took us a while to work out a large structure we could see to our right; it turns out (we think!) that it was a container ship on the river, complete with its own cranes for loading. We emerged onto a road leading up to a roundabout, at the point where the E2 “Tees link” joined our route. I was very pleased to have linked from the Cleveland Way in the way that we did rather than on the Tees link (though I can see why they use the route via Roseberry Topping, which is actually a satellite from the Cleveland Way – albeit a satellite that we have previously visited).

We turned right, back towards the river, crossed over the railway and looped around onto a road on the other side. This took us past various companies which obviously back onto the river (if you want your steel bending, this is the place to come) and eventually to Middlesbrough United’s Riverside Stadium. We turned right past the football stadium and over a footbridge, finding ourselves in an area by Middlesbrough Dock which has been somewhat gentrified. We stopped for another rest underneath the giant Temenos Sculpture (which I like by the way). From here it was just a short walk to the Transporter Bridge, one of Middlesbrough’s iconic structures. I was really looking forward to seeing the bridge in operation, but our investigations into places where we might stop for lunch (we’d wondered about the visitor centre) revealed some ambiguity about whether the bridge and visitor centre would be open or closed. Frustratingly they were closed; it turns out that the bridge was closed from August 2013 to March 2015 for a revamp, then closed from June 2015 for flood protection work (raising a road by half a metre). The really frustrating thing is that it transpires that the bridge re-opened 10 days after our visit. Oh well, we’ll just have to go back. [Note added when planning to link up to the England Coast Path in 2023; even more frustratingly, it appears the Transporter Bridge is now closed indefinitely because of health and safety concerns.]

From the Transporter Bridge we followed a road through an industrial estate. That doesn’t sound great, and it wasn’t, but about halfway along the road we passed two men who clearly realised we were walking the Teesdale Way and we had the sort of conversation that is more common when you’re in the middle of no-where, which was nice. Yes, we are walking the route in the ‘wrong’ direction, thus walking ‘uphill’ and against the prevailing wind; we had come from Redcar today, from the beginning of the Teesdale Way yesterday, from Land’s End via Norfolk over a period of 9 years or so…)

Then, delight of delights, just before Teesaurus Park, we saw a sign advertising the “Riverside Café”. The café was in a standard unit on the industrial estate, and it was busy with workers from the surrounding units. We could have had a cooked meal, but we opted for sandwiches and tea, and enjoyed both the sandwiches and the rest. The woman who runs the café had just got back after a fortnight’s holiday so we were lucky that this gem of a place was open.

We walked through Teesaurus Park, which appeared to be for sale, complete with large metal dinosaurs (though research after the end of the holiday indicates that it may have had a reprieve). The path brought us down to the river front, still industrial - with good views across the river to Bellingham - but somehow more open. We turned left onto a good footpath, shared with National Cycle Route 1, with a number of other walkers and cyclists for company. This brought us to the Newport Bridge, an attractive vertical-lift bridge, which was built in 1934 and last lifted in 1990. They were working on the bridge, but we were able to walk across and then continue alongside the river, under the modern A19 bridge, past the sewage works and along to the Tees Barrage.

The Tees Barrage was opened in 1995, designed to prevent flooding and the effects of tidal change. Below the barrage there is the recently redeveloped Tees Barrage International White Water Course and above the barrage, where the river is permanently held at the level of an average high tide, the waters are used for a range of water-sports. We walked around the white water course and past the barrage, then negotiated our way past a group of schoolchildren who were putting canoes away, and so to the visitor centre which has a café on the first floor; we stopped for tea and cake.

From the Tees Barrage it is not too far to the centre of Stockton-on-Tees, which has been regenerated in recent years. We walked past the attractive “Infinity Bridge” and opposite, the Stockton offshoot of our alma mater, the University of Durham. The next little section was slightly marred by a group of young men, one of whom was rather drunk: not Stockton’s fault, and on this occasion we were able to just say “hello” before walking on quickly. We then came to a full size replica of HMS Bark Endeavour which I’m afraid to say I didn’t find terribly convincing. We had to divert a short distance away from the river, passing a ‘drive-through’ eatery, crossing a busy road by the Victoria Bridge (after a short diversion onto the bridge to attempt a better photograph of the Endeavour) then down a road through an industrial area. From here an alleyway brought us back to the river and after passing under the A66, open country beckoned.

Our route became increasingly green, with Thornaby-on-Tees on the other side of the river. We were almost out in open countryside, though industrial estates and housing developments were never far away. We passed through the Bowesfield Nature Reserve and reached the point on the map we were reaching the edge of (Explorer sheet 306) at which the path was shown heading away from the river. However the map we were about to join (Explorer sheet 304) implied a different route – our problem was that the detail of this would need a kilometre square we didn’t have (south of 306 and east of 304). The guidebook showed a subtle variation of the route implied by sheet 304. The ambiguity was largely due to a large new housing development in Preston-on-Tees, through which different routes appear to have been found at different times. The route we followed, which was signposted as the route of the Teesdale Way, simply carried on beside the river – this was the nicest option (I’ve no desire to walk through a housing estate and walking on the grass by the river bank was very pleasant) though also the longest as we had to walk around a couple of meanders and I was getting tired.

The "new route", left the river after passing under Queen Elizabeth Way, a busy road leading to the new development of Ingleby Barwick on the other side of the river. We meanwhile took a pedestrian and cycle path which ran parallel to the road back towards Stockton for a while, before heading off across higher ground towards Preston Park. There was a perfectly decent footpath which cut off the corner, but because of the route changes we felt duty bound to follow the signs precisely. There were excellent views across Ingleby Barwick to the North York Moors beyond.

We weren't on the cycle route for too long, taking a footpath off it which descended steeply back down to the river. We were now in Preston Park and it was a sunny afternoon, so it was busy. We followed the river for half a mile or so, then took a path up through woodland. We emerged onto a residential road and then onto the main A135 through what appears as Eaglescliffe on the map. We turned left for a short distance along the busy road, passing a school, and soon reached the Claireville Hotel [which was sold in 2019 and may now be a private house]. Our previous research had indicated a vegetarian restaurant, The Waiting Room nearby, but I didn't really feel like going out, so I had a rest then a bath while long-suffering Richard walked to the Co-op in the area shown as Egglescliffe on the map, returning with salads, fruit and wine. Perfect!