Fred Brunskill advises us: ”The Greek steamship Taxiarchis struck the Westscar rocks during the afternoon of January 14th, 1952 I remember watching the five tugs brought from the Tees as they tried to refloat her. Although the weather had been calm when she became grounded, worsening gales proved too much for the hull and she was holed beyond repair. the 28 crew were taken off by local fishermen and she ended up on the beach opposite the Coatham Hotel. She was eventually dismantled for scrap by Thomas Ward’s of Sheffield.” Kon Budkiewicz tells us: ”Aged 6 years, I was taken to see this ship by my father. I witnessed organised bagging and removal of bunker coal through a low-level access door.” Dave Cusson tells us: ”My father was a well-known Redcar butcher. One of his customers, and elderly lady as I recall, was walking her dog along the sands during a sea fret. Seems she heard this terrible grinding noise from the sea just as the mist cleared – allowing her to see this enormous ship coming for her. She turned and ran as hard as she could all the way through the soft sand and onto the promenade, scared out of her wits!” Alan Etherington tells us: ”I was at West Dyke Primary School on the afternoon Taxiarchis ran aground. The mother of one of the boys came at playtime and told him that there was a ship on the rocks. Word spread like wildfire and at the end of school a lot of us rushed to see what had happened and there it was just off the Coatham Hotel. It was winched to just above the low tide line so that at suitable times of the tide it was possible to walk round it. It was then slowly emptied of coal and dismantled.” Pete Ward tells the Archive: “I remember the Taxiarchis as though it was yesterday: Like the lady previously, I was on Coatham beach with my Granddad (John Charles Thompson of Redcar Gas Works. I must have skived off school that day) gathering sea coal. I was holding my Granddad’s bicycle with a couple of sand bags filled with sea coal when we heard this grinding sound, then out of the mist appeared the Taxiarchis. You could not miss who scraped her, ‘Thomas Wards’ was painted on the starboard side, in big bold white letters facing Coatham.” Michael Henry adds: “I remember this well, we lived in Arthur Street and I was a pupil at the then Sir William Turner’s Grammar School on Coatham Road. Arthur Street is the next street to Henry Street. Henry St and Turner Street, the next one, border the Coatham Hotel. The sea front, is Newcomen Terrace, the names together form the name of the founder of our school, founded in 1691. The locals benefitted from coal being dumped of the Taxiarchis, as I remember as they scrapped her. The Coatham Hotel was one of the centre pieces in the Movie “Atonement” in 2006.”
Image courtesy of Mike Holliday, thanks to Fred Brunskill and Kin Budkiewicz for this information, also to Dave Cusson, Alan Etherington, Michael Henry and Peter Ward for the updates.
Again the date was on the picture 1957 another ship ashore at Redcar I didn’t think it was so dangerous at Redcar. The next post on the Archive of the same vessel explains all. Craig White commented: “I wondered if this small vessel has been deliberately beached to unload. It has a very large derrick/crane fitted and may have been engaged in scrapping or salvaging a wreck offshore. Just realised that there is another picture of Basalt on here with the comments that it was on salvage work and was deliberately beached after being holed. Amazingly whilst sorting old family photographs today found three pictures of Basalt sitting high and dry on Salt Scar rocks! No name was visible on these so it solves a bit of a mystery.”
Image courtesy of Mike Holliday, thanks to Craig White for the updates.
This image came to the Archive among a collection of photographs of ’shipwrecks’ off Redcar and the East Cleveland coast and at that time we had no knowledge of the origins! A different view of the Basalt – aground off the promenade at Redcar – in 1957. Alan Etherington tells us: ”This particular picture was taken by me and dated in my album as being taken in 1955, it is a scan of a contact print, the negative being long lost. The ship was being used to dismantle the Dimitris which ran aground on East Scar Rocks at Redcar. The story was that the Basalt had taken a shorter route back to the Tees and tried to get between West Scar Rocks and Salt Scar but had misjudged the tide and tore a hole in the bottom. It turned tail and ran as far up Redcar beach as it could, almost into Marks and Spencer’s. A repair was carried out and the Basalt refloated on a spring tide.”
Image courtesy of Alan Etherington, thanks to Derick Pearson for initial dating, but very grateful thanks to Alan Etherington for the image and an explanation of the situation.
That was the title to this cutting – red hot slag being run off one of the blast furnaces into buckets at Skinningrove Iron and Steel works – dated 9th February 1937.
Cutting from a collection gifted to the Archive, most of the cuttings coming from the Northern Echo and cover the period 1930 to 1940.
February 1940 and this is the first German bomber to be brought down on English soil. A North Eastern Gazette photograph of the ’plane after it had crashed into a farmhouse near Smeaton Castle. There is a commemorative stone to denote the situation of this event. David Richardson tells us: ”This was the Heinkel He111 that was shot down around 10.00a.m. on 3rd February 1940 at Bannial Flatt Farm, just outside of Whitby (half a mile from Sneaton Castle). The first German bomber shot down on British soil. The Luftwaffe crew were: Pilot – Fw Hermann Wilms, survived. Wireless Operator (/ Dorsal Gunner) – Uffz Karl Missy, wounded in both legs but survived. Observer – Uffz Rudolf (Rudi) Leushake, aged 23, died almost instantly. Mechanic (/ Ventral Gunner) – Uffz Johann Meyer, aged 25, mortally wounded.” Geoffrey Powell tells us: ”This plane was brought down by Pilot officer Peter Townshend, later Group Captain and equerry to Princess Margaret who was denied marriage to her by the establishment. As part of a disposal unit based at Goldsborough 1962, we travelled daily to Fylingdales to clear munitions so the builders could work in safety; building what is now an update of the original golf balls. One day when we were on the way back from a days work at Fylingdales we dropped off the truck and looked around with our mine detectors and found ammunition boxes and a machine gun in the undergrowth.”Sandie Dowkes tells us: ”My grandfather Leonard Frank Robinson took Police Sergeant Welburn from Hinderwell police station to search for the plane. When found the rear gunner was still sat in his seat unfortunately deceased. The pilot was taken into Whitby hospital where Group Captain Townsend later visited him.” John Richardson tells us: ”My mother, Marjorie (Peggy), née Oliver, of Guisborough was nursing at Whitby Memorial Hospital at the time and assisted at the operation to amputate one of Karl Missy’s shattered legs. She kept the bullet removed from his leg as a souvenir, my sister still has it.”
From cutting part of a collection gifted to the Archive, most of the cuttings coming from the Northern Echo and cover the period 1930 to 1940. Thanks to David Richardson, Geoffrey Powell, Sandie Dowks and John Richardson for the updates.
A newspaper cutting dated 20th June 1939 – with the original caption – good view of Loftus bank showing the improvement to the roadway corner, with Skinningrove works in the background.
Cutting from a collection gifted to the Archive, most of the cuttings coming from the Northern Echo and cover the period 1930 to 1940.
A rather nice view from a postcard of the church and one that is a first for this site; being a view from the graveyard. The wall to the left being the boundary of the priory grounds. Image courtesy of Keith Bowers.
I am presuming this is a postcard (by Tom Watson of Lythe) of the old castle but what a beautiful place it must have been wish I could have seen it in all it’s glory. David Richardson confirms with: “It is indeed a lovely view of the castle which dates from the 1890’s.”
Image courtesy of Keith Bowers, thanks to David Richardson for the update.
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