EARLY DAYS AT TEES DOCK.

[teesships]

What, we were actually able to walk back in those days???!!

(And we did, didn't we, because we had to!)

Ron

[northeast]

Hey Ron, you're talking to an under 12 hours Lyke Wake Walker here!
Good practice for when I used to walk from Lime Street via Pier Head to Gladstone Dock, then East Float to Bidston then walk back from New Brighton to Seacombe ferry ... all in a long summer day.
Now where's my zimmer frame ....

[shipbroker]

George...........You were not called Lilo Lil in those days were you??

geoff

[cromptony]

We Pilots used Warrenby Halt station a lot. Often walked up to it from the South Gare.

If we had a ship out in the night we would walk up for the first train from Warrenby
back to Middlesbrough rather than wait for the Cutter Crew's bus at 8 a.m. to
and fron Redcar Station. Also if we asked the driver at Middlesbrough Station
he would stop and drop us off at Warrenby even though it was not shift change.

If I remember correctly it closed when they altered Warrenby Works to incorporate
the large Blast Furnace.

We would also often walk up from Tees Dock to Grangetown Station and of course
toe infamous "Black Path" from Smiths, Eston and Cargo Fleet coming out by the "Navigation"

Tony

[teesships]

Hey Ron, you're talking to an under 12 hours Lyke Wake Walker here!
Good practice for when I used to walk from Lime Street via Pier Head to Gladstone Dock, then East Float to Bidston then walk back from New Brighton to Seacombe ferry ... all in a long summer day.
Now where's my zimmer frame ....

So far as the Lyke Wake Walk goes I can say I completed the distance ..... er, I managed half of it twice!
Yes, great fun walking round all the Mersey Docks, spent two fortnight-long holidays over there in 1965 and 1967, although can't now remember how far I walked each day! I do know I could cover the full length of the Hull docks (7-miles of river frontage) well inside a day (several times from 1966 onwards) ... and likewise the Tyne in 1961 (before started to enjoy the river trips!). Ah, well, those were the days, before ......???? It became much easier by car from 1970 onwards!

Ron

[Whickham]

Hat off to you Sir, Tyne by foot is some trip.

[northeast]

Must admit never tried the Tyne by foot all the way!
Used to walk from the station to Newcastle Quay and to the downstream end then seem to remember went up to a road where there was a bus to opposite the Walker yard ... some distant views but walked from there down to Wallsend and got those 'over the wall' views from the ends of the terrace streets ... then another bus to North Shields and walked down to the ferry .... train back from South Shields.
That was usually after Sunderland on the way up .... walk up to Q.Alexandra Bridge then all the way back to South Dock and back to the station for the Newcastle train.
Must have got through some shoes in those days!

[Whickham]

I think you are just showing off now. My car would be exhausted after that.

My early trips to the Tyne were from Sunderland and on my trusty two wheeled steed.

Where's that Tardis that Paul promised us?

[Dennis Maccoy]

Like Dave, my early river-side explorations, on Tyneside, were by bike. On Saturdays in the early sixties, with binoculars, note book and a selection of Ian Allens in the saddle bag, I’d set off hugging the south bank to Gateshead, then across the Swing Bridge along the quayside (often dodging around busy stevedoring activities - no one was fussed). Along past Spillers and up behind St Peter’s engine works, peer over the riverside railway wall to see what was happening across the river at Mitcheson’s and on down to Wallsend and another look over the wall to see what was afoot at Swan Hunter. Then, a decision – cross back to civilisation on the mid-Tyne ferry and a shorter trip home, or continue to North Shields? Unless the weather was deteriorating North Shields generally won and, after looking in at Albert Edward Dock, the trip concluded on one of the TIC’s vintage ferries. In the winter, I’d generally wind up peering into the engine room, listening the wheeze of the engines and savouring the smell of steam and hot grease – happy days!

[northeast]

Talking about getting mixed up with stevedoring, I think Ron like me used to walk along the Tyne-Tees and Dent's Wharves while Bens, Glens and sundry coasters were loading steel and whatever else, rail wagons on the move as well, guess we had little idea of personal safety at age 13/14 .... late 1959 and through 1960 but eventually someone told me I shouldn't be there and so started to sneek in further along, but must have stopped at some time and contented myself with a trip across the Transporter and back (even walked across the top of it once!).