Heritage Day

I have been complaining about the way heritage is been lost in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland for over ten years. On the14th September 2013 it was Heritage Day and I put on a display in Loftus Town Hall,  

 

Another letter in the paper

Dear Editor,
I supported the boundary changes made in 1974 as the communities in this region have far more in common together than they have with Durham or York. With a brand new name and our 400 years of industrial heritage we should have put our region on the world map.Thirty-six years later it has taken a crisis for the world to learn a little about our history. There has been some confusion over whether we live in County Durham or Yorkshire, now we have all been told we live in the Tees Valley. There are hundreds of Internet bloggers in this region and I don't know how many tell the world they live in Yorkshire or County Durham, but 550 of us - many from Redcar, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, and Darlington - say we live in Cleveland, 200 live on Teesside and just 28 admit to living in the Tees Valley. We can all talk up our towns, but talking up our region and its industrial history is much more difficult. For 350 years people from my town have been supplying Britain with important minerals - I want to see Loftus in Cleveland on the world map. John Lawson

The Infant Hercules

There is little to be seen of our industrial past, so its important stories about our heritage are told. In 1850 ironstone was discovered in the Eston Hills above Middlebrough, and shortly afterwards Prime Minister William Gladstone came North and described the iron making town as an "infant Hercules." Here is Alistair Brownlee, a radio reporter commenting on a Boro match. It was the UEFA Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg, Middlesbrough had lost the first leg away 1-0, and their opponents Steaua Bucharest scored another 2 goals in the first 24 minutes of the 2nd leg; if they were to go to the final in Eindhoven, Boro had to score 4 goals in 66 minutes; in the 89th minute of the match Boro scored their fourth goal.

( A Parmo is a Middlesbrough delicacy.)

My Nameless County

Thirty-five years ago I was one the few people to support the boundary changes to my region, the communities north and south of the Tees have far more in common together than they have with Durham or York. For over four hundred years the people of this region has provided Britain with many of its chemicals, and for nearly two hundred years its iron and steel. With a new name and using our important heritage we should have put our new county on the world map, but for thirty-five years the politicians and bureaucrats have made a mess of it. Cleveland is an old English name for steep, hilly terrain, because much of area around Redcar, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool is flat it certainly wasn't correct to call our new county Cleveland, why not a brand new name? In 1996 the name of ancient Cleveland was relegated to below that of a Victorian seaside town, Teesside was dropped in favour of the more upmarket Tees Valley, and now the people who should be trying to protect our industrial heritage are trying to grass over it.