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The views from the top of ‘Nanny Goats Path’ and those steps transported me back
35-
The path is still there, although not in the same state. There’s no chance of pushing a bike loaded with sacks of sea coal up there! The plank is long gone. I managed to scramble down it though.
If you look closely at this photo, you should be able to see the line of the path down the side of the cliff. You may also be able to see a guy in a blue top, sitting about halfway up. He was sitting there reading this book when I came down? He is what is politely called a
‘Gentleman of the road’, the book was in several pieces. If you can spot him, then that is where the ‘Plank’ used to be. You can see where the soft limestone has been eroded away and has left a big gap in the original cliff.
More evidence of cliff erosion.
Down on the beach itself , you can see how far the water has progressed up the beach,
washing away all the crap that was tipped there by the colliery. I reckon at this
rate its going to be about another 10-
Down at the waters edge, nature has done its work and has cleaned the place up. It will take a long time but eventually the whole beach will look similar.
Nearer to ‘Noses Point’, where the pit spoil heap used to be there’s a lot more work to be done.
The wall of spoil is much thicker here. The red brick layer is what was put down when the ‘new’ waste pipe was put in, from the water treatment plant, several years ago and from when the colliery was demolish I think?. The dirty layer underneath that is where the surface used to be when the pit was working.
Despite natures cleanup operation, evidence of the old blast beach and colliery still remains and can be found quite easily.
I left the Blast Beach via the path at Noses Point, which when the water comes further up the beach will get washed away. Perhaps they will build a proper pathway before then?
There was work going on at the top of Noses Point, though I’m not sure what is being constructed. I remember reading something about a proper walkway and a wildlife centre?
Back in the town centre the work has begun on demolishing the old bus station. About time too, what an eyesore that was. Funnily enough, now that the roof has gone and the daylight can get in, it looks better than it did before! Still needs to come down though.
Finally, a picture of the back of a grand old building in Emily St. When I was at school the girls from Camdem Square were sent down here for cookery lessons, I never got to go inside.
Glad to see the kids obeying the rules...
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Saturday 29th March 2008
A bright but chilly day I took a walk along the coast, via the new business park, down to the Blast Beach and back to the town centre.
These two photo’s of the docks were taken from the cliff top of the ‘Chemical Beach’. There’s no ships in the dock today but still a little activity.
With the offshore wind keeping the water flat, there’s no dramatic waves to capture either.
Looking back along the George Emily Way, you can see how the new shopping centre and bus drop off points have changed the view.
The view along the ‘Chemical Beach’ was worth capturing because of the bright sun almost silhouetting ‘Liddle Stack’.
In this photo I’ve ‘stitched’ three shots together to give a crude panorama of the new buildings being built at the bottom end of the new Dalton Park link road. This is just above Noses Point.
By my reckoning it would be around about where the washery and weigh bridge of Dawdon colliery once stood. Or not far away at least. I don’t know exactly what is being built but probably more factory and office units, similar to those already standing around that area. Sorry about the quality of the stitching but I didn’t take the photo’s with the intention of doing this.
There are a lot of completed buildings on the new business park standing empty. Here’s a shot showing the old and the new. The church of St.Hilds and Helen’s in the background is obviously the old. Its fate is not yet decided, its no longer open as a church though.
Here’s a series of shots of the new business park. Like I said most of the building seem to be unoccupied at the moment.
Another view looking back towards Dawdon from the business park, along the main east coast railway line. The allotments are still there but, for how long I wonder?
Leaving the business park I crossed the main road leading to Dalton Park and headed for the cliff tops of the ‘Blast Beach’. The place where this shot was taken from used to be a coal storage field when the colliery was there.
The stream that runs under the footbridge you can see is the stream that flowed under the brick railway arch that used to stand at the top of ‘Nanny Goats Path’. Even when I was a kid and used play around there the railway was unused but, the bridge was there. Its gone now though.
But the stone steps that run up the bank where the bridge used to be are still there!