10:30am Tuesday 6th April 2010
By Helen Mead
It is not a place that readily springs to mind as a place for a day out. But while not one of northern England’s conventional tourist hotpsots, Middlesbrough provides a great day out.
If, like me, you love industrial landscapes and heritage, then you won’t be disappointed.
Approaching the town, one of the first things visitors notice is the striking silhouette of the Transporter Bridge spanning the River Tees. The Meccano-like structure is 851ft long – the longest of its type still operational in the world – and ferries vehicles and passengers across the river in a giant cradle suspended by steel cables. It opened in 1911 costing £84,000, and has since been a symbol of the area.
It is slightly disconcerting at first, hanging 160ft above the water, but it is great fun. I remember as a child being taken across by my dad and seeing the giant ships being built on the Tees. That industry, which began in the early 19th century, came to an end in 1987.
Large ships still come and go, and on the day we visited, we were lucky enough to see a vessel sailing under the bridge, and docking a short distance upstream.
Beside the bridge, there’s a visitor centre detailing its history – the warmth was welcoming on a bitterly cold day when the breeze from the river was icy.
Not far away, a landmark to rival the Transporter Bridge is being constructed on the banks of the Tees close to the Riverside Stadium, home to the town’s football team. Temenos, a gigantic piece of art by sculptor Anish Kapoor and designer Cecil Balmond, is being hoisted into place.
We didn’t witness the operation to erect the two huge steel rings, joined by a net – which is expected to be complete by May and controversially cost £2.7 million – but by all accounts, it is spectacular.
An exhibition by Anish Kapoor is being held at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima), in the town centre, to coincide with the making of Temenos. This will run until July 4.
The institute opened in 2007 to national acclaim and is one of the UK’s leading galleries for contemporary art and craft from 1900 to the present.
A short walk away, the town’s quirky Dorman Museum dates from 1904, and houses a huge collection of items from the fantastic to the fabulous, from natural history to social history and Victorian arts and crafts.
It commemorates famous and ingenious Middlesbrough folk – there’s a bird and egg collection of local ornithologist Thomas Hudson Nelson, and the curious artefacts unearthed by eminent archaeologist Dr Frank Elgee. Other unusual bygones in the museum include moths, beetles and more than 70,000 fossils. Museums and galleries in Middlesbrough have free admission.
As the sun came out, we travelled out of the town centre to Stewart Park, where children were busy feeding rabbits and guinea pigs in the pets corner. The park is also home to fallow deer, llamas, goats and highland cattle.
The park’s two lakes are awash with ducks, geese, coots and moorhens, and the surrounding woodland provides the backdrop for pleasant walks. My shopaholic daughters abandoned all thoughts of retail therapy and enjoyed a game of hide and seek before climbing on the wooden animals dotted throughout the park.
Stewart Park is most famous as the birthplace of Captain Cook. The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is close to the site in the village of Marton, where he was born in 1728. Visitors can explore his life and times through interactive displays.
Middlesbrough has another park, Albert Park, near the Dorman Museum, which has play areas for youngsters of all ages as well as a boating lake, roller skating rink and sports facilities.
To end the day, we paid a visit to a place with a special significance. Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park in Normanby, near Middlesbrough, stands on the site of Normanby Brickworks. It was here that my dad – who was with us on our day out – grew up, with his father managing the site. The works, which opened in 1883, were demolished in the early 1970s, but we hunted around in the undergrowth and found bricks bearing the stamp. My dad was thrilled to see a photograph in the visitor centre showing his family home.
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