Hope others will now look and remember what was called the Torch.
Bob Wilson’s comments about industrial wastelands being a bird sanctuary is absolutely right on. I can tell the town planners of Teesside (and elsewhere) that disused brownfield site, left to the vagaries of nature, will develop a unique charm,
Perhaps it is nostalgia, but I much preferred the accidental nature reserve between the Malleable Works and the river, with its forgotten soot stained brick buildings, heaps of slag, rusting railway lines and wagons, old air raid shelters, broken down quays and WWII tank traps, to what is there now. A place of mischievous pleasures for the young. A spot for romance for the little older. Never, ever the same as the seasons changed, flowers and trees prospering and declining with the years passing by.
Thank you to whoever added this photo to the site. I played on the slag heaps in this area, and at the bottom of the ‘heaps’ there was quite a sizable pond with one solitary swan living there. For that reason we called it ‘Swan Lake’. The slag heaps formed a natural bird sanctuary with many of the birds being Red Grouse. After leaving the slag heaps we wandered over to the Torch [shown] to look inside it. To get inside it we used to climb through a broken steel grille. There was nothing to see inside except rows of small ‘concrete-pour’ ledges leftover from when it was built, many of which contained nesting feral pigeons. I did not know what it was for and never knew it was from a Coking plant.
Hope others will now look and remember what was called the Torch.
Bob Wilson’s comments about industrial wastelands being a bird sanctuary is absolutely right on. I can tell the town planners of Teesside (and elsewhere) that disused brownfield site, left to the vagaries of nature, will develop a unique charm,
Perhaps it is nostalgia, but I much preferred the accidental nature reserve between the Malleable Works and the river, with its forgotten soot stained brick buildings, heaps of slag, rusting railway lines and wagons, old air raid shelters, broken down quays and WWII tank traps, to what is there now. A place of mischievous pleasures for the young. A spot for romance for the little older. Never, ever the same as the seasons changed, flowers and trees prospering and declining with the years passing by.
Thank you to whoever added this photo to the site. I played on the slag heaps in this area, and at the bottom of the ‘heaps’ there was quite a sizable pond with one solitary swan living there. For that reason we called it ‘Swan Lake’. The slag heaps formed a natural bird sanctuary with many of the birds being Red Grouse. After leaving the slag heaps we wandered over to the Torch [shown] to look inside it. To get inside it we used to climb through a broken steel grille. There was nothing to see inside except rows of small ‘concrete-pour’ ledges leftover from when it was built, many of which contained nesting feral pigeons. I did not know what it was for and never knew it was from a Coking plant.