LOCATION – Redcar, Marske, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

Accreditation the Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 30/06/1871.

REDCAR – MARSKE – SALTBURN-BY-THE-SEA

                      I paid a brief visit last week to the Cleveland watering-places – Redcar, Marske, and Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Redcar and Coatham are now joined by streets and terraces of handsome houses. The new detached villas are picturesque and extremely artistic edifices. The old cottage residences by the sea are being rapidly superseded by large, three story houses, and the Esplanade is as broad and handsome marine drive, as I have seen. There are many excellent shops in Redcar. It has quite a superior class of hotel accommodation, its railway station is also being enlarged and improved, and altogether. The place appears determined to hold its all against its small aristocratic neighbour, Saltburn-by-the-Sea. The town is remarkably neat and clean; its streets are broad, ample, and well-kept, and swept in all directions with refreshing sea breezes. The village of Marske is also greatly improving. It is a charming place, with pleasant rural surroundings, and some of the finest parts of Cleveland district are accessible from it. Saltburn is a sort of Triton amongst watering-places. It has quite an Imperial air. Its mansions and hotels are palatial in their proportions, and I should say that the pleasure Grounds laid out by the Saltburn commissioners offer a fine example of a landscape gardening as we have in this part of the country. The cliffs of the neighbourhood of Saltburn are bold and majestic. Huntcliffe Foot is a noble headland which the eye never tires of resting upon. Nature has been very bountiful to Saltburn, and it is credible to those who will have the administration of the affairs of the players that they have taken every advantage of its fine natural features to make it a delight to visitors. There is an extremely fine pier for a promenade, and a hoist to lift visitors from the sands onto the cliff upon which the town is situated. The Zetland Hotel, which was raised at a cost of £40,000, is a palace, and the Alexandra Hotel is a noble edifice, containing above 100 rooms. It its incipient stage, Saltburn was excessively exclusive to the aristocratic, and the railway company kept the trippers five or six miles away at Redcar. Saltburn, however, was likely to die of dignity, and a more liberal policy now prevails with regard to general visitors to this gem of North Yorkshire. Saltburn is already possessed of a cottage hospital, and it is erecting an institution for convalescents, which will bear comparison with our Prudhoe Convalescent Home at Whitley. It is immediately adjacent to Hazel Grove, a secluded retreat, where in five minutes. The visitor from Saltburn may plunge into a romantic would land dell, full of the hart’s tongue and other ferns – altogether. One of the most delightful little spots. It has been my good fortune to find within so short a distance of the seashore.