Piers – To Be or not to be, that is the Question;”

Accreditation the Middlesbrough Gazette 29/10/1870.

“TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION;”

(Believed editorial)

            “To be or not to be, that is the question;” and to this a speedy answer must be given by the inhabitants and friends of Redcar, or time, swift, inexorable, and remorseless time, will settle the question without them. The question is this: Will Redcar have a pier? Four years ago the ground was surveyed, plans executed, the nucleus of a company formed, and an act of Parliament of obtained. Since that time meetings have been held, the subject has been generally canvassed and generally approved, yet no practical step whatever has been taken to carry out a project which everybody wishes for, which would largely benefit the place and would certainly be a safe and profitable speculation.

That it would be a paying concern is evident from the success of all similar undertakings on this coast, even to the very latest of them, the Saltburn Pier, which has just paid a dividend of 10% to its shareholders. If then a pier pays at Saltburn, with its comparatively limited number of visitors, do not the larger number of visitors and trippers to Redcar and Coatham in the bathing season warrant the conclusion that a pier at Redcar, if properly worked, would pay a dividend of not less than 15%., which is a larger rate of interest than any undertaking in the district offers to investors? Moreover, it is certain that a pier can be constructed at Redcar in many respects superior to that at Saltburn; where vessels could touch the passengers land at any state of the tide, which is not the case at Saltburn. It is necessary to remind our readers that the act of Parliament only continues in force for five-year is from its commencement. In other words, if no action is taken thereon during the year 1871, the act will be no and void; hence the necessity for speedy action to be taken if a pier is to be erected at Redcar. We extract the following from the act itself :-

The works authorised by this Oder comprises the following :-

            A promenade, pier commencing at the point on the beach or sea-sure nearly opposite to the east of Moore Street in Redcar, in the parish of Marske, in the North Riding of the County of York, and extending from that point into the sea, in a north easterly direction, a distance of 1200 feet or thereabouts (with limits of deviation laterally between a point on the beach or sea-shore opposite to and east of King Street, and a point opposite to and east of the street leading from the beach to the railway station, and extending seawards in a north easterly direction 1600 feet from the beach or sea shore); and a landing place and all necessary works and conveniences for the embarking and landing of passengers, goods, and merchandise, and other purposes.

The sum necessary to be raised for the completion of the project is about £6000, which, if offered in five pound shares by a respectable and trustworthy directory, would no doubt easily be raised. If the affair rests on until the present Act will be applied for by our neighbours at court; for we learn from it trustworthy source that a company for the wreck of a promenade pier immediately in front of the proposed Hotel, at courtroom, extending into the sea for a distance of 800 yards, is contemplated. It is true that nature points out Redcar as the place especially adapted for the construction of a pier, but if with every natural advantage, with an Act of Parliament in force, and facilities for its construction such as will never exist again; we say if the face of all this Redcar refuses to move in a matter so intimately connected with its future prosperity, it will be outstripped by its neighbours in this as it already is in many important matters; and it will sink by the force of its own gravitation into a fifth or sixth rate watering place, when from its natural advantages. It should plainly occupy a position inferior to non-on the north-east coast, Scarborough alone excepted