What does a historian make of a project designed to wipe all traces of
industrial activity from a stretch of coastline in an attempt to
revert it to its former, natural beauty?
In the case of the Durham Heritage Coast, as it is now called, surely no
one can complain. For as recently as the
early 1990s, the East Durham seaboard was an industrial wasteland, made famous
by distinctly unglamorous appearances in such films as Get Carter and Alien 3.
A century of coal mining activity had scarred the coast beyond recognition,
waste-dumping from the scattering of collieries betwix the Tyne and the Tees
placing the beaches in some areas beneath ten metres of black slag and
poisoning the water and its natural habitat for several miles out to sea. Flora and fauna were devastated. Come the closure of the pits in the years
leading up to the early 1990s, locals had long since turned their backs on the
disgusting mess and cared little for nature’s woes in the face of their own
collective economic plight.
The mid-‘90s saw a sea-change, though.
With the availability of Lottery Fund cash, the local authorities
rallied, and, with the help of a host of other organisations and vested
interests, launched the ‘Turning The Tide’ (TTT) project in 1997 – and the
clearance work began. Astonishingly,
within its five-year remit, TTT had utterly transformed the landscape: by 2002
the coastline was well on its way to an incredible recovery – a process now
being continued by local groups, the Durham Heritage Coast Partnership and
nature itself.
Today there are 15 miles of new coastal footpaths and more than 30 miles of
cycleways criss-crossing a unique magnesian limestone landscape which is home
to all manner of rare and beautiful plants, insects and animals – all suitably
protected by law and freed from farming use.
For once, the wiping of our historic past has been welcomed by one and
all – though it lives in on a scattering of information panels the length of
the coastline.
The video, here,
says and shows it all.
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