Dunston Staithes (NZ237626)

© Copyright AndrewCurtis and licensed for reuse under this CreativeCommons Licence.

The riverside monster that is Dunston Staithes is well known to all Tynesiders. Despite being severely damaged by fire twice of late, its skeletal form still looms large over all within a good mile or so of its muddy situate on the southern shore of the River Tyne.

The bare facts alone are all you need to know…

• Contructed by the North Eastern Railway Co. during 1890-93 to transfer coal from trains into seagoing vessels
• 1,709ft long, 50ft wide and 40ft high – reputedly the largest timber structure in Europe (and possibly the world)
• Total weight of timber: in excess of 3,000 tonnes
• Cost: £120,000+
• Materials: North American Pitch Pine
• Shipped 1.5 tonnes of coal in first year
• Peaked in 1939 with nearly 4 million tonnes shipped
• Operations ceased in 1977, and structure closed in 1980
• Centrepiece of Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990

Recent uncertainty over the structure’s future seems to have been averted as plans are afoot to preserve and develop the site.

The End of Our World (NZ783190)

(Aerialphoto of Staithes and the Harbour by Neil Reed)

The above photograph, taken from the north, shows the sleepy village of Staithes, North Yorkshire. The watercourse, entering the picture from top right, is Roxby (or Staithes) Beck, and is the boundary between the aforementioned county to the left and ‘Redcar and Cleveland’ to the right. In other words, the bulky promontory on right of picture is the very last piece of ‘North-East England’ for the purposes of this blog.


It’s known as Cowbar Nab, sheltering, as it does, the tiny hamlet of Cowbar on the ‘North-East side’ of the beck (hidden from view). There is little to trouble the historians hereabouts, though the buildings are old enough (there’s a splendid picture here) – though it seems to have been the site of the local lifeboat station in its various incarnations for nigh on 150 years (and, indeed, still is – see here).

What a beautiful spot at which to about-turn and head back into the rest of the region…