Going to the Gare
My dad used to tell of him and his brothers going to South Gare at the mouth of the river Tees. In my head it was a place outside of jurisdictions and rules, a sort of untamed borderland. Built between 1861 and 1884 using five million tons of blast furnace slag and cement from the local steel industries it was officially opened in 1888 to protect shipping in the River Tees. The 2.5 mile peninsular once housed military batteries and a submarine base. Protected now by a 43 foot cast-iron lighthouse powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.
Bordered by the river on one side, with the constant flow of industrial shipping and the smaller fishing boats from Paddy’s Hole. On the other side sits the wide expanse of Coatham Sands, a continuous beach stretching from the Gare to Saltburn.
Back in November 2023 I decided to continually re-visit this space that sits on the intersection of wildlife, industry, land and sea to see how it changed over the year. I also wanted to challenge my ability to try and see more by visiting the same place over and over. I saw water sports enthusiasts braving the waves, fishing enthusiasts collecting bait at low tide then ‘feeding the seals’ when the Mackerel were in. The seals had grown wise to the fishing around the base of the lighthouse, they would wait for someone to catch a fish and it would become a question of whether the angler could reel the fish in faster than the seal could catch doomed fish. These activities took place alongside the more or less permanent encampment of motorhomes and caravans that were ever present.
In February 2025 the owners, PD Ports, erected a barrier to prevent caravans and motorhomes accessing the spit of land leading to South Gare.
