Factory Night @ Saltburn Sea Front, Old Mortuary and Cliff Lift
Sunday 30th May 2010
Saltburn by the Sea has a rich and varied tapestry of historical development. There are two Saltburns; the Victorian planned new town and the ancient hamlet of Old Saltburn. The older of the two nestles below the cliffs under the shadow of Huntcliff. It has obscure origins, attracting only passing references in local histories and public documents.
For this Factory Night a short tour by local historian Tony Lynn began at The Ship Inn. From the early 1700's smuggling was rife in Saltburn but in the 1760's it took a new dimension when a canny Scot married a local girl and became landlord at The Ship Inn. Next to The Ship Inn, standing on the seafront, is Salturn's Old Mortuary. Built in 1881 as a discrete shelter for bodies washed up on the beach, it continued to be used for post-mortems until the 1960’s. Despite a more recent use as temporary store for the Wildlife Trust’s Saltburn Gill Nature Reserve, little of the building’s structure or internal dècor has been changed. It still contains the original mortician’s slab - a large stone table on which bodies would have been laid out, and the cupboard where the doctor kept his instruments.
Further along the sea front, the tour finished with an exploration of the pier and free ride on the water balanced Cliff Lift, probably the oldest of its type in the world. Its two cars, with their striking stained glass windows, are fitted with a water tank beneath and run on parallel tracks up the 71% incline into Saltburn Town.
Session Images
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
||||
 |
 |
|||
|
||||
 |
 |
|||
Click here to see the film of Saltburn Factory Night by artist Peter McAdam.
rednile presented the Saltburn Factory Night as part of Redcar and Cleveland Council's Arts Development programme.
Funded by: Factory Nights is made possible with funding from Northern Rock Foundation and Arts Council England, Redcar and Cleveland Council Arts Development.
Thanks to: Tony Lynne and Redcar Tourism, Saltburn ArtistsProjects and ArtsBank.