Comments on: South Gare in the Eye of the Beholder http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/ ...and a few more reasons for climbing mountains Sun, 15 May 2016 20:35:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: McEff http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-23577 Sun, 31 May 2015 14:51:49 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-23577 Steve, that’s sad indeed. It’s a lovely place ??? a real old-fashioned cafe with stacks of atmosphere. I must pay another visit before it shuts its doors.
Cheers, Alen

]]> By: Steve Bibby http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-23576 Sun, 31 May 2015 14:45:15 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-23576 Hi Alen

Popped into the caf?? again today. As usual a lovely atmosphere with “real” people. As I went downstairs, to check out the pudding menu (2 quid a pop – monstrous portions), a little lad popped upstairs and started chatting to my wife. Turns out he was the grandson of the man who runs the place. He told us that the caf?? was going to close in 3 months, and that it was very sad. He’s not wrong.

Steve )-:

]]> By: McEff http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17908 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 10:59:17 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17908 Hi Steve. That’s intriguing. I noticed the gun slots in the walls and the gun mountings ??? though I hadn’t a clue what sort of guns they were for. Also there’s a pill-box half-submerged in sand along the beach towards Redcar, which you probably noticed. Also, near the eastern end of the golf course, where the South Gare road crosses over an old railway bridge, there’s a short line of concrete blocks which look like they have been part of a “stop line” to block invading tanks. They are the same as the blocks on Alnmouth beach and other places roundabout.
The submarine stuff is fascinating. I hope you keep up the research.
Alen

]]> By: Steve Bibby http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17901 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 05:53:04 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17901 Hi Alen. There are 3 creeks or hols apparently. Paddy’s is the largest. A real sense of other worldliness about the place isn’t there. We say an old fella working on his boat, with his little black dog mooching about the mud, amidst the rotting carcasses of boats that had gone the way.
The whole place (where the cafe is) is fortified, with slots in the walls for guns. There’s a mounting platform for a Bofors gun round and abouts. When I was talking to the cafe owner (been there a year or so) he was really interested in telling me the history he’s uncovering. He talked about miners and tunnels, and I nodded (thinking coal). When I got home I did a bit of intrigued googling. Miners! As in ‘mines’. As in sinking ships. As in submarine ‘miners’ who patrolled the mouth of the Tees, laying mines. From 1887. eh??? I need to do more research.

Oh, also, there is a bloke called Big Al (there is also a Little Al, too) who gets in there….and he can get you lobsters and crabs very reasonably.

Apols for bloghogging. I’m quite excited. Submarines!

Steve

]]> By: McEff http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17865 Sun, 19 Oct 2014 12:52:11 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17865 And it’s a long way to Denmark ??? either swimming or sailing.

]]> By: McEff http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17864 Sun, 19 Oct 2014 12:50:56 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17864 Hi Steve. Glad you had a good outing. I’d never heard the name Paddy’s Hole before this week when a neighbour, who used to live down that way, mentioned it. And here it is again.
I like the idea of “the man at the end of the world” making tea and excellent food that’s as cheap as chips. I adore cafes like that but sadly they are a dying breed ??? being squeezed out by the big chains. I once toyed with the idea of doing a dedicated blog or even a book on England’s greasy spoon transport cafes but I don’t get about enough. And I think I’d pile on too much weight. But it’s a nice idea.
Tell me about the Victorian submarines. I’m hooked already.
Alen

]]> By: Steve Bibby http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17840 Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:54:34 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17840 Sorry, forgot to say…I measured the distance using a website where you can draw lines.

2 things sprung from that.

1) the mouth of the Tees is a mile across, more or less. It didn’t look that much, but I suppose everything is relative and if I was in it, it might seem like every yard a mile.
2) If you swam East (ok a boat is allowed too), the next stop was Denmark. I didn’t know that.

]]> By: Steve Bibby http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17839 Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:50:29 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17839 Well, I said I would. Today looked nice and bright, so after a morning of pottering and procrastination we jumped into the car and bombed to Redcar. It was a little breezy, so the sand played all sorts of shapes as it blew off the dunes.

I’ve got a bit of a thing for organical meets mechanical, so there was a lot of ham-cam action. Some of it might be alright, some a bit naff, cos I was messing about with settings on me ??50 ebay job.

Never mind that – allegedly 6 miles round trip with a superb stop off at the cafe near Paddy’s Hole. The chap at the cafe (Keith, I think) was a lovely man, and the bait was spot on too. Chips and gravy, chips, 2 teas, 2 cans of pop, 2 knickerbocker glorys, and 2 sponges with gallons of proper yella custard. ??12.

The only downside to the day was my blood starting to boil at the capitalist ratbags running chains of cafes who charge “how much” for a cuppa, when the man at the end of the world lets you have a perfect brew in a white mug for 50p.

As you say, Alen, in the eye of….

oh……did I mention the Victorian submarines?

]]> By: McEff http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17582 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:20:51 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17582 Hi Martin. Glad it brought back some memories.
Cheers, Alen

]]> By: McEff http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17581 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:20:10 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17581 Hi John. Thanks for that. All the best mate.
Alen

]]> By: Martin Benson http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17580 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:08:29 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17580 Thank you, that’s brought back many memories of visits to South Gare. You have a wonderful way of describing what is there. Keep up the good work!

]]> By: John http://becausetheyrethere.com/2014/10/14/south-gare-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-17576 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 07:39:07 +0000 http://becausetheyrethere.com/?p=8376#comment-17576 Hi Alen, As usual a great post,thank you. I really enjoy these. Hope you are well

John

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