Heritage....

Redcar & Cleveland is an area abundant in heritage, in memories, relics, fossils and wildlife. Reminders of the past are all around when visiting any of the town and villages here.

For most of its history Guisborough was part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, from 1974 to 1996 part of the county of Cleveland and at present one of the major towns of the borough of Redcar and Cleveland. It is listed in the Domesday Book and the ruined Gisborough Priory dates back to the 12th century. The priory's name is spelt without the first U, as that was the old spelling of the town's name. Some other old sites and names use the same spelling.Other historic sites include Saint Nicholas' Anglican Church, home to the de Brus cenotaph and built mainly from stone taken from the priory, and Gisborough Hall, the ancestral home of Lord Gisborough, which now serves as a hotel and popular venue for wedding receptions.The town shared in the prosperity of the industrial revolution through its proximity to the ironstone mines of the North Yorkshire Moors. One of Teesside's leading ironfounders, Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, chose Guisborough as the site of his country seat, the Alfred Waterhouse-designed Gothic revival Hutton Hall, situated at Hutton Lowcross. This house had its own station on the erstwhile Middlesbrough-Guisborough branch of the North Eastern Railway (closed in 1964).

Redcar originated as a fishing town in the early 14th century, trading with the larger adjacent market town of Coatham. Until the mid 19th Century it was a sub-parish of the village of Marske-by-the-Sea, when Redcar emerged as a seaside tourist destination. With the opening of the Middlesbrough to Redcar Railway in 1846, Redcar became a resort for Victorian tourists. Redcar means "(place by the) red marsh" from the Old English rēad "red" and Old Scandinavian kjarr. However the first part of the name could also represent OE hrēod, (reed), giving a sense "reedy marshland", referring to the low lying land by the sea on which Redcar lies. Redcar originated as a fishing town in the 1300s, trading with the larger adjacent market town of Coatham. Until the mid 19th Century it was a sub-parish of the local village of Marske-by-the-Sea (mentioned in the Domesday book). In 1846 work was complete on the Middlesbrough and Redcar Railway, created to attract local tourism and trade, but Redcar's real population expansion began with the discovery in 1850 of iron ore in the Eston area of the Cleveland Hills. With the construction of Redcar Racecourse in 1875, Redcar prospered as a seaside town drawing tourists to its eight miles of sands that lead on to Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

Saltburn was founded in 1861 by the entrepreneur Henry Pease who also founded the Stockton & Darlington Railway and the town of Middlesbrough nearby — apparently after he had seen a vision of a heavenly city reminiscent of the description of Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. The group of so-called "jewel streets" along the seafront (Coral, Garnet, Ruby, Emerald, Pearl, Diamond and Amber Streets) is said to be a legacy of this vision. Another mark of the founding family is the "Pease brick" in many of the homes in Saltburn, with the name "Pease" set into the brick.The jewel in Henry Pease's crown is said to have been The Zetland Hotel, one of the world's earliest purpose-built railway hotels, with its own private platform. The Pease family also built a residence at the junction of Marine Parade and Milton Street, and lived there until Sir Joseph W. Pease died in 1903.