210th anniversary of the Mandale Cut

Lemmy_kilmister

Well-known member
This week marks the 210th anniversary of the Mandale Cut to the River Tees.
Before this it used to take as long as a week to sail from Yarm to the sea due to the meanderings and sand banks. The later Portrack Cut was completed in 1831.
All the Whinney Banks kids used to play over the Old River, in the days before the A19. All of us invariably came back up to the eyes in stinking black mud, with sandshoes ruined 😂.
You just can't visualise standing where the A19 embankment is at Whinney Banks (there was a line of trees there in the past) and seeing rigged masts making their way past on the way to Stockton or out to sea.
 
Is this why Thornaby is in Yorkshire even though it is in stockton?
Parts of Thornaby were on the Durham side until the cut eg Teesside Park shopping centre. The old Tees is still clearly visible running along the back of Thornaby football ground and then alongside A19 through Teesside Park. The bridge you go over from the retail park to the cinema is over the old Tees.

Until fairly recently Teesdale was known as South Stockton. Most of Thornaby has always been on the Yorkshire side of the river though.
 
Yorkshire land-grab! This must have been a huge project for those times. No power tools, no plant and no photography to record it, sadly.
 
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