South Gare is undeniably a Teesside landmark.
Located at the entrance to the River Tees, it is a prominent point of departure or return to the region, and has welcomed travellers and trade for many years.
To many, it is a place of wilderness, or the home of the Paddy’s Hole fishing community.
To others, it is linked to Redcar or the lost steel industry.
But South Gare as we know it owes its entire existence to the wartime threat facing our country and region.
What and Where is South Gare?
South Gare is the pier and breakwater at the entrance to the River Tees on its southern side, where the river meets the North Sea.
It is located a few miles north of Redcar on a remote spot scarred with the remains of industry and now overshadowed by the large windfarm just offshore.
To reach it you need to follow the narrow road leading from Coatham, through Warrenby, and past the remains of the once mighty steelworks and blast furnace site, now being slowly transformed into Teesworks.
A sign warns that you should not proceed, but you should. It is fine. Eventually, after a long journey, you will come across civilization once again, with the fishing huts and boats around the Paddy’s Hole area.
Why It’s Here
Piles of slag which make up South Gare
On the face of it, South Gare might look like the entrance to any river that houses a port. A pier acting as a breakwater on either side of the river mouth, with a lighthouse to help ships navigate.
However, South Gare owes its existence – initially – to the booming 19th-century industrial revolution.
Once an open area of beach, shifting sand dunes, and hazardous marshland, the breakwater was actually constructed between 1861 and 1888 by the Tees Conservancy Commissioners. Its primary goal was to tame the treacherous river entrance, clear a safe shipping channel, and protect the surging global trade generated by Middlesbrough’s iron boom.
The explosive growth of the local iron industry directly fueled its construction. Over 5 million tonnes of molten blast-furnace slag were transported from nearby ironworks to build the 2.5-mile structure out into the sea, providing a formidable defense against the powerful North Sea waves.
While it was built for commerce, the threat of conflict soon found it. A French invasion scare in 1859 sparked a nationwide scramble to fortify Britain’s industrial coastlines. Because South Gare was being built right as this panic unfolded, the breakwater was eventually heavily fortified with submarine mining facilities in the 1880s and powerful artillery batteries in the 1890s—ultimately cementing its dual role as a vital industrial shield and a crucial wartime stronghold.
Secret History – Exploring South Gare Today
A wartime boundary marker.
To the untrained eye, South Gare is a rugged, windswept finger of land populated by the charming, makeshift fishing huts of Paddy’s Hole. But look closer at the concrete bones of this community, and a century of hidden military history begins to unravel right beneath your feet.
Here is the chronological secret history of South Gare’s defenses, from the Victorian era to the Blitz:
The 1880s: The Hidden Fort & Underwater Minefield
The Fort
If you look closely, many of the buildings around Paddy’s Hole are contained within a drab, sturdy wall full of holes peeking out.
This area was originally a Victorian submarine mining establishment built in the 1880s, and still known today as ‘The Fort’.
Former accommodation within the fort.
A garrison of soldiers lived in a barracks inside these walls, tasked with an ingenious defensive strategy: a massive underwater minefield strung entirely across the River Tees to North Gare. If an enemy ship attempted a raid, soldiers inside the fort could electrically detonate the submerged mines from the shore, sealing off the river completely.
Remains of railway tracks.
Today the interior of the fort is used for boat storage and maintenance, but historic buildings, and rusty fragments of railway track can easily be seen.
1914–1918: The Submarine Hunters of WWI
Just north of the Fort’s main entrance, next to the former Lifeboat station, is a ramp disappearing into the sea.
If you look closely at the top you’ll see the basic remains of a concrete winch which was used, briefly, to haul early seaplanes out of the water.
These were used to patrol the North Sea for submarines.
1939–1945: The WWII Stronghold
A former gun emplacement.
A series of heavy concrete gun emplacements can still be seen near the tip of the pier—one still remarkably intact, while others have been reduced to flat, circular concrete bases.
During World War II, South Gare was transformed into a heavily armed fortress to protect Teesside’s vital steelworks and shipyards from German naval attack and Luftwaffe air raids.
This area near the the tip of the breakwater was dominated by a towering, 95-foot-tall coastal artillery observation tower that scanned the horizon. Heavy ammunition and supplies were rattled up the pier via a narrow-gauge railway system running all the way from Warrenby.
The Training Grounds & The Tunnels
Machine gun slits are part of the tunnel system.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the remains of tunnels underneath South Gare are still thought to be in existence.
They once ran from the gun emplacements and tower as far south as the Fort, but have not been investigated.
Further back along the pier you’ll see a concrete embankment facing Redcar. On the mid level of this embankment are four unique, smaller concrete gun emplacements set back from the main pier.
Where a training gun once stood.
These weren’t built for frontline combat; they were a specialized training school designed to teach merchant ship crews how to fire different types of anti-aircraft weaponry. However, when the Luftwaffe began targeting the Tees, at least one of these training guns was pressed into active service, successfully engaging enemy fighters.
Just behind these emplacements you’ll see some machine-gun slits peeking out toward the southern beach. These are the only visible evidence of the tunnels underneath the Gare.
Local lore strongly suggests they were a network of buried ammunition tunnels and places of safety in air raids.
Visiting South Gare’s Past
Paddy’s Hole and Teesside industry beyond.
Despite the road signs warning against unauthorised access, many people visit South Gare. Whether to walk on the sand dunes, enjoy the views, visit the fishing huts, or explore the history, it’s a thrilling place to be – especially for fans of wartime history.
Have you ever visited the wartime remains at South Gare? Leave a comment below.