Eston Nab — From Bronze Age Fort to Burnt-Out Cars

“The remains of old bottles were scattered all along our route, and other rubbish was offensively obvious everywhere. There were broken fences and damaged trees. Saddest sight of all was the old watch tower which is rapidly losing all recognisable shape under the rough hands of time, the weather and mischievous sightseers.”

Not my words, but an account of a ramble up Eston Nab in 1948¹‘Green Ways around Teesside‘, by the ‘Rambler’. 1948. Page 12..

I spent many lunch hours running on the Eston Hills when I worked at I.C.I. Wilton in the 1980s and 90s. I cannot recollect it being as depressing as it proved to be for me today. Mud wallows, the consequence of off-road motorbikes, multiple burnt-out cars, and litter strewn in every direction.

Eston Nab has forever captivated the denizens of Teesside. The distinct remains of walls and ditches from a Bronze Age encampment testify that our primitive ancestors sought refuge at their stronghold on the Nab during those perilous times.

The rubbish abandoned by today’s mindless miscreants greatly upsets the residents of Eston, as evidenced by the rants on Facebook. However, the litter from that encampment that has sporadically emerged in this vicinity has brought joy to archaeologists. What will archaeologists a millennium from now make of a burnt out Toyota.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Eston played host to a plethora of communal celebrations, akin to the Town Moor in Newcastle. Merry-go-rounds and amusements adorned the summit of the Nab during Easter and Whitsuntide, drawing the populace of Middlesbrough to join the miners of Eston in their arduous journey up the hill. After enduring fourteen hours toiling underground or at the furnace, they embarked on a trek up the hill for an evening of revelry.

Perhaps the descendants of those who discarded those bottles and harmed those trees in 1948 are now the prolific keyboard warriors of Facebook lamenting the wildfires, burnt-out cars, and graffiti-covered sandstone crags.

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  ‘Green Ways around Teesside‘, by the ‘Rambler’. 1948. Page 12.