Coatham is an area of

Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdivision had a population of ...

in the borough of

Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a borough with unitary authority status in North Yorkshire, England. Its main settlements are Redcar, South Bank, Eston, Brotton, Guisborough, the Greater Eston part of Middlesbrough, Loftus, Saltburn and Skelton. T ...

and the

ceremonial county The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...

, England.

History

There is reputed to be an entry in the Doomsday book – the first recorded reference to Coatham as "there is a Hamlet of Cotes (one-roomed cottages or shacks) on the beach where the people collect coal from boats from Hartlepool, to carry by pack animal to the Abbey at Guisborough for the heating for the monks there". Probably the people of the Hamlet of Cotes were taxed accordingly, and the place became known as "cote-ham" or similar? Coatham can be traced back to the 12th century, when "Roger son of William de Tocketts gave a salt-pan in 'Cotum' to Guisborough Priory." There was a significant port there, owned by the de Brus family in the 13th century. The weekly market of Kirkleatham parish was held in Coatham (possibly because of the presence of the port) and there was a three-day fair. These were chartered in 1257 by King Henry III Christ Church, Redcar

Though Coatham is now only a district in the town of Redcar, the need for definition was strong enough to warrant the western boundary being marked by a

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length. ...

which ran the length of West Dyke Road and West Terrace. Coatham comprises the remaining

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

al land north of the

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

from West Dyke Road to Warrenby in the west. The present-day Redcar & Cleveland College was a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

before 1975 named Sir William Turners.

Coatham Pier

Between 1875 and 1898, Coatham had a leisure pier. It was intended to extend into the sea, but damage in the building stage from shipping and storms curtailed the distance to . In October 1898, the pier was struck by the Finnish freighter ''Birger''. The ship had developed trouble during a storm in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and despite passing

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

, Scarborough and Whitby, she carried on for

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the ...

. During a ferocious storm she crashed onto the rocks at Coatham and wrecked a section of the pier in the middle. Only two members of her crew of 15 were rescued; the pier collapsed a year later.

Landmarks

The majority of modern Coatham is Victorian housing, most notably at its northern tip by the Coatham Hotel built in 1860. A small

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, suc ...

lake, leisure centre, arcade complex and caravan park now occupies the remainder of Coatham's coast. To the east, the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust's Coatham Marsh Nature Reserve hosts of ancient

Marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

. File:CoathamHotel.JPG , Coatham Hotel File:Coatham Marsh.jpg , Coatham Marsh

Future development

Since the mid-1990s political debate has been generated amongst Coatham's five thousand residents as to the future of the last undeveloped section of Coatham's coastal land known as Coatham Common/Coatham Enclosure - for the last 25 years used as a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

course and local recreation area. Residents are objecting at losing open space to the council's proposed housing and leisure development planned to revive the tourist industry. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom announced on 3 March 2010 that Redcar Council must register the land as a Village Green.

Notable residents

Coatham is the town where Jane Gardam, twice winner of the Whitbread Prize, was brought up and where some of her novels are set.

References

External links

Coatham Marsh Wildlife Images

A Redcar History site

National Statistics - Coatham Ward 2001

Tees Valley Wildlife Trust

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council - Coatham Neighbourhood Service
{{authority control Redcar Places in the Tees Valley Villages in North Yorkshire Populated coastal places in Redcar and Cleveland