We left Liverpool pretty early. It was a good time to manage the traffic and Big Bertha through the city.
Destination set to Redcar where my Great Grandfather was born and lived until his family immigrated to Canada. Great Grandpa lived with us most of my childhood and his recollection of Redcar never painted a pretty picture. He talked about it being industrial, dirty, smelly and he didn’t refer to the place fondly. Nevertheless, I wanted to visit and see what it was like for myself. I reckon if he was still around to ask, he would probably say don’t bother!
Tip #4 just go!
Redcar is on the opposite side of England and further north edging us closer to Scotland. Unlike Australia, driving from one side of the country to the other only takes a few hours. The drive was mostly highway driving until we got a bit closer and then it opened up into coastal farmland. Soon enough we could see a power plant and wind turbines in the distance. Even though these would not have been around in 1902, Redcar is clearly still an industrial area.
Redcar has several generations of family history for us so walking on the beach and through the streets was surreal to think about how far this family, like any, has spread and how any different choice or decision from my ancestors could mean I didn’t exist at all!
One of the stories we have been told is our relationship to Captain Cook the explorer. I did a little research with the help of ancestry.com but mostly from those that have dug a little deeper than I cared to dig! My aunt and my cousin both have sent me info. The connection lies in Captain Cook’s sister and we are either directly related to his sister (as anyone who claims a connection is because his children did not have children so there are no direct dependents) OR we are related by marriage through his sister’s husband. Either way, that old chestnut brought us to the St Germain’s Churchyard right on the beach. Here is where many relatives are buried along with Captain Cook’s father and I wanted to find that location. I didn’t stumble across it without any guidance only to discover on our way out that it has a information board pointing you in the direction! Must have been family instinct pulling me, ha!
We had no booking for the night but one of the pub camp groups that I am in had suggested a pub nearby for any easy and inexpensive stay. We headed to the Yorkshire Lass, planned to have dinner there but completely missed the cut off distracted by our own shenanigans and had toasties in the van instead before returning to the pub to see if I could find any relatives out for the night 🤣
We didn’t find any relatives that were willing to claim a connection, but we had a great night hanging out with the locals just the same.
My Happy Travels 