FROM the 1920s, Crimdon Dene became one of the Durham miners' favourite holiday destinations as the caravan park and 1,000-seater Pavilion were developed by the Labour-run council, and the highlight of the year was the August Bank Holiday Miss Crimdon beauty pageant.
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An August Bank Holiday gathering at Crimdon Dene in 1938, the second year of the beauty contest
It wasn't just miners, though, who frequented the sandy clifftop: in "Scotch fortnight", which was the last week of July and first week of August, the caravans, along with guesthouses up and down the east coast, were booked out by holidaying people from Scotland.
Caravans facing the sea at Crimdon Dene in July 1965, with the Steetley Pier on the beach top left
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In the Crimdon Dene paddling pool in 1960
The dene marks the boundary between County Durham and Hartlepool, and in the early 1960s, just to the south of the caravan park, Steetley Pier was built stretching 2,000ft into the North Sea.
The beach at Crimdon in June 1964
On the beach at Crimdon in the mid 1960s with a Walls ice cream kiosk on the left hand side
Looking south from Crimdon beach in October 1984 to the Steetley Pier and magnesia works on the northern outskirts of Hartlepool
Steetley, a Nottinghamshire quarrying company with interests in the North East, had had a clifftop works since before the Second World War as it was discovered that dolomite rock, mined in Durham, mixed with salty seawater produced magnesia which was needed to line blast furnaces which were becoming increasingly hot.
The pier was built to extract seawater which enabled up to 250,000 tonnes of magnesia to be produced on the site a year.
Although the pier was not built to be walked on, it was popular with fishermen.
The works closed in 2005 when a large section of the decaying pier was removed to prevent people walking out on it. In 2012, the works' 230ft tall chimney came down.
The pier survives, and is a huge favourite with photographers, but its future is a cause of much doubt.
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Crimdon Beach looking towards Steetley Pier, Hartlepool, pictured by Marion Charlton of The Northern Echo Camera Club
Sunset at Steetley Pier in Hartlepool, by Lee Bullivant, of The Northern Echo Camera Club
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