Remarkable changes are cause to celebrate

It has been a truly remarkable transformation. Little over 20 years ago, much of the coastline stretching from Sunderland to Hartlepool showed signs of this region’s proud industrial past, from an age when coal was king.

Colliery spoil and mine waste smothered several beaches back then. But time and tide moves on and these days those same stretches of sand are unrecognisable.

It was back in 2001 that our coastline achieved the prestigious Heritage Coast status once reserved for other parts of the country deemed more scenic.

A lot of hard work went into helping nature reclaim this landscape. A huge 1.3 million tonnes of colliery spoil had to be removed before Heritage Coast status was bestowed upon the area.

Now, it is an area of natural beauty and an oasis for wildlife. It is also a popular visitor destination. Younger generations will find it hard to believe the scale of the work that has been done on the coastline. But even those of us who remember the days when the north east was an industrial powerhouse still find the stunning transformation quite something. As Heritage Coast Officer Niall Benson told the Echo: “Where colliery spoil once blackened the beaches, now we have seals basking and sky larks singing.”

Where some of our beaches were once symbolic with our industrial past, their future lies in encouraging more visitors to what has been an underappreciated stretch of coastline by those yet to experience its charms in person.

Happy anniversary to the Heritage Coast of Sunderland, Durham and Hartlepool. May you be celebrated for many, many years to come.