Here But Not Here: Lost Histories of the Tees – A film by David Bates

‘Here But Not Here: Lost Histories of the Tees’ is a short documentary film by David Bates with music by The Kara Sea. The film was essentially a product of three years of walking up and down the River Tees on hot, sunny summer days with my small Panasonic camcorder; enthused and inspired by seeing Patrick Keiller’s ‘Robinson’ trilogy several years ago, my aims were to capture the elation I felt in exploring that strange, beautiful landscape, and to explore something of the history, culture and identity of the river and its people. The film was first shown at ‘Undisciplining: Conversations from the Edges’ at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in June 2018.

David Bates

Haverton Hill

The yard was built during 1917 on eighty-five acres of low-lying land, with much of the construction work done by women, ex-servicemen and Irish navvies.

The River Tees – R Woodhouse 1991

The link below is to an article in the Evening Gazette detailing the hundreds of women employed in the construction of the Furness Yard, illustrated with wonderful photographs from the British War Museum archive.

Localism: How Tees women outclassed men in WW1 construction – and were drawn into mainstream employment