Victorian Saltburn
The resort of Saltburn by the Sea was founded by the Victorian entrepreneur Henry Pease apparently after having seen a vision. The legacy of this vision is the Station complex, Zetland Hotel, Pier, Cliff Lift and Valley Gardens as well as the so called "jewel streets" along the sea front - Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Pearl, and Diamond. Another mark of the founding family is the "Pease brick" set into many of the homes in Saltburn with the name Pease set into the very bricks of the houses. Members of this family founded the Stockton and Darlington railway and the town of Middlesbrough nearby.

Before 1860 only old Saltburn existed, situated next to The Ship Inn, nestling below the cliffs. It was the discovery and exploitation of iron ore in the mid 1800’s that was to make the most dramatic change in the fortunes of the Saltburn area.
In 1859 Henry Pease, son of the founder of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, was staying with his brother at Marske. One evening he returned late for dinner. He explained that he had walked to Saltburn and that “seated on the hillside he had seen, in a sort of prophetic vision, on the edge of the cliff before him, a town arise and the quiet unfrequented glen turned into a lovely garden.”

George Dickenson of Darlington was employed to lay out a plan of the town. The buildings had to have uniform roof lines, slate roofs, frontages of white firebricks (from the Pease’s own brickworks) and no fences.
Within 20 years the main form of the town had been created including the Station Complex 1862; Valley Garden’s 1861/62; Zetland Hotel 1863 (reputed to be the world’s first purpose built railway hotel with its own private platform), Wesleyan Chapel 1863, Pier 1869 and Cliff Hoist 1870. With the death of Henry Pease in 1881 the town’s driving force was lost and soon after the Saltburn Improvement Company was disbanded.

Over the years no substantial new features were added to the resort and it became encapsulated in time as one of the finest early Victorian seaside towns surviving almost completely in its original form.