Emergency £300,000 repairs to begin on tourist attraction

Emergency repairs will take three months to complete

Emergency repairs on a Teesside vessel which featured in a 1980 film are set to begin.

The Wingfield Castle paddle steamer, in Hartlepool, will undergo the work ahead of its full restoration as a visitor attraction.

The council said the emergency repairs will cost about £300,000 and take three months to complete.

PS Wingfield Castle served as a Humber Estuary ferry and later featured in the 1980 film The Elephant Man.

At a meeting in 2022, council officers noted the paddle steamer was in “a significant state of disrepair,” the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

PS Wingfield Castle was built in Hartlepool by William Gray and Company and launched in 1934.

The paddle steamer is moored in Jackson Dock as part of the Museum of Hartlepool collection but has been closed to the public for a number of years.

The emergency works will prevent water leaking through the decks into the bilges and help protect the vessel until the start of wider restoration work.

A full renovation will be phased over the next two years.

Councillor Mike Young, leader of Hartlepool Borough Council, said: “The Wingfield Castle is a much-loved and important part of Hartlepool’s maritime heritage.

“I am delighted that we now have the funding in place to be able to enable us to start these initial repairs which will set us on course for the major restoration of the Wingfield Castle.”

He added this will secure “her long-term future as a visitor attraction as part of our massive revitalisation of the waterfront area.”