FOR four generations, Cleveland Bridge was led by members of the Dixon family: they founded the company, they saved the company, they made it a family firm and a global concern, and one of them owned one of the very first motor cars in Darlington. Cleveland Bridge is now, sadly, in liquidation, and we told in Thursday’s paper how it had been formed in 1877 by ten employees of the defunct Skerne Ironworks, which had collapsed on Albert Hill in Darlington. They had started their new business on Polam Hall’s strawberry field on Smithfield Road, off Neasham Road, backed with finance from Henry Isaac Dixon, of Stumperlowe Hall, in Sheffield – he was the youngest son of James Dixon & Son, a “Britannia metal” (or pewter) maker which had started in 1802 and had grown into one of the steel city’s leading manufacturers.
One of the best things about living in Eastern Maine is the lack of a traditional commute, full of smog and irate drivers and 5 lane highways.
While you may see spots where the wait is a little longer, if you happen to take the interstate south, most of the time we re lucky. Aside from potholes and road construction, our views are beautiful and the amount of traffic, relative to other areas of the world, is pretty small.
We do, however, have some of the stranger commutes in some parts of the state, especially on some of the more rural roads.