The English town that voted Brexit 'out of love'
"This whole seafront was packed with boats," said Vicky Thwaites, surveying the broad beach at Redcar, a once-prosperous town that voted overwhelmingly for Britain to leave the EU.
"Now we call it Deadcar. We just feel that nobody cares."
Thursday's dramatic vote to quit the European Union was driven by millions of people in the post-industrial north and centre of England, in working-class towns like Redcar, on the northeast coast.
The strength of feeling may have stunned metropolitan Britain, but came as no surprise in places like Redcar, where 66.2 percent ultimately voted to leave the EU.
The town's century as a seaside holiday destination died out with the 1960s; after Britain joined the European common market in 1973 its fishing fleet was next; and its skyline-dominating steelworks, which produced the steel for Sydney Harbour Bridge, was mothballed by its Thai owners in 2015.
"My dad had two boats," said Thwaites, who volunteers at the Zetland Lifeboat Museum, a local history treasure trove which houses the world's oldest surviving lifeboat, built in 1802.
"We all thought being in the Common Market was brilliant.
"Then the boats were decommissioned. They couldn't sell the fish anymore.
"They took our fishing from us and took our steel. The backbone of Britain. They've raped the northeast. We're left with nothing. We're all just fed up and want Britain back.
"We are lovely, friendly people. But we just feel that we've lost this country," she said, the deep emotion evident in her voice.
Thwaites, a former nurse said people had voted Leave "out of love" for Britain.
With a population of 36,000, Redcar, sits on the River Tees estuary. The Teesside skyline is punctuated with chimneys, bright flames and electricity pylons.
Redcar originally boomed as a seaside resort from the 1850s.
Archive photographs in the museum show a jolly world of bandstands, swimming baths, promenades and piers, entertainers, rollercoasters and small fishing boats.
The Yorkshire town's historic clock tower centrepiece is dedicated to king Edward VII, who liked to visit.
Now its high street resembles many in provincial England: a mixture of bakeries, cafes, betting shops, England flag-bedecked pubs showing football, tattoo parlours and charity shops.
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