Category: Skinningrove
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Pig-Iron to Steel: Skinningrove’s Industrial History
Have you ever pondered the origins of Skinningrove, nestled in this sheltered valley leading to the North Sea? What led to its establishment there? I certainly have. Back in 1873, when the Loftus Iron Company first erected two blast furnaces on that hill overlooking the valley, the iron-smelting industry was already thriving in the Cleveland…
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Skinningrove Jetty
The old jetty at Skinningrove dominates the uncommercialised Cattersty Sands. It was built in the 1870s when the first two blast furnaces were built on the hill overlooking the little fishing village of Skinningrove. Later the works were enlarged to include five blast furnaces, with four in continuous operation. At this time the iron-smelting industry…
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Skinningrove
When ‘J.G.’ passed through Skinningrove bay in 1866 on his way from Saltburn to Whitby, the village must have looked very different. The stone built houses were set back from the shore, to give some shelter from the North Sea; the rows of terraced cottages had still to be built. To visualise it best, it’s…
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The Sea-Man of Skinningrove
Skinningrove again. Second day in the row. The cool sea breeze was so refreshing after heat of the day. I was reminded of a tale I once read about when the fishermen of Skinningrove found a merman or sea-man on the shingle beach, which would put it below Hummersea Point, the cliff opposite in the…
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Cattersty Sands, Skinningrove
When I first came to the North-East in the 70s, I worked on the fabrication yards on the Tees. Well actually I worked in the offices but I had to regularly go on site. One of the pleasanter nicknames for incomers from East Cleveland was a ‘Grover’. This I found out later meant someone who…
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Skinningrove’s Greatest Showman
With a theme of “Skinningrove’s Greatest Showman”, the final touches are being made to Skinningrove’s enormous bonfire. A tribute to a 19th-century local miner, Henry Cooper, “The Yorkshire Giant – Tallest Man in the World”, who travelled across America with P. T. Barnum’s Travelling Show. At eight and a half feet tall, Cooper was actually…
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Hummersea Bank
Another vernal day. Parked at Skinningrove and went on an exploration of the Loftus Alum workings. Jogging along the Cleveland Way along Hummersea Bank the dog became agitated at something on the rocks far below. It’s not the first time she has behaved this way and I usually discovered there were seals about. I looked…
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The Charm Bracelet
I must admit I wasn’t too impressed when this appeared on the Cleveland Way between Saltburn and Skinningrove in the early 1990s but it has grown on me. Some youths in ’96 didn’t like it and they promptly hoyed it over the cliff. Or maybe they just did it for a laugh. I wonder what…
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Guibal Fan House, Huntcliff Mine
A well-known landmark beside the Cleveland Way, the Guibal Fan House to Huntcliff Ironstone Mine. The drift entrance to the mine was the other side of the Cleveland Railway with ore being hauled up a ramp in wagons and tipped directly into railway trucks. The entrance and mine buildings have been lost to coastal erosion.…
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Wreck of a buoy, Cattersty Sands
Cattersty Sands near Skinningrove was selected as the 25th best beach in Britain according to the Telegraph, so take what you want from that. On a wet and very windy Easter Monday, it was absolutely deserted, apart from a handful of dog walkers. This wreck is an old buoy, supposedly washed up in the 1950s…