Standing proud in Cliff Rigg Wood, a concrete base that supported one of the steel trestles for an aerial ropeway that ran from Ayton Bank Ironstone Mine to sidings at the west end of Cliff Ridge where the ore was loaded into railway trucks. As the trestles were of a tripod design there would have been two others but what happened to them? I don’t think there have been buried so maybe they interfered with the path below and were broken up.
The mine and ropeway were operated by the Tees Furnace Company which also operated the Roseberry Ironstone Mine. The ropeway was short-lived, in use from 1913 to 1921. it was built by the Aerial Ropeways Ltd. of London. The Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History website has an advertisement photo from 1918 which is believed to be of the Ayton ropeway.
The opinion is that this is the actual ropeway at Cliff Rigg.
Further east, there are two further bases which I’ve photographed before. It’s hard to believe that was almost 5 years ago.
Another thing I find hard to believe is the amount of soil loss that has taken place over the last one hundred years around the base which now protrudes some way above the ground level. I can almost envisage a stage where one day it’ll become unstable and topple over.
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