Miners’ Bait Table

Has it really been 50 years since the potash mine at Boulby was opened? If so, it was before my time, I was still at uni.

I can’t ever remember it not being there. It was certainly controversial at the time. “… the classic battle between the beauty of a national park and the beast of a new industry …” as The Times put it in 1970. There were concerns about “possible air pollution; and pollution of the sea and beaches by effluent,” and the “visual spoliation of countryside so beautiful that it has been designated a National Park“¹“Beauty and two ‘beastly’ towers.” Times, 13 Apr. 1970, p. 8. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS134705805/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=c3ce2308. Accessed 19 June 2021.. Without doubt Whitby and its environs have benefitted from the predicted 1,000 construction and 500 permanent jobs²Aldous, Tony. “The way it all looks.” Times, 1 July 1971, p. 25. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS420181217/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=eaf0f284. Accessed 19 June 2021., but has tourism suffered? Go to Whitby or Staithes on a bank holiday and you would think not. Or is this an example of ‘shifting baseline syndrome‘?

“The Miners’ Bait Table” is a new piece of public art by the blacksmith artist Katie Ventress and commissioned by ICL UK to celebrate the history of Boulby Mine. Its inspiration is the bait tables where the miners ate their ‘bait’ during their breaks. Each table would be moved around as required and contained a “communications board”. I must admit the workmanship is impressive. Even the “leather strap” looks authentic until you touch it. I like that it’s functional art, being strategically placed on the Cleveland Way.

Potash is a salt layer over 3,000 feet deep which extends way out under the North Sea. It was formed 250 million years ago, when a huge sea stretching from Yorkshire to Poland eventually evaporated. The salt layer was first discovered under the Tees estuary in the late 1860s, but during oil and gas exploration in 1938, the layer initially found under Sleights was found to contain significant potassium salt. The potential was recognised by Imperial Chemicals Industries (ICI), then the UK’s leading fertiliser manufacturer, but the technical expertise to mine at that depth was not available at the time³Woods, Peter. [n.d.]. The Story of Boulby Potash Mine () <https://www.nyma.org.uk/_webedit/uploaded-files/All%20Files/History%20Tree/38%201973%20The%20Story%20of%20Boulby%20Potash%20Mine.pdf> [accessed 19 June 2021].

In the late 1960s, ICI formed a partnership with Chartered Consolidated Limited to develop a scheme to mine the potash; and in 2002, the ownership was transferred to the Israeli Chemicals Ltd (ICL UK).

Also deep down in the mine is  the Underground Science Laboratory, where scientific experiments can be carried out which are sheltered from the cosmic radiation which constantly bombards our planet.

• 1
  “Beauty and two ‘beastly’ towers.” Times, 13 Apr. 1970, p. 8. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS134705805/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=c3ce2308. Accessed 19 June 2021.
• 2
  Aldous, Tony. “The way it all looks.” Times, 1 July 1971, p. 25. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS420181217/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=eaf0f284. Accessed 19 June 2021.
• 3
  Woods, Peter. [n.d.]. The Story of Boulby Potash Mine () <https://www.nyma.org.uk/_webedit/uploaded-files/All%20Files/History%20Tree/38%201973%20The%20Story%20of%20Boulby%20Potash%20Mine.pdf> [accessed 19 June 2021]