A familiar scene to many …

… least not Cleveland Way walkers heading south to Helmsley. Walkers going clockwise will be trudging up this bank to Coate moor and Capt. Cook’s Monument.

Bankside Farm itself probably dates from the 18th-century, while the distant building to the right is the former manager’s house and workshop for the Coate Moor Iron Company. The drift entrance for the mine ii the forest to the right.

The company was initially formed in August 1872 by three London investors, Sir W. F. Cooke, F. F. Buffen, and C. C. Downes, trading as Messrs. Downes and Company¹‘The Iron and Mineral Trades and Railways of the North of England. | Railway News | Saturday 07 December 1872 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0004367/18721207/033/0010?browse=true> [accessed 4 January 2023]. The company had leased 600 acres to exploit the ironstone seams below Coate Moor²Anthony, Cedric. “Glimpses of Kildale History”. Page 369. Geni Printing. 2012..

By October that year, the lease had been assigned to The Coate Moor Iron Company, and by January 1873, the company brought to the Stokesley Petty Sessions, “Francis Frankland, Joseph Clark, and John Fern, all of Kildale, and miners in their employ, with non-fulfiliment of their contracts.“³‘North Country News. | Northern Echo | Tuesday 28 January 1873 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000087/18730128/011/0004> [accessed 4 January 2023]

The case was dismissed. “The Bench considered that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that contracts had been entered into.”  An auspicious start.

This action may have been associated with the miners’ strike of that year, and to make matters worse there was a slump in the iron trade⁴Anthony, Cedric. “Glimpses of Kildale History”. Page 368. Geni Printing. 2012..

In 1873, records show that 9,000 tons of ironstone had been extracted. The following year output was only 1,000 tons⁵Tuffs, Peter. “Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines”. Page 11. Cleveland Ironstone Series 1996.

By 1875, the venture was being re-processed by the Kildale Estate for the non-payment of rents due. And in January 1876 all plant and the stockpile of stone was put up for auction⁶Tuffs, Peter. “Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines”. Page 11. Cleveland Ironstone Series 1996.

• 1
  ‘The Iron and Mineral Trades and Railways of the North of England. | Railway News | Saturday 07 December 1872 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0004367/18721207/033/0010?browse=true> [accessed 4 January 2023]
• 2
  Anthony, Cedric. “Glimpses of Kildale History”. Page 369. Geni Printing. 2012.
• 3
  ‘North Country News. | Northern Echo | Tuesday 28 January 1873 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000087/18730128/011/0004> [accessed 4 January 2023]
• 4
  Anthony, Cedric. “Glimpses of Kildale History”. Page 368. Geni Printing. 2012.
• 5
  Tuffs, Peter. “Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines”. Page 11. Cleveland Ironstone Series 1996
• 6
  Tuffs, Peter. “Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines”. Page 11. Cleveland Ironstone Series 1996