For nigh on seventy years, this exposed stretch on Greenhow Moor, with its splendid panorama of the Cleveland Plain and beyond, served as home for a community of railway workers and their families.
Sited at the top of the Ingleby Incline, a cluster of building once stood here, in a location so remote and exposed that it earned the name ‘Siberia,’ although that was the name originally mapped as the navvy camp down in the valley for the railway construction workers. Among the rail lines and sidings were several buildings, including the tall stone-built drum-house, workshops, and four cottages. Today, they’ve all been razed to the ground, yet sizable chunks of masonry and rusty holding-down bolts still serve as markers for the sites of the drum-house and brake-cabin. As for the cottages, their footprint eludes us, concealed beneath the moorland bogs and heather.
The incline’s purpose was to facilitate the descent of ironstone down the escarpment, reaching Battersby junction and the main rail network. A rack of four wagons were lowered the mile-long slope, overseen by two men in a Brake Cabin with a vantage point overlooking the 1:5 gradient incline and back to the Drum House.
Living here must have been no easy feat, distant from any conveniences and frequently isolated by winter snow. Nevertheless, a communal spirit thrived among the families. Even when the Rosedale ironstone industry collapsed, and the railway embarked on its final journey in 1929, a considerable number of Siberia’s occupants were reluctant to bid farewell.
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