Tag: ironstone mining
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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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The New Drift, Eston Ironstone Mine
Woke up to rain again and with more rain forecast, it was a hard choice where to go on my morning stroll. Then my notes reminded me that John Marley died this day in 1891. That settled it, I headed for the Eston Hills. John Marley was born at Middridge Grange near Shildon in 1823.…
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Aireyholme Lane
Approaching the site of the Roseberry Ironstone Mine on the south-east flank of Roseberry Topping. Late afternoon, finally spring feels like it has arrived and the fields are beginning to drying out. The buildings, clad in corrugated steel, were located in the field on the left, with the bale of hay. Their concrete bases are…
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Greenhow Botton
Orginally posted on 2 Nov, 2016 my old site Most of the steep banks guarding the western edge of the North York Moors take their name from the community or parish at their foot so we have Ingleby Bank and Greenhow Bank. Jackson’s Bank, overlooking the flat valley of Greenhow Botton is an exception although…
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Skelton Park Pit
Very little remains of Cleveland ironstone mines. It was second only to coal as the UK’s biggest extractive industry. Ironstone had been mined in the Cleveland Hills since the 12th Century when primitive furnaces called bloomeries were used to melt the iron out of stone gained from rock outcrops along the dale sides. But it…
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An heffalump trap?
I visited this brick lined shaft on Tuesday but I wasn’t happy with the photos so a return visit today. It was a ventilation shaft for the Coate Moor Ironstone Mine. A furnace would have been at the bottom and the air warmed would rise drawing in fresh air from the main drift entrance. Coate…
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High Baring Cottages
Why is it, I thought as I was driving over Rosedale Head, that every time I head into Rosedale it’s damp and it’s foggy. A truly miserable morning. The plan had been to park high on the east side, cross the dale and have a look at the kilns on the west side. Dropping out of…
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Spawood Mine Powder House
Even in the bright summer sunshine it’s dark beneath the tree canopy of Spawood near Slapewath. The powder house stored black powder, the explosive used in the ironstone mines. To minimise potential damage in the advent of an explosion, the building was substantially made with thick walls buried within the hillside some distance from the mine buildings. Spawood Mine was leased by the Weardale, Coal…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
Why is it that runners always think of biking as an easy option? An active rest day. My own bike ride today enabled me to get into Guisborough Woods which looked green and lush with vicious nettles on the floor and the sycamores not yet dense enough to keep out the light. I was surprised to…
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Grinkle Ironstone Mine
A second dose of industrial archaeology in as many days. This is just inside the drift of the Grinkle Ironstone Mine, near Staithes. The mine dates from 1865 and operated until the 1920s. Output ceased in 1921 but was recommenced six years later with final production in 1929. Ore was carried by rail through a couple of tunnels…