Tag: Mining
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Warren Moor Ironstone Mine
I can’t believe it is almost five years since I posted a photo of the elaborate Victorian chimney in the upper reaches of the Leven valley. Back then the site was well fenced off, with inquisitive visitors made unwelcome. Since then, there has been much conservation work carried out. A gate and information board now…
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Commondale from the south
The quiet village of Commondale, once a hive of industrial activity. Best known is the brickworks of the Cleveland Fire Brick and Pottery Company which occupied the small dale behind old school and St Peter’s Church built with its distinctive red bricks. This was started in 1860 by John Slater Pratt, a printer from Stokesley,…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
The drift entrance to the mine which operated between 1907-1931 although no ore was extracted after 1921. It has been deliberately blocked for public safety. The brick building behind is an electrical sub-station and probably dates from 1914 when an electric sirocco fan was installed to replace the old method of ventilation by lighting a…
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West Beck, Beck Hole
Exploring the excavations of the 19th-century ironstone mining activities in Combs Wood near Beck Hole. These have been carried out by the Land of Iron project over a three year period. We found them easily enough. Most intriguing was a deep pit thought to have contained a waterwheel with a range of remains above which…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
Early morning. A good day beckons but Guisborough has not yet escaped the shadow of Highcliff Nab. Morning mist creeps up from the Cleveland valley. The range of buildings on the left was stables built for the Bolckow, Vaughan and Company’s Belmont Ironstone Mine when they drove a new drift to old workings which operated…
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Mountain Mine, Allihies
There is evidence that copper has been gained from the Malachite bearing rocks on the Beara peninsula since the Bronze Age but it was only in the early 19th-century that the extent of the copper ore was realised and extraction began. At first, it was open cast then drift were dug but soon deeper mining…
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Rosedale East
The fledgling has returned. ‘Reading week’ he says. Half term by any other name. A suggestion: “do you fancy going to the Lion Inn tomorrow? I’ll go on my bike and meet you there”. So I find myself in Rosedale for the second time in four days. But a different Rosedale with the Inn in…
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Calcining Kilns, Rosedale East Mines
A bit of a dilemma. Parked at the Lion Inn and went for a circuit of Rosedale with visibility less than the width of the road and the temperature below 10ºc. And so it remained until tea time when the mist finally cleared and the sun came out. But by that time I was comfortably back home. Rosedale was…