Tag: ironstone mining
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Fire, Fumes, and Fatality: Scugdale’s Calcining Kiln
In the early 19th century, Scugdale was an unremarkable little dale where people busied themselves with weaving and bleaching fine linens. The local economy depended on at least four water mills, all fed by the ever-reliable Scugdale Beck. That is, until 1857, when progress arrived in the form of a two-mile railway branch between Swainby…
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Roseberry Topping and the Lingering Trace of a Railway
A view of Roseberry Topping that will be familiar to anyone enduring the A173. A fleeting moment of brightness in an otherwise wet and windy day spent planting trees in Bransdale. Of mild interest here is the embankment, now smothered in yellow-flowering gorse and lined with skeletal silver birch trees. This was once a curving…
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A Short History of the Ormesby Ironstone Mine and Its Surroundings
After many years, I finally returned to Flatts Lane Country Park and was astonished to find it looking clean and free of litter. This was undoubtedly the work of the Friends of Flatts Lane Country Park, who evidently have more patience than I do. The same could not be said for the approach via Flatts…
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4th February, 1921: Redundancies at Roseberry Ironstone Mine
His day began long before any sensible person would even consider waking. At 4:30 in the morning, he and his wife dragged themselves from their bed, greeted not by comfort but by the biting cold. The morning’s first ordeal was the outhouse—an unenviable journey in deep winter, where snow, ice, and the ever-present risk of…
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Bold Venture Gill
The public footpaths through Highcliffe Farm have been diverted. Fascinating. I am sure there is an entirely compelling reason for depriving the public of paths they have used for decades. Perhaps the landowner fancied some peace and quiet, or maybe there was a pressing need to shift things about for reasons too profound for us…
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The Loftus Mine Rescue of 1935 and the Bravery of George Heslop
On this day, 17th December, in 1935, a roof collapse at Loftus Ironstone mine trapped two miners, John Cooper Henry and Henry Murrell, under a heap of rock. Enter George Heslop, the mine’s Agent and Manager, who arrived at 9 a.m. to find that the roof was still collapsing and other miners were understandably reluctant…
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Where Birch Meets Rust: A Forgotten Landmark
Descending from Highcliff Nab to Guisborough, I felt a sudden urge to revisit a landmark I often passed on my runs around these woods many years ago. This viewpoint, on top of a spoil heap from the Belmont Ironstone Mine, was mercifully spared the blight of commercial conifers—perhaps because even saplings had standards and found…
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Rosedale Wyke to Ruin: The Decline of Port Mulgrave
Every time I visit Port Mulgrave, I am struck by how little it changes—save, of course, for the gradual but ceaseless gnawing of the harbour by the North Sea. Today, I didn’t manage to descend to the beach, not that I missed much, for from Rosedale Cliffs I could see quite plainly that the old…
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The Miner’s Path: From Ironstone to Ypres
The constant rain has transformed Airyholme Lane into a stream, though it mercifully spills into the field before it reaches the farmyard. I cannot help but wonder what the weather was like on this day in 1917. The miners from Roseberry Ironstone Mine would have trudged along this track to and from their shifts. Did…
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Newton Wood’s Hidden Industrial Heritage
This morning’s low cloud cover meant there was no chance of capturing any stunning shots of the Cleveland Hills, so I turned my attention to something closer to the ground. Folk often ask me about this brick and concrete structure at the Cliff Rigg end of Newton Wood, recently cleared of bracken and brambles by…