… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.
Monument Mine
A wet day so keeping it close with an exploration of the ironstone mine below Capt. Cook’s Monument. Winter is the best time for viewing the remains, before the brambles and gorse run riot.
The featured image is an overview of the site. It’s been taken from approximately above what would have been one of the two mine entrances into the hillside. The main hauler engine house, see Photo (A) below, can be seen right of centre. Out of shot to the right there was a self acting incline along which loaded tubs were lowered down to the sidings where the ore was transferred to standard gauge railway trucks.
The mine operated between 1908 and 1931 by Pease and Partners which also had the mines at Hutton village. The main heading went straight under Gribdale to exploit the ironstone seams under Great Ayton Moor and connected up with the Hutton workings.
(A) Main hauler engine house: constructed during the mine’s conversion to electricity in 1921.
(B) Date stamp on a lose concrete beam on the main hauler engine house. The beam, I am sure, seems to move about.(C) Fan house dating from 1919: Brick built to house a ‘Sirocco’ type of fan built by Davidson and Co. Ltd. of Belfast, and replacing a traditional furnace system. It was originally driven by steam but converted to electricity in 1921.(D) Pair of concrete bases: there are several bases which have an unknown use. As there are no holding down bolts, I am more inclined to think these were for a tank of some sort.(E) A cistern of some sort with machinery foundations to the left. Purpose unknown.(F) Brick foundations which seem to date from 1915: possibly for a compressor or a water tank. The holding down bolts would seem to me that a compressor, subject to mechanical movement, was the more likely.(G) Foundations for the brake drum. From here the loaded trucks would have passed underneath and been lowered down the incline.(H) Foundations for the brake engine.
(A) Main hauler engine house: constructed during the mine’s conversion to electricity in 1921.
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