The Slow Decay of Belmont Mine
It is disheartening to see the old mine buildings at Belmont Ironstone Mine partially collapsed. Built around 1909, they may not be the grandest examples of industrial architecture, but they are likely the most intact surface remains of any ironstone mine in the Cleveland area. Remarkably, some sections are still used as stables. I ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/30/the-slow-decay-of-belmont-mine/
The Forgotten Incline of Ingleby Moor
I had heard the National Park was up to something on the old railway incline up Ingleby Moor, so I went to see what the fuss was about.
This is not the famous incline that once carried ironstone to Rosedale. It is one that runs roughly 350 metres to the south, leading to the Ingleby Mining Company ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/05/09/the-forgotten-incline-of-ingleby-moor/
#InglebyMoor #NorthYorkMoors #history #IronstoneMining #Victorian
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 pr ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/15/fire-fumes-and-fatality-scugdales-calcining-kiln/
#NorthYorkMoors #Scugdale #history #IndustrialArchaeology #IronstoneMining
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 rai ...
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 Lane itself, which appears to have b ...
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 r ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=37378
#Aireyholme #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #history #IronstoneMining
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 mere mortals to understand.
The new diversi ...
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 to risk th ...
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 the s ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36958
#Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #history #IronstoneMining
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 harbour has resigned itself to silt and steady erosion.
...
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 they feel fortunate, knowing th ...
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 the Nati ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36205
#NewtonWood #NorthYorkMoors #IndustrialArchaeology #IronstoneMining #NationalTrust
Nature Reclaims Industry: Warsett Hill
A fishing smack chugging serenely towards his lobster pots off Huntcliff caught my attention. The morning is still and muggy, with overnight rain fizzling out and the sea as calm as a millpond.
I have been working on the National Trust's property at Warsett Hill, tidying up an old, decrepit post and rail fence. Acquired in 1991 with funds from Enterprise Neptune a ...
Roseberry Ironstone Mine — A Miner’s Day Begins
A significant anniversary in the history of Roseberry Ironstone Mine. It was on this day in 1921 that the men at the mine received notice to cease work with the mine due to be made idle at the end of the period of notice. In fact, output fell gradually until, in 1924, it stopped completely and a 'skeleton' maintenance employed until ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=34488
#Aireyholme #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #IronstoneMining
Ayton Banks Ironstone Mine — its legacy
Playing with my new tripod, a Christmas goodie. I do like the motion blur effect of long exposures.
The water is draining from the Ayton Banks ironstone mine, the stone of which turned out to be poor-quality, leading to the mine's brief existence. It had opened in the first decade of the 20th-century but closed during the depre ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=34177
#AytonBanks #GreatAyton #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #ecology #IronstoneMining
Cutting the First Sod on the Codhill Branch on the Gisbro’ and Middlesbro’ Railway
Cutting the First Sod on the Codhill Branch on the Gisbro' and Middlesbro' Railway. — It having been generally circulated throughout the town of Gisbro' and neighbourhood that the first sod on the Codhill branch of the Middlesbro' and Gisbro' railway for the working of ironstone would be removed on Mond ...
Boom and Bust: Glaisdale’s Brief Ironstone Mining Era
Back in 1831, Glaisdale was a mere township within the parish of Danby. But, by the end of the century, Glaisdale was a parish in its own right. The village, though, pretty much developed as a mining community, which began around the mid-1860s, and by the end of that decade an ironworks had been built.
So, in the mid-19th ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=33003
#Glaisdale #NorthYorkMoors #19thcentury #IronstoneMining #Victorian
Roseberry Mine Tramway
What a difference when the sun comes out.
An otherwise dull walk around a regular route of mine taking in Capt. Cook's Monument and Roseberry, although I avoided the summits as it's the weekend.
And crossing the field at the top of Thief Lane, brilliant sunshine. To my right, Roseberry was still in dar ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31575
#GreatAyton #NewtonWood #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #industrialarchaeology #ironstonemining #NarrowGaugeRailway
I set out this morning intending to take a photo on the route that Dalton Taylor would have taken on his last day at work at Roseberry Ironstone Mine from his lodgings in Ayton
He would have climbed this path, probably before dawn, in 1913. I thought it was on this day, 110 years ago, he died from a roof collapse but have since found out that Taylor was actually killed a week earlier ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31183
#CliffRidgeWood #NorthYorkMoors #ironstonemining #NationalTrust
A familiar scene to many …
... least not Cleveland Way walkers heading south to Helmsley. Walkers going clockwise will be trudging up this bank to Coate moor and Capt. Cook's Monument.
Bankside Farm itself probably dates from the 18th-century, while the distant building to the right is the former manager’s house and workshop for the Coate Moor Iron Company. The drift entrance ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31110
#Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #ClevelandWay #ironstone #ironstonemining
