Ironstone Mining

The engine of Cleveland’s Victorian development was its mineral supply, particularly its ironstone. In the nineteenth century there was an extensive network of mines throughout the area.

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Ironstone

Between 206 and 150 million Years Before Present (“YBP”), in the Jurassic era, the rocks forming the Cleveland Hills were deposited in a warm, shallow sea, which was later the site of a river delta. Over geological time, these sediments were compacted to form mudstones, shales, siltstones and sandstones. The Cleveland Ironstone Formation formed in the Lower Jurassic (about 200 to 175 million YBP) comprised hard beds of sideritic and chamositic ironstone.

Ironstone includes iron-bearing minerals with other elements, but the iron content is generally low at about 30%. Two significant minerals are siderite or iron carbonate and bethierine or iron silicate. The minerals were formed biochemically on the sea floor from iron either dissolved or suspended in seawater. Higher parts of the Jurassic sequence include the Jet, alum shales and sometimes coal seams, all of which had an economic value.

The economic value of ironstone depended on the iron content; the thickness of the seam; the presence of shale within the seam; and the amount of deleterous elements, especially sulphur.

The Cleveland Orefield extends over 1,000 square kilometres. The main seam was up to five metres think at Eston and then thinned southwards. The typical iron content of Loftus was about 28%, which was significantly less than the Eston mines. As mining proceeded it became necessary to separate the shale as waste.

Unlocking the potential

Ironstone mining began in the Iron Age and mines at Malton and Pickering continued in operation from Roman times.

There are extensive heaps of slag around Rievaulx Abbey, where water was diverted to help with the movement of the stone to the monastery. The abbey and its ironworks were acquired by the Earl of Rutland after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, who continued working the ironworks. By 1545, four furnaces were smelting iron ore under the management of John Blackett, the vicar of Scawton. The vaulted undercroft of the refectory was used to store the charcoal used as fuel. A blast furnace was added in 1577 and a forge was re-equipped between 1600 and 1612. Local supplies of timber for charcoal were all but exhausted by the 1640s and the ironworks closed. There was similar early ironworking in Bilsdale, Bransdale and Rosedale. Many of these early workings appear to have concentrated on the Dogger Seam.

There were various attempts to mine ironstone in the early nineteenth century, focused mainly on coastal outcrops. The Pecten seam was discovered at Grosmont during the construction of a cutting for the Whitby and Pickering Railway. The newly formed Whitby Stone Company sent a cargo of ironstone to the Birtley Iron Company in 1836, but it was rejected as being of poor quality. After some experimentation, the two companies soon agreed a sales contract.

The Mining and Collieries Act 1842 prohibited all underground work for women and girls, and for boys under 10.

On 7 August 1848, the first mine in Cleveland opened in Skinningrove. It was not until August 1850 that Bolckow and Vaughan made a trial of the main Cleveland seam by quarrying near Eston. Underground mining started shortly afterwards, using pillar and stall. Over half a million tons of ironstone was raised annually by the mid 1850s.

Industrial Cleveland

The Tees Valley became a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. At its peak, eighty three ironstone mines provided a source of iron to make railways and bridges across the globe, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Around 35 mines opened between Eston, Great Ayton and Hinderwell on the coast. There was a small group of mines at Grosmont and others in Rosedale.

Railways were extended to serve the mines, and new settlements including North Skelton, Boosbeck, Margrove Park, Lingdale and Carlin How, emerged which encouraged labour for the mines from the predominantly rural area. Rows of terraced cottages emerged in Skelton, Brotton, Skinningrove, Liverton and Loftus.

After an initial rush there followed a period of consolidation as iron companies absorbed smaller ventures and workings were rationalised. Marginal mines closed.

There was a downturn during the depression of the 1870s.

A new generation of iron works on Teesside from the 1880s used Bessemer convertors to turn the iron into steel. By 1883 production of Cleveland iron ore peaked at six and three-quarter million tons.

The quarter century before the First World War saw many older mines close with further consolidation of companies and some new sinkings.

Rock drills and mechanised haulages were used to increase efficiency and trim costs.

Around twenty mines closed in the inter-war years. Many of the old companies were absorbed by Dorman, Long & Co. Ltd, which dominated the industry at the start of World War II.

Only nine mines, all in the area between Guisborough and Brotton, survived the Second World War. Efforts were made to make mining more efficient. Diesel haulage was introduced below ground. However the mines could not compete with imported ore or the opencast mining around Scunthorpe and Corby.

North Skelton Mine was the last to close in January 1964.

Cleveland Ironstone Mines

There is a list of the Cleveland Ironstone Mines and the Land of Iron website includes an interactive map.

Kilton mine

The Kilton mines were sited to the south of Kilton Thorpe and were opened in 1871. A large spoil tip still dominates the skyline. Both Kilton and Lumpsey mines were served by railways and the abandoned embankments and cuttings of the railways can still be seen. The mines finally closed in 1963.

The establishment of an ironstone mine at Lumpsey in the late nineteenth century led to the destruction of the farm and no buildings survive. The Lumpsey mine was opened in 1881, after the shafts were first sunk in 1880. The ironstone companies had followed the veins south and east from the Eston hills. The mine closed in 1954 but a number of the mine buildings still survive.

Three mines operated around Great Ayton in the first thirty years of the twentieth century – Rosebury, Gribdale or Ayton Banks and Ayton Mine. Ayton Banks was a small concession operated from 1910 to 1921 by Tees Furnace Company. The mine worked the Peckten seam of ironstone, which was named after the type of fossil found in the ore.

The ironstone was mined by drifts or adits in Ayton, almost exclusively from the main seam, which was the last of the beds to be laid down. They used the pillar and stall method of working. The Ayton mine workings were extensive, stretching as far as a second entrance north of Ayton Banks Farm. The ore from the Roseberry and Ayton mines was taken by tramway to the main railway line. Ayton Banks ironstone was sent by aerial ropeway to the railhead. The site was not accessible even for a narrow gauge railway, so an overhead cable way was constructed, carried on metal pillars supported by concrete bases, some of which can still be seen.

Ironstone Mining at Great Ayton

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