Underground at North Skelton, the Archive was not going to hazard a guess at to what is going on in this photograph, and awaited for someone out there to tell. Chris Twigg came to the rescue with : “I believe its a Walker compressed air drill.” Presumably this would be prior to inserting explosives into the holes for blasting? Danny Plews adds: “The drill bit was at least 4 to 5 feet long and had its dangers with possible finding gas or in the case when I was down there, WATER from another old mine tunnel. When this happened the driller got a soaking – it didn’t happen to me but saw it happen which meant that we had to attempt to plug the hole – not an easy task. When this happened we started another tunnel to try and get all the ore that we could possibly extract!”
Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection and others; thanks to Chris Twigg and Danny Plews for the updates.
Here’s a good image of a Cranner Loader in action at North Skelton Mine. Quite a late image, judging by the headgear and electric lamps. North Skelton Mine was the last of the Cleveland Mines to close, so this image could be as late as 1963.
Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection, etc.
A newspaper cutting from about 1930-1940, showing the underground stables at ”Duckhole” pit (so named because it was one of the wettest pits in the Cleveland System). This pit was eventually worked from Lumpsey mine at Brotton. Simon Chapman advised the Archive: “The horse keeper was Bob Robinson, who has specially put on his helmet for the picture. That round object at the bottom right of the picture is his cap!
Although the cutting refers to it as Carlin How pit and the other mine in the valley was known as Loftus mine, both were actually in Skinningrove Valley! Loftus mine was more popularly known as Skinningrove and is now the basis of the Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum. The horse stables for Loftus mine were believed to be situated under Loftus town Hall, we will check this out.
Image courtesy of various sources, including Cleveland ironstone Mining Museum, the Pem Holliday Collection, etc., thanks to Simon Chapman for the update.
To the bottom left are the stables, then comes Overman’s Cottages (hoss muck terrace, as it was known by the locals) then what looks like a bridge is where the stone from Loftus mine was taken to Duck Hole and up the shaft to the works at the top of the bank. This happened when the railway put up the charge for the mine using the zig zag line. Kilton viaduct can just be seen and Mill Bank snakes it’s way to the top of the photo. We must not forget the children posing in the front of the photo, it was wonderful how the word got round when the photographer was coming.
Loftus Mine at full production in about 1900. More popularly known as Skinningrove mine, in the picture it is possible to see at the right hand side is what was known as the wood yard where the wood for the pit props was stored. Mill Bank is just visible at the far right and in the foreground are the stables. These are the surface stables, access inbye to the mine was via the Horse Drift. The underground stables were situated underneath Loftus Town Hall, there were stalls for 16 horses; with provisions for fodder and water, etc. Harold Found, an ex-miner tells us: ”The stables were kept immaculate.” As a new miner he spent time at the blacksmiths next door, assisting the blacksmith with shoeing horses, etc.
Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection and others, thanks to Harold Found for this update.
A serene snow-covered image taken from Carlin How, probably from near the entrance to Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works, belying the gritty industrialised nature of the area. A light dusting of snow, but you can still make out Overman’s Cottages, with the mine to the rear and Mill Bank snaking it’s way to Loftus. The shale heaps look almost like mountains with their covering of snow.
Three men in rather a dangerous position, the Archive asked: “Does anyone know when the mine head gear was replaced?” Simon Chapman assisted with: “This picture shows work being carried out on the upcast headgear about 1900 which was a wooden construction. It was replaced by a smaller steel structure in 1937. The headgear over the main drawing shaft was also wooden until 1918 when it was replaced, again by a steel headgear.”
A lovely clear photograph (from a Huntrods postcard) of Lumpsey mine at Brotton. Huntrods the photographer (and postcard producer) would not have had to travel very far to capture this image. In 1901 Mr J. E. Huntrods was living in at 32 Errington Street, Brotton; just next door really! Presently some ruins of the buildings still remain with the shaft being capped off.
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