East Cleveland Image Archive

Micklow Cottages were at the triangle junction of Micklow Lane and the the road to Street Houses from Skiningrove. Demolished in the 1960s and originally known as Micklehow Cottages they were one of the four collections of cottages originally developed for the alum workers of Hummersea and Boulby.

Image and information courtesy of Eric Johnson.

Margaret Bowden (nee Willis) and her son Ted, are on the left. Margaret was a midwife. Mary Stainthorpe Hogan (nee Cooke) is in the doorway with her nephew, Peter Kitchener. The photo was taken at Micklow Cottages about 1951.

Image courtesy of Keith Bowers.

The outward appearance of these houses haven’t changed much over the years, we always new it as Second Foulsyke, but most now call it Far Foulsyke, but a rose by any other name. This is a copy of a postcard from the Bruce series. David Green advised: “I was born at Far Foulsyke in 1952 and lived there until 1975, during which time a lot of changes took place to both Foulsykes and Arthur Fields (which I helped to demolish). Foulsyke means smelly bog of which there was plenty due to several springs in the fields which also supplied drinking water for the houses before they where connected to the mains.” Christine Davey adds: “My grandparents used to live in the last house on the right-hand side of this row of cottages from the mid thirties and when my grandfather died, my grandmother Annie Cook continued to live there until the mid sixties. I have many happy childhood memories visiting her with my mother Ethel after school every Friday! It was a really tight community with Miller’s farm at the far end, and some very noisy guard geese, if memory serves me right!”

Image courtesy of Mrs Pauline Ovington, thanks to David Green and Christine Davey for the updates.

Four cottages made up this row of fine freestone buildings with red clay pantile roofs. They were set in the fields between Loftus and Easington (going through Foulsyke, just past the houses there is a small gate that leads via a public footpath to the cliff road). Over one field and then Arthur Fields came into view. If my memory serves me rightly there was a windmill in the field near these cottages, long since demolished (both the windmill and the cottages). This collection of cottages sadly no longer with us, were similar to those of Micklow Cottages and were developed to house the alum workers of Hummersea. Katherine Johnson told the Archive: “My great grandparents lived at Arthur Fields for many years. They were Joseph and Ada Readman and their son Eddie lived with them for a while too. At one point in the 1950’s my mother – Margaret Johnson nee Readman moved in with her parents Betty and Alban Readman and her brother Francis Readman. I believe this was only for a short time.” 

Kay Petherick adds: “I have just discovered that the daughter of my great great grandparents lived at no. 2 in the 1891 census. Mary Brignall (nee Johnson) with her husband Robert and their 4 children. What a disappointment to find the cottages no longer exist.”

Image courtesy of the David Linton Collection and others, thanks to Katherine Johnson and Kay Petherick for the updates.