A typical scene on the picking belt at an ironstone mine in Cleveland. Here the shale was seperated from the ironstone as it came from the mine, larger lumps are being broken up by sledge hammers. Bill Danby tells us: ”My brother in law, Frank Holmes, who was a Deputy at both Lingdale and North Skelton Ironstone Mines says that this photograph is most likely Lingdale. North Skelton did not have a “belt”, as there so little shale content in the ore extracted from that mine, whereas at Lingdale the shale content was high. Hence the man-made mountain that used to stand behind Coral Street. South Skelton Mine, he adds, also had a “belt” but it was on a slope.”
Image courtesy of George Pearson and many thanks to Bill Danby (and Frank Holmes) for the update.
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