A cheerful picture of Mary Coverdale, Betty Gorman and Betty Ditchburn at the counter of Dodd’s shop. The shelves behind them are packed with stock.
Image courtesy and names courtesy of Mrs. Betty Gorman.
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Dorothy, Betty and Jean pictured behind the counter in Dodd’s shop. There’s a 1977 Silver Jubilee, souvenir tea towel behind them. Was this the year that this photograph was taken? Image and names courtesy of Mrs. Ditchburn.
A train of empty iron-ore wagons rolls towards Skinningrove station, Brotton Cottage Hospital (Brotton Miner’s Hospital) in the background, headed by a rather grimy ’Austerity’ class WD/8 9 2-8-0 locomotive whose number is 90435. Taken in 1959 this image shows the train is not bound for Skinningrove Iron works, the reception sidings are the lines branching away on the right. Image believed to originate from the Neville Stead Collection, but came to the Archive from the Pem Holliday Collection.
An awful lot of children here, from the very small to the almost adult. The non-conformist churches, in general, were more philanthropic than the orthodox church and organised events which encompassed their whole congregation. In this case all of the children would have been driven up here (possibly on the back of farmers’ wagons, although by this time possibly even in a charabanc or motor bus) and treated to a picnic in one of the local farmer’s fields. Games and competitions, usually with prizes, would ensue and in the late afternoon all would return home again happy and sleepy (all except those who never won a prize, perhaps?). My mother used to tell me of similar events that she had participated in (funnily enough she was christened into the Congregational Church), she always spoke of them with fond affection. Image courtesy of Olive Bennett.
This looks like a photograph of a finishing shop – a place where clay or ceramic objects are cleaned up and checked for defects. I could suggest a date of 1903 – judging by the plaque being held to view at the nearest workbench, but that could be a red herring! We have said clay or ceramic because most of the objects in the image look like ceramic pipework, chimney pots and urns. The reason it looks rather gloomy is that it was shot in natural light – no flash. Behind the little table in the foreground can be seen some small moulds; like boxes in two halves. We have been told by Gavin Purdon: “The 1903 plaque with a letter N on its shield shown in this photograph can be seen today in Commondale village mounted on the gable end of Ness Terrace nearest to Commondale railway station. This would suggest the photograph has a strong connection with Commondale Brick Pipe & Tile Works.” Many thanks to Gavin Purdon for that update.
A fine view of the row of cottages at South Loftus – complete with the obligatory posed urchins! Emily Millthorpe (nee Bunney) tells us: “I was born in one of these houses in 1948, my parents names were Kenneth and Florence. I have one brother (Keith)and one brother (Clive) who were born there. We then moved to Barnsley where my father worked in Grimethorpe pit. He worked in Skinningrove pit when we lived there, he worked with someone called Mr Gell who was in a fire and was scarred very badly all over and one younger brother also born there.” Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection and thanks to Emily Millthorpe (nee Bunney) for that information.
A picture postcard showing the blast furnaces and pig beds at Skinningrove Iron Works. These are the 5 original, stone-built, blast furnaces at Skinningrove Iron Works (no Steel in the title then – we are not even sure it was called Skinningrove Iron Works – at this time). The furnaces were hand-loaded with large two-wheeled barrows which ran on knife-edge iron wheels (to minimise the rolling resistance), hence the gallery connecting the furnaces to the lift housings. The iron was tapped directly into a sand gully, called a sow, which had many branches, called pigs (hence the term pig-iron), each the same size and pressed into the sand with a specially-shaped former. When sufficiently cool the pigs were loaded onto trucks and taken to the jetty, via an incline, rope-hauled, railway, and then in company steamships to steelworks and iron foundries in Durham and Middlesbrough. Eventually they were even transported to Europe. All of these stone-built furnaces were eventually demolished and new furnaces built; of which no. 3 and no. 5 survived. Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection.
A line-level shot of a local train in Hinderwell Station. The loco is a 2-6-4 BR Standard Tank, number 80118, so this image could well be towards the end of the line’s life, certainly in the ’50s, when this class took over from A-series 4-6-2T. For the railway modellers among you this particular locomotive is available from the Bachmann stable for ’OO’ gauge, in early BR livery – probably exactly this era (sorry for the ‘anorak’ information). Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection.
Minnie about to leave Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works at the end of her life there. Notice the changes in her appearance; dumb buffers replaced the sprung buffers so making it easier to push shunt the slag pots, iron ladles and ingot bogies; a full crew cab (obviously taken from another redundant locomotive) and different safety valve arrangement, she had obviously had a refit during her long life on ”the ’Grove”. Image courtesy of the Pem Holiday Collection.
Minnie at the beginning of her career at Skinningrove, canvas roof over the crew quarters, sprung buffers and very Victorian safety valve. A good example of industrial photography. Driver is now identified as Thomas Baldwin (standing in front of Minnie). Minnie a 0-6-0ST locomotive was built by Fox Walker of Bristol in 1878, her original engine number was 358. Minnie can still be seen at the Mangapps Railway Museum in Essex. Image courtesy fo the Pem Holliday Collection and thanks to Violet Shaw (nee Baldwin) for this information about her father.
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