Act 18

The Miners

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The family story of mining, mainly for ironstone, the primary resource behind the industrial development of Cleveland

 

 

A Century in Stone

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A short summary of ironstone’s importance to Cleveland’s history

 

 

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Ironstone

The mining of ironstone at scale in Cleveland was triggered by the 1850 discovery of the Main Seam at Eston by John Vaughan and John Marley. This iron rush led to some forty mines being established within two decades, supplying roughly one-third of Britain's iron by the 1870s. Regional output reached its peak in 1883, with about 6.75 million tonnes of ore processed. By this time, Cleveland was considered the world's iron-producing capital. The industry drove the rapid development of Middlesbrough, which came to be known as Ironopolis, and the construction of extensive railway networks and blast furnaces. Local iron and steel were used for global projects, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Early mining relied on the labour intensive pillar and stall method using picks and blasting powder[1]. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, efficiency was improved through compressed air drills, mechanised haulage, and better ventilation systems. The boom caused a massive population influx, with workers arriving from across Britain and Ireland to live in purpose-built pit villages like California at Great Ayton, Skinningrove, and Eston. It was inevitable that the indigenous rural population, including the now well spread Farndale family, would be drawn to the mines for work.

The industry began a steady decline after World War I. By 1936, for the first time, Teesside smelters used more imported ore than locally mined stone. The last mine, North Skelton, finally closed in January 1964.

William and Mary Farndale, the innkeeper of Egton, who we met in Act 15, Scene 3, later worked as an agricultural labourer with seven children. Three of their family, part of the Whitby 5 Line, were ironstone miners.

Their fourth son, William Farndale was an ironstone miner by 1871[2]. He lived with his wife Hannah and their family, the Loftus 3 Line, in a cottage in the flourishing and rapidly increasing town of Lofthouse in Cleveland, and now in the several occupations of Mr Mortimer and Mr Farndale. The property is in good repair, and contains a frontage of about 30 feet towards Lambs lane, and as the town of Lofthouse is rapidly extending in that direction, is well adapted for carrying on a large and successful business. Freehold building land, either for business or residential purposes, in the town of Lofthouse, is difficult to procure, and the present offers a very favourable opportunity to anyone wishing to secure a good business premises, or to obtain a safe and lucrative investment.[3]

 

Still an ironstone miner in 1881[4], William was a mines deputy at the Loftus mine when he gave evidence on 9 May 1885 after a mining fatality. An inquest was held yesterday afternoon at the Miners’ Hospital, Skinningrove, before Mr W Robinson, deputy coroner, on the body of the man Henry Durham, who was killed by a fall of stone at Messrs Pease’s Loftus mines on Wednesday last. The inquiry was attended by Mr Toyne, president of the Cleveland Miners’ Union; Mr Atkinson, assistant inspector of mines; and Mr William France, manager for Mrs Pease. George Mabbitt was working with the deceased on Wednesday. During the day they found no faults, and just finished work, the deceased, Wallace, and witness remaining to discuss where a hole should be fired in the morning, when Durham, who was nearest to the face, was struck by a falling stone and killed. He was not able to say whether stone came from the roof or the face. After the last shot had been fired they thought the roof was not good, but did not think it would fall so soon. They kept from underneath as much as possible. Evidence was given by William Farndale, a deputy, and the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.[5] Henry Durham died after a fall or ironstone on 6 May 1885 and was about 34 years old[6].

Loftus mine, the first mine to open in Cleveland, also known as Lofthouse and Skinningrove mine, operated from 1848 to 1958 by J W Pease & Partners; Losh, Wilson and Bell & Co; and Skinningrove Iron Company Limited[7].

William died, a deputy overman, aged only 45, and was buried at St Leonards, Loftus on 22 February 1894.

William’s brother, John Farndale was a farm worker at Hunt House, Goathland, near Whitby in 1871[8], but when he married the 21 year old farmer’s daughter, Susannah Smith of Pickering at the Parish Church at Egton, on 7 September 1872, he was working as a miner[9]. He then worked as an agricultural labourer for the last two decades of the nineteenth century[10], but by 1901, he had become an ironstone mines deputy, living at 9 John Street, Loftus[11]. He may have followed his brother William into the deputy role at Loftus mine after William died in 1894, or may have been deputy of the nearby mine at Carlin How. He may also have worked at Cragg Hall ironstone mine at Carlin How, which operated from 1871 to 1892, owned by Bell’s Brothers and later at Carlin How mine, also known as Duck Hole, which operated from 1873 to 1924[12]. In 1911, he was still the mines deputy, aged 60, living at 19 Tees Street, East Loftus[13]. His eldest son, Thomas Smith Farndale, was also an ironstone miner at Loftus and Lingdale[14]. His son John William Farndale was an ironstone miner filler in 1901[15] and later became a farmer[16]. His son, George Farndale, a blacksmith striker, was killed in action on the 27th of May 1917, during the Battle of Arras, barely a month after arriving in France[17]. His son Harry Farndale died on 14 August 1918 aged only 36 years[18]. Edith Farndale was an inmate at the Guisborough Workhouse in 1921 and then the Stokesley Poor Law Institution in 1939. By 1921, old John was a widower of nearly 70 years old and still working as an ironstone miner deputy with Bells Brothers at Carlin How Mine[19]. He died aged 87 on 3 January 1939 and was buried on 7 January 1939 at Loftus Cemetery[20].

A third brother of this same family, Samuel Sanders Farndale was a labourer of Egton, when he married Mary Hogarth aged 17, at the Parish Church of Egton, on 29 May 1880[21]. By 1881, he was an ironstone miner, aged 26, living with his new wife’s family at Hose Mires, Egton[22]. He was still an ironstone miner in Egton in 1891 and 1901[23] and by 1911, he was a fifty six year old miner, living at 43 Whitecliff Terrace, Loftus[24]. He died that year and was buried at Loftus cemetery on 1 May 1911[25]. The Esk Valley ironstone mine, originally part of the Egton Estate was not a success and closed by 1883 and Samuel may have worked in the Grosmont Mine (operated 1858 to 1892) and the Eskdale Mine (operated 1906 to 1908).

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Some members of the family took work where they could, sometimes taking works in the mines. George Farndale was a tile maker in Stokesley by 1841[26] but he was working as an ironstone miner at Middlesbrough by 1861[27] and was later a brick maker[28].

John Henry Farndale, the son of Henry & Elizabeth Farndale, was baptised on 13 April 1828 in Stainton-in-Cleveland[29]. By the age of 13, in 1841, he was working as an agricultural labourer with the Sleigh family at Cross Field House, Kirklevington, south of Stockton[30]. In 1861 he was a boarder with Mr Ackroyd and working as an ironstone miner at Ormesby[31]. He married Sarah Walker on 29 December 1862 in Hartlepool[32]. Four years later, at the age of 37, he was killed on 9 March 1866 by a fall of iron stone at the Poston Mines, Ormesby, Middlesbrough[33]. An Inquest was held on 10 March 1866. The incident seems to have been an isolated accident, since the records do not show it as a mining disaster event.

The Ormesby Ironstone Mine was sometimes referred to as Poston Mines in historical records in the late nineteenth century. Ormesby mine was short lived and operated between 1865 and 1892. It was built to extract an outlying deposit under Ormesby Bank. The seam occurred quite near to the surface, and roof falls at the site of the mine occurred relatively frequently. The leaseholders for 1865 to 1879, at the time of John’s accident, were Swan, Coates and Company, and later from 1879 to 1892, Cargo Fleet Iron Company.

George Farndale was born on 8 March 1843 and baptised on 12 March 1843 in Brotton[34]. By the age of 18, in 1861, he was working as a miller with the Child family at Kilton Mill[35]. He married Hannah Mary Walker, a servant of Loftus and daughter of William Walker, a blacksmith, on 9 November 1867[36]. By 1871 he was working as a boilerman in Liverton[37]. By 1875 he was an ironstone miner, living in Loftus[38]. In 1881 he was an ironstone miner and the family were living at 2 Liverton Terrace, Liverton with his parents in law[39]. His father in law, William Walker, had been summoned at Guisborough Police Court on 20 May 1873 for a breach of contract as a mine manager in Brotton, but was the manager of Ormesby mines from 1878 to 1881. We also met George in Act 14 as he developed his skills to create a magnificent clock frame made of black walnut and white maple and a fretwork duchese dressing table, which he showed at exhibitions of the Skinningrove Miner’s Institute. He later joined the Loftus branch of the Cleveland Liberal Association and the Order of Rechabites and became a picture framer in Middlesbrough.

My great grandfather, Martin Farndale of Tidkinhow was born at Fogga Farm near Skelton on 19 September 1845, the son of Martin and Elizabeth Farndale, a farmer of Fogga[40]. He grew up in the around Brotton and probably went on working for his maternal grandfather for some time, taking on some responsibility for looking after his two younger brothers and his mother after his father died in 1862. By 1871 he worked for a farmer, John Rigg at Brough House, Brotton[41]. By 1873, he was an in door farm servant but also started to work in the ironstone mines[42].

In a mining dispute in 1873, an arbitration judgment was issued in the dispute between the mine owners and the miners of Cleveland, one which has been looked forward to with eager interest by all classes of the community.

As a prelude to setting forth the text of this important award, all we need to do is very briefly to recapitulate some of the leading features of the dispute referred to. In March last an application was made by the miners of Cleveland for an advance of 2d per ton upon their output of ironstone, being equal to about 12% upon the rates then current; a demand being, at the same time, also made by other classes of work when employed at the mines, for an increase of 10% in their wages. The masters’ reply to the men was that, looking at the advances already given, and the wages earned, as well as the ability of the men to earn more, they could not accede to the demand. At this, the Cleveland owners formed themselves into an Association, upon similar a similar basis to what had in 1872 being done by the collier owners of the county of Durham.

After much negotiation and I'm sorry to say, a stoppage of production for a considerable time in this great mining district, it was agreed, at a meeting of representatives of miners and mine owners, held on the 28th of May, as follows: “That it be left to an Arbitrator to determine whether the wages of the Cleveland miners should be advanced or reduced, and to what extent, measured by the standard of wages now prevailing in such industries in the north of England as the Arbitrator may deem it reasonable to consider in making his award.”

The contending parties requested me to undertake the duties of Arbitrator; And all preliminary arrangements having been made, and the case on both sides prepared, an Arbitration meeting was commenced at Saltburn on the 23rd of June. Witnesses were examined by each party, and much valuable information was given on both sides by means of extracts from account books, and by carefully prepared statistical tables, upon every subject bearing upon the matter in dispute. At the close of our settings, I was prepared to give my award.

There was much uncertainty of opinion as to the time which elapses before an ordinary labourer becomes a thoroughly practical miner. Upon the main point, however, the workmen's witnesses confirmed, so far as individual cases can be said to confirm the results of statistics taken over a wide range, the case made out by the employers. Martin Farndale, an indoor farm servant seven months ago, was now earning 7s 10d a shift. Richard Vayro, a farm labourer, after nine months working in the mines, was earning 8s 1d a shift. These were said to be exceptional, because they worked a “Pick Place”.

At this time, mining was still a systematic pillar and stall operation where the mine was laid out in a grid of tunnels. Each worker’s place was the specific stall or working face where he was responsible for winning the stone. Working at a pick place, or having a place for your pick, meant being a skilled hewer who had been allocated a specific section of the mine face to work.

It was later clarified. Sir, will you kindly allow me space in your paper to say a few words in my defence, in connection with the late arbitration at Saltburn, as I understand Mr Shepherd stated at a public meeting at Brotton that if the miners did not get the 2d per tonne it would be on account of the evidence given by Robert Campbell. It seems that the part objected to was that I was paying my mate 6s per day, the average wage in Cleveland being 7s, therefore leaving 8s for me. He contended that this injured our cause. Now, if the Cleveland miners will read and think for themselves, they will see that truth did not injure our cause. Mr Shepherd asserted that our average wage was 5s 11d per day; and the first two witnesses he called on our side, Mr Farndale and Richard Nayro, those men but a few months out of a farmyard, the one received 7s 10d per day, and the other 8s 1d, so that the owners could not have called two better witnesses on their part. Some say I should not have gone there; neither I should, but Mr Shepherd sent a messenger to Eston on the Monday evening for the witnesses, as he said that Mr Lee had asserted that the ironstone miner could work with his vest on, while the collier worked in a state of nudity, and the steam rising out of his back was greater than the heaviest explosion of powder in the mine.[43]

1872 was a year of feverish prosperity in the Cleveland iron trade. A wage of 8s 1d was roughly double what a miner would have earned only a few years earlier or later. For context, wages in early 1872 started around 4s 6d and skyrocketed to nearly 10s by the end of the year due to intense global demand for iron. In 1872, £1 had the purchasing power of approximately £146 today. This means his 8s 1d daily wage would be worth roughly £60 per day in modern terms. Since miners typically worked 5 or 6 shifts a week, Martin was part of a labour aristocracy with significantly more disposable income than agricultural workers, who often earned less for an entire week's work. This level of income was unsustainable. By 1874, the iron trade began to collapse, and wages for many fell back toward 5s per shift as the industry entered a period of sharp decline.

The following year, in December 1874, Martin Farndale took a tenancy on a small holding, a parcel of land of 135 square yards with the four stone houses built on it[44]. However Martin was clearly continuing to work as a miner as by 1877 Martin was described as a miner of Brotton on his marriage certificate[45]. When he married Catherine Jane Lindsay, the newly wedded couple moved to a cottage at Kilton Thorpe. He was still working as a miner when their eldest son, John Farndale, was born at Kilton Thorpe in 1878[46]. However when their second child, Elizabeth Lindsay Farndale, was born in late 1879, they were still living at Kilton Thorpe, and Martin was a farmer[47]. In 1881 Martin was again working as an ironstone miner, aged 34 and still living at Kilton Thorpe[48]. Sometime in the next two years Martin and Catherine and their young family moved to Tranmire Farm near Whitby where their next two children were born.

Ironstone Mining

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The engine of Cleveland’s Victorian development was its mineral supply, particularly its ironstone. Individuals in the Farndale Story worked in an extensive network of mines throughout the area

 

 

Kilton Mine

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The ruined site of the Kilton mine

 

Coal

By about 1850, coal mining around Bishop Auckland was entering a period of explosive growth that transformed the area from a traditional market town into a major industrial hub. The arrival and expansion of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (“S&DR”) in the preceding decades was the primary catalyst for growth. It allowed land locked coal from the Bishop Auckland area to be transported efficiently to the coast for shipping, ending a previous reliance on expensive land carriage by horse and cart. The town's population grew rapidly, rising from 3,776 in 1841 to 5,112 by 1851. This was driven by migrant workers from across the country seeking higher wages than those found in agriculture. Much of the coal mined was converted into coke in nearby ovens to supply the burgeoning iron and steel industries of Cleveland.

While wages were higher than in farming, the work was dangerous and involved long hours for men, and often children who worked as putters, the gruelling task of transporting coal from the coal face to the entrance of the pit shaft. Mining families typically lived in tied cottages provided by pit owners, which often included free coal but required them to surrender their home if they left their job.

Martin Farndale’s uncle, Thomas Farndale, the son of George & Mary Farndale of Easby, a farmer, was baptised at Stokesley on 17 February 1822[49]. He was a part of the generation that transitioned from agricultural labour in Yorkshire to the high-risk, high-reward environment of the Durham coalfields. His arrival in Bishop Auckland coincided with the sinking of new shafts including the Woodhouse Close South Pit in December 1850. In 1841 he had been working on the farm of his uncle, Matthew Farndale, in Kilton at the age of 15[50], but by 25 May 1850, he was a pitman, when he married Isabella Bowes at the church of St Helen in Bishop Auckland[51]. In 1851, at the age of 30, he was still a coal miner, living with Isabella and his 2 week old son, William Farndale in Bishop Auckland[52]. Their daughter Mary Ann Farndale was born on 17 March 1853[53].

Thomas probably worked at one of the Auckland group of collieries which were at their peak in 1850. He probably worked at St Helen's Auckland Colliery located just south of the town, which was a major employer in the 1850s, operated by Joseph Pease. This mine drew heavily from the local population.

Thomas died of phthisis or tuberculosis in his early thirties in 1854 and Isabella had a hard life bringing up two young children as a single parent.

Around 1900, coal mining in the Aberford area near Leeds was transitioning from a source of immense private wealth for the landed gentry. The industry was dominated by the Gascoigne family of Parlington Hall, who owned extensive deep mines in the West Yorkshire Coalfield. By 1900, however, their mining fortunes were beginning to decline due to falling income and the eventual closure of several pits. A key feature of the industry was the Aberford Railway, locally known as The Fly Line, a private standard gauge line built to transport coal from the Gascoigne pits in Garforth to Aberford. Operations included those in Garforth, such as the Sisters Pit, which had faced significant flooding disasters in the late nineteenth century.

By the age of 15, Alfred Leperton Farndale, known as Fred, was working as a pony driver at an underground pit at Aberford. He died at the age of 16 and was buried at Aberford on 13 July 1901. He was working at the coal mine at Garforth, southwest of Aberford. The record of Garforth Colliery by the Durham Mining Museum shows that on 11 July 1901, Farndale, A, aged 17, a driver, was run over by a set of tubs when travelling out bye on engine plane. Tried to save his pony.[54]

 

Alum

Alum production started in Cleveland in 1616. Alum works had previously emerged in Constantinople and Spain, under papal ownership and the first alum works in England began to operate on the Isle of Wight in 1567. In 1609 James I promoted alum production and took a monopoly over the industry for the Crown. In 1616 a contract was agreed to build new alum works at Selby Hagg, near Skelton-in-Cleveland. By the Civil War and the execution of Charles I, the Crown’s support for the industry declined, while alum mines continued to emerge across England. This only flooded the market and reduced profit. Selby Hagg reopened after the civil war in 1680 and alum works at Saltburn-by-the-Sea continued until 1720.

 

After a lull, the alum trade briefly picked up again from 1765. The price had by then risen from £10 per ton in 1736 to £24 per ton. John Hall Stephenson reopened the alum works at Selby Hagg. By 1771 howevber the price had fallen back to 13s a ton and Selby Hagg closed again in 1776. It was in this decade between 1765 and 1776 that Johnny Farndale employed men to work at his Alum House.

 

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John Farndale, ‘Old Farndale of Kilton’ was an alum house merchant. John Farndale wrote My Grandfather, who was a Kiltonian, employed many men at his alum house, and many a merry tale have I heard him tell of smugglers and their daring adventures and hair breadth escapes.[55]

During the seventeenth century, two alum mines had been opened, one on either side of Saltburn mouth; that on the West side by Sir John Lowther and Edward Trotter, which was then leased to the King at a rent of £500 from Midsummer, 1670, and that on the East side, Saltburn, in the Parish of Brotton, by John Turner, Sergeant-at-law, eldest son of John Turner, whose name occurs so often above, likewise leased at a rent of £400 from Christmas, 1670. Another alum mine was opened in Marske by Anthony Lowther and demised to Sir Hugh Cholmley, Sir Nicholas Crispe and others, likewise at a rent of £400 from Christmas, 1672.[56]

Jim Wingham says that Turton’s references to mines at the mouth of Saltburn are misleading, confusing the place of refinery and the place of mining. Alum deposits were up the valley of the Saltburn Gill and the alum was dug and carried down the valley by packhorse to behind Cat Nab where it was refined and purified at Old Saltburn and then shipped out to the Tyne or the Thames docks. There is a field today on the road to Brotton called the Kelp House Field where seaweed was dried and used in the refinery process and Alum House Field originally faced Cat Nab Cottage. Both the two alum mines referred to by Turton closed down in about 1720 as demand for alum fell.[57]

Alum

The alum trade in Cleveland

 

 

Peter Appleton has concluded that the large house, Mill Farm, that now stands between Cat Nab and the road from Saltburn, would seem to occupy the site of the alum house complex at Old Saltburn[58]. He supports this conclusion with reference to an estate map[59] after a survey by Watson and Seagrave. The map shows the alum quarry at Selby Hagg, with steeping pits and a cistern, at the place now referred to as Haggs Farm on the modern ordnance survey map.

 

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Mill Farm, the site of Johnny Farndale’s alum works     The Saltburn Gill which flows to the sea from Selby Haggs

The alum refining process began at the quarry where shale was recovered by pickaxes and broken into smaller pieces using mauls. It was then piled into large heaps, known as clamps, on a brushwood base. The clamp was then burnt and more shale was added until the heap was about 25 metres high. The burnt shale was then moved to steeping pits in the quarry floor and fresh water leached the soluable salts out of the shale. It was the resulting liquified concentrate that was run along conduits to the alum house.

 

Alum Houses such as that of Johnny Farndale would then have taken the concentrate through the next part of the process. The excess water content was evaporated off to achive the desired specific gravity (often measured by seeing whether an egg would float in the substance) and alkalis were added. The alkalis caused waste products to deposit as sediment. The remaining liquid was then run off into large casks and crystallised. The crystals were then broken off and rinsed with spring water and then dissolved in boiling water to create a saturated solution. Ammonia was added to help the crystallisaton process. Originally the ammonia was provided by human urine and there was a bouyant trade in the product. Barrels were left in the streets of such places as Guisborough for households to deposit their chamber pots and Thomas Chaloner of Guisborough sold his own urine for 1d per firkin. An alternative to urine was seaweed, which may have been used at Saltburn, although some believed seaweed to be inferior in its effect. The near final product was then run into very large casks to roach, the end product being saleable crystals.

 

The close proximity of Johnny’s Alum House to the Old Saltburn shoreline where ships were regularly beached to load up at low tide, meant that the final saleable product could quickly be exported from Johnny’s works. Sloops were beached on the low tide shore to be loaded and then refloated at high tide for export.

 

Conditions for the alum workers were generally dreadful. Particularly during the quarry phase, the burning heaps gave off clouds of sulphorous smoke. It was sometimes like working on an active volcano. Employees were often not paid for months on end. The alum workers were described as poor snakes, tattered and naked, ready to starve for want of food and clothes.

 

The primary use of alum was as a mordant to fix dyes in natural fibres such as wool and linen. It was used in dyeing and tanning and also as Epsom salts.

 

Jet

There are over 300 recorded jet mines across the North York Moors and Cleveland Hills. The industry peaked between 1860 and 1880 after Queen Victoria’s endorsement of jet for mourning jewellery following the death of Prince Albert in 1861.

Jet mines across and around the moors although numerous were small and individual mines tended not to acquire names or documentary records. During the nineteenth century hard jet fetched a good price and it was mined extensively in East Cleveland and along the edge of the moors between Roseberry and Kildale. The mines typically took the form of parallel drifts into the side of hills, with headings also driven at right angles to the original drifts at regular intervals, so that the plan of the mine looked like a chequerboard, with square pillars of rock left in place as support.

The semi precious mineral is found in thin lenses in the jet rock generally at some depth below the alum shales. It was extracted in Victorian times from numerous small drifts driven into the hillside. There are spoil heaps at Gribdale Gate, just east of Great Ayton and evidence of some open cast mining. There was intensive jet mining in Bilsdale, Bransdale, and Rosedale.

William Appleton Farndale worked as a jet miner at Eston in 1871[60]. The most concentrated area of old jet shale workings is found directly above the main Eston Ironstone Mine complex (NZ 566 185). Jet was also mined and quarried near the Eston Nab outcrop (NZ 568 183). The Jet Rock layer of the Whitby Mudstone Formation outcrops here, just below the sandstone cap that forms the Nab's cliffs. Numerous small, often collapsed drifts are regularly spaced along the northern hillside between Eston Bank and Lazenby Bank. These follow the natural outcrop of the Jet Rock as it contours around the hill.

 

Whinstone

Whinstone mining was a defining industry that transformed the village of Great Ayton into an industrial hub[61].

Running through Cleveland, roughly east to west, there is a ridge which marks the line of igneous dyke. This is composed of very hard rock called dolerite or whinstone. This stone has been extensively mined and quarried since the mid eighteenth century. The production of cuboid setts occupied many men and boys. These, with their regular shapes, can still be seen around Great Ayton. Most of the whinstone was taken out of the area by rail and much of it was used for road surfacing in places such as Leeds. Extraction had ceased by the 1960s.

 

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Ironstone Mining Podcast

This is a new experiment. Using Google’s Notebook LM, listen to an AI powered podcast summarising this page. This should only be treated as an introduction, and the AI generation sometimes gets the nuance a bit wrong. There are a some instances in this podcast where there are mistakes about the exact relationships and an overlap of generations. However it does provide an introduction to the themes of this page, which are dealt with in more depth below. Listen to the podcast for an overview, but it doesn’t replace the text below, which provides the accurate historical record.

 

 

 



[1] The pillar and stall method used pillars of the ironstone to support the roof, and the ironstone was extracted around the pillar. Once the material in the stalls had been excavated, the pillars continued to support the rocks above. Miners would sometimes return to the workings to take ironstone from the pillars, a dangerous practice which often caused accidents.

[2] 1871 Census.

[3] Whitby Gazette, 22 November 1873.

[4] 1881 Census.

[5] Northern Echo, 9 May 1885.

[6] Henry Durham, Durham Mining Museum.

[8] 1871 Census.

[9] Marriage Certificate, Egton Parish Records.

[10] 1881 and 1891 Census.

[11] 1901 Census.

[13] 1911 Census.

[14] 1901, 1911 and 1921 Census.

[15] 1901 Census.

[16] 1921 Census and 1939 Register.

[17] Military records, Death Certificate, letters, Whitby Gazette, 22 June 1917.

[18] Burial index, Find a Grave index.

[19] 1921 Census.

[20] GRO Volume 9d page 496, Monumental Record.

[21] Marriage Certificate.

[22] 1881 Census.

[23] 1891 and 1901 Census.

[24] 1911 Census.

[25] Loftus Parish Records.

[26] 1841 Census.

[27] 1861 Census.

[28] 1871 and 1881 Census.

[29] Stainton Parish Records.

[30] 1841 Census.

[31] 1861 Census.

[32] Marriage Certificate, Durham Chronicle and Durham Conty Advertiser, 2 January 1863.

[33] Death Certificate.

[34] Brotton Parish Records, Birth Certificate, Baptism Certificate, GRO Volume 24 page 392.

[35] 1861 Census.

[36] Marriage Certificate.

[37] 1871 Census.

[38] Son‘s birth certificate.

[39] 1881 Census.

[40] Skelton Parish Register.

[41] 1871 Census.

[42] Northern Echo, 11 July 1873.

[43] Northern Echo, 11 and 25 July 1873.

[44] Teesside Archives, Reference U/AA/1/38.

[45] Marriage Certificate.

[46] Brotton Parish Records.

[47] Brotton Parish Records.

[48] 1881 Census.

[49] Stokesley Parish Records.

[50] 1841 Census.

[51] Marriage Certificate.

[52] 1851 Census.

[53] GRO Volume 10a page 102.

[54] A Farndale, Durham Mining Museum.

[55] A Guide to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, John Farndale, 1864.

[56] The alum farm together with a history of the origin, development, and eventual decline of the alum trade in north-east Yorkshire, Robert Bell Turton, 1938, page 191.

[57] Saltburn by the sea, A Town in Time, Jim Wingham, 2021.

[58] The Alum Folk, Peter Appleton, 2023.

[59] A map of an Estate belonging to John Hall Stephenson Esq lying at Skelton and Brotton in Cleveland in the North Riding of the County of York, 1773 kindly provided by Tees Archaeology.

[60] 1871 Census.

[61] Whinstone Mining, Great Ayton History Society.