The only time you would have got this view a few years ago was if you were on the steel works, but it does show the jetty off very well.
(photo courtesy of Pem Holiday)

Thanks to Owen Rooks for this photograph and following caption:

This is a shot I took from a helicopter of the works site in June 2006. I don’t know what goes on there these days so I’ll leave it to the experts to identify any noteworthy features!

A view of the steel works from High Street, Skinningrove.

(Image courtesy of Pat Sparkes).

As the caption says bridge over jetty nearing completion 1950.
(photo courtesy of Pem Holiday)

Quite a few comments about the brickwheel gang, this one has Harry Dack’s twin brother second from the right.  Anyone know th names of the other men?
(photo courtesy of Derick Pearson)

This photograph of Harry Grange and Mr. Burnley was taken on Skinningrove Works.  Mr. Grange was a research chemist at the steel works. His daughter Carolyn is unsure about the identity of the other gentleman in the image, it could possibly be Norman Dales?

(Image courtesy of Carolyn Richards)

I don’t know what the occasion was.   Carolyn Richard’s father, Harry Grange, is standing in the middle at the back of the group.

(Image courtesy of Carolyn Richards).

Part of the Laboratory staff photographed during lunch break outside the laboratories in January 1947, the photograph bears this date on the back. 
Back row: Alf James, Clive Lawson, Norman Dales.
Front row: Harry Grange, Donald Pell, Nancy Rudham, John Donavon, Elizabeth Ferrer, George Allison, Audrey Keen (later Dales). Harry Grange apparently set the camera up to take a time release exposure and then joined the group.

(Image courtesy of Carolyn Richards, thanks to Jean Yardy and Elizabeth Ferrer for names and information updates)

A view of the works looking over the top of the valley from the cliffs near Hummersea. 

Eric Johnson tells us:
From the left. the new 36 inch mill can be seen; moving right the soaking pits, then next right the solitary large chimney of the original 250 ton tilting furnace of the talbots (melting shop). At the right of the photo, in front of the blast furnaces, the coke ovens are under construction, I believe they came on stream in 1911. During the Great War, extra furnaces and mixer were added to the talbots, the soaking pits were extended, a second battery of coke ovens erected, and in 1918/19 a 18,000 hp electric motor installed in the 36 inch mill.I would date this photo to 1910.

Thanks Eric for the update.

Possibly ”Slaggers and Pig Bed Crew” in Skinningrove works,  must be quite an early photo as none of the men are wearing a safety helmet. Middle man front row has his feet in ”Sow” channel for the molten iron.

That looks like a ”Front Side Crew”, iron furnace in the background and the gentleman in the centre seems to be standing over the sow channel for the molten iron. Far right hand side possibly ”Furnace Keeper”.

I don’t think it’s No. 5 which was an altogether larger affair and tipped into ladles, not pig-beds, so it must be one of the earlier bank of 5 furnaces which have adorned quite a few postcards, but which furnace and why the occasion for a photograph?

It couldn’t be a steel furnace, because Skinningrove furnaces were Siemens-Martin Basic Open Hearth furnaces and they all tilted back to tap (and forwards to tip slag). The problem is that there are the right number of men to crew a steel furnace (and that seems to be the progression from right to left, foreman then 1st hand through to 4th hand) – this one is a real enigma – anybody out there who can shed some light on the situation?

The gent on the right is wearing a fob watch which would suggest pre-1918.

Taken in 1933 this shows the brick wheel and the work force on the steel works.

The purpose of the brick wheel was to make bricks from molten blast furnace slag, many of these bricks can be found in most back alleys. Eic Jonson supplies the following brief description of brickmaking: ”the slag was brought from the furnaces in slag ladles adapted with a tap hole. a chute was placed between this and led down to the wheel moulds. the making of slag bricks was a very labour intensive operation, once started was continuous, hard hot work. the wheel was a steel circular construction, with the steel moulds round the perimeter they had a hinged bottom held with a catch. this can be all be seen in the photo. the wheel was driven by a geared electric motor with hand operated backup. as the slag ran down the chute into the moulds, the wheel rotated, the filled moulds cooled down and at a point near the kilns, the catch was struck the hinged bottom opened the hot brick fell to the ground. It was picked up with the large “gripes”. some of the men can be seen holding in photo, carried to the kilns and stacked inside, when full the kiln was closed. as the kiln was already hot from the previous batch the working conditions for the men can be imagined.”

Second man front right is Harry Dack from Carlin How anyone know any more of the men here?

(photo courtesy of Derick Pearson and updates from Robert Proctor and Eric Johnson)

Seen here, the SS Northgate at Skinningrove jetty with the cranes busy at her side.

Taken in the 1950’s the iron and steel works were at full production and covered a large area.

The 4 large chimneys are the exhaust chimneys for the furnaces on the melting shop, on the cliff edge can be seen No. 5 Blast Furnace.

…in a place appropriately called the Stripping Sheds. The numbers on the moulds provide traceability to the cast from which the steel was made (probably the pot too). From here the ingots went to the Soaking Pits to be kept at an even temperature ready for Cogging.

Thanks to Derick for spotting an error in the original post, but on going back to the image file we have discovered the ingot size to be 4.75 tons.

A fairly modern view of Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works from the Hummersea Cliff road. No. 5 Blast Furnace in evidence – and under that water tower on the cliff edge was the Day Laboratory where I spent my formative years, learning my trade under the watchful eyes (and ears) of ”Effie” Brown, Harry Burnley, Harry Grange and Norman Dale.

Well that is what it says on the back of the photo along with ’pre war’ and the names of those in the picture are Lenny Calvert, Ernie Johnson, Charlie Vodden and Tot Porrit.

(image courtesy of Kathleen Hicks)

Tom Codling is standing on the left of this group.

Stan Bowman kneeling on right.

Who are the rest, and believed to have been taken outside the talbots laboratories Skinningrove Works?

(Image courtesy of Mrs. J. Wilson. Thanks to Eric Johnson for the update.)

A picture taken without the benefit of flash and against the internal lighting, it still shows the Gas Turbine-driven alternator and in the background those beautiful Gas Motors that used to thud out night and day! This was a most beautiful building inside and although the picture doesn’t show it very well, the whole of the back wall was covered in 1900’s instrumentation. The floor was red earthenware tiles and there was lots of Victorian/Edwardian woodwork. I used to collect water samples from the feeds that were just as you came into the building, behind the photographer (who is on the balcony), walk along the tiled floor, past these monsters and out through the door within a door within the huge doors to sample the water in the brick outside reservoir tanks every morning for about six or seven months – it was a time capsule!
(image courtesy of Reg Dunning)

Here is a picture that is familiar to me, a train of slag wagons tipping their loads at the Tarmac Roadstone Plant on Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works. One wagon is already being tipped while the others wait their turn. Reg Dunning’s father worked the Bucyrus crane that fed the crusher plant that produced roadstone, that was transported in Tarmac Roadstone lorries, which my father-in-law used to service and maintain.
(image courtesy of Reg Dunning)

This is the cutting to go with the previous  image.  As usual the Gazette writer has forgotten that without the Steel Works ”scar” there would be no villages, just a group of farms and outbuildings, and the coastal outline would have changed dramatically due to coastal erosion (Skinningrove used to tip slag over the cliff edge at Cattersty) and he wouldn’t be talking about the new Finishing Department anyway!

(image courtesy of Colin Hart)

(cutting copyright Evening Gazette)

This is an aerial view of Skinningrove works showing the new Finishing Departments nearing completion.

(image courtesy of Colin Hart)

(image copyright Evening Gazette)

Somebody asked, in a comment, when the new Finshing Department buildings (green sheds) went up on Skinningrove, Colin responded by telling me the date, so that I could answer the comment.  He’s now sent me cuttings from ”The Steel News” and ”The Evening Gazette”.  This first one shows the first sods being cut by the oldest and newest employees of Skinny.

(image courtesy of Colin Hart)

(cutting copyright The Steel News)

Taken from the back of the signal box looking towards the works, this image shows the train assembly yards for Skinningrove Works. I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a guard’s van or a small shunter on the rightmost rake of wagons.
(image courtesy of Russ Pigott)

The Rail Inspection bank – I’ve spent many a cold and windy/damp day up here stamping rails for Inspectors who stayed behind in the warmth of the office at the Test House with a cup of tea and a biscuit!  Still – if you were lucky you could share the brazier in the yard gang’s shelter to warm your nithered fingers up!

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor

This is the 18-inch Mill where the smaller angles and joists were made, from bed angle up to pit-props.

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor

This is what those motors drove!  The Cogging Mill (where the ingots were knocked down into blooms) and the 36” Finishing Mill (where the blooms were rolled into shape, ready for hot sawing to length).

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

Flame-cutting Forging Quality blooms.

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

This I believe is a cold straightener (tell me which type please) and those huge motors for driving the 36-inch Mill Roll Stands, you could smell the ozone!

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

Another scene I’ll never forget!  Sampling a furnace: long ladle – in through the peep-hole, dip deep, twist, withdraw and pour into the steel pot dumped in the sand on the floor.

Sorry if you don’t understand the measurements on the page – this is definitely pre-metric, when we used British Imperial measurements (and most of the map was still coloured red).

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

The archetypal image of a Steel Furnace tapping, viewed from Pitside – an image I’ll never forget!  Notice the reference to a 120 Ton furnace.

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

When I was in the Test House at Skinningrove Iron Works we had a copy of the Skinningrove Product Book – or as we called it ’The Blue Book’.  It was well out of date, but was still the bible for all the basic products that were made by Skinningrove.  Bob has kindly provided me with the pages that have images on them and I include them here as a kind of nostalgia trip.  This issue looks to be either just pre-war (1939) or just post-war (1946).

This shows an image of No. 1 Blast Furnace, out of service when I worked there, which was hand-charged.  I worked with a man, ”Tiny” Pennock, who was a charger on this furnace.  They used huge two-wheeled barrows (man-height) to carry the burden  and they ran on knife edge cast wheels about 3 foot 6 inches (in old money) in diameter.  Apparently if the balance was right they used to run as fast as they could and then hang on the shafts while the barrow careered along!  The right-most ’tower’ attached to the blast furnace was the lift shaft and the barrows were emptied into the ’bell’ of the furnace along the gangway.  When the bell was full, the upper bell would be raised and the lower bell opened to discharge the burden into the furnace.

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

Here’s a view of Skinningrove Iron Works looking in towards the Tarmac road gravel plant.  Unless I’m mistaken it shows No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 Blast Furnaces, but no Sinter Plant, so it’s after 1950 and before 1958.

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

The same for No. 5 Blast Furnace – notice the double bell at the top (the top bell is a conical bell that lifted to seal the top of the furnace, then the bottom bell was opened and the burden dropped into the furnace without releasing pressure in the furnace).

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

Nearly all the details you ever needed to know about No. 1 Blast Furnace at Skinningrove.

(image courtesy of Bob Proctor)

A good image of Skinningrove Iron Company, No. 5 in the middle, the sinter plant to the right
(image courtesy of Raymond Brown)

Here is an early aerial view of the works – more smoke in this image than in the others!

Not the shot of the blast furnaces that we usually see, but this shows more of the heaps of pig iron awaiting disposal – not sure what the large pipe section is though!

Here’s a nice modern view of No. 5 casting.

As Bob says ”If you ever wanted to view the inside of the furnace then you would use the eye piece, this is at the bottom of the silver goose-necks and looks like a protrusion. You would firstly make sure there was no leaking hot blast (500 C) by moving your hand over the toughened glass eye-piece and then you could see through the blow pipe and tuyere into the heart of the furnace where the droplets of slag/iron cascaded down through the incandescent coke.” 

I say firstly make sure you are wearing your blue glasses (we all did furnace-side), otherwise your eyes will feel the pain! and if you are furnace-side, use your sweat-rag, not your hand – 500C is not good for the skin!  But it is well-worth taking the precautions, it is a beautiful sight.  The glass eye-piece (mica initially, then toughened quarz glass (I think)) is called a pee-pee. – rodders

Here’s a slag pot being filled after the iron has been run off – brings back many memories!

This is one of the older furnaces at Skinningrove with the crew barring out the tap hole (I think!)

This shows the steelwork being erected that will eventually contain the structure of No. 5 Blast Furnace.  In the left hand image, the shape at the bottom right is the hearth structure.  This feature was the hardest part of the furnace to remove after it was toppled, being constructed of solid carbon blocks.

This image (pre-1950) shows the left-hand man strapping on his clogs – shaped wooden soles to protect his rocker boots from the heat – before going in to do some hot work on the casting floor.

A shot of a stack of pigs being stock-piled.  The bar in the labourer’s hand is to break the pigs off the sow.

When the furnace has cast, the pigs are attached to the sow and the crew have to go around and break them off and heap them together in slings to be stock-piled.

Welll…not quite. The labourer is spragging the wheel of the slag truck prior to tipping the slag over Cattersty Cliffs. Later whole trains of them were tipped together by using a chain and winch system through the tipping eyes on the side of the pots. You can just see the chain hanging below the pot, to the left of the labourer.  It certainly cast a lovely glow over the scene at night!

A pig bed with the gate irons in place ready to divert the flow of metal to fill the pigs.

These two men are preparing the sand runners (sows) and moulds (pigs) to receive the molten metal from the blast furnace.

This section (without its protective screen over the road) was still in place when I started at Skinningrove – although the roadside pylon disappeared soon after – but the left-most pylon survived to become a lighting tower!

After the 8 (or 12 for the ’Big’ furnaces) hour process of turning a charge of cold and hot metals into steel, the climax usually came quickly after a flurry of samples of steel and slag to the shift lab. The hooter would sound, the bangalore torpedo (more precisely ’the shaped charge’) would blow out the tap hole and the furnace would heel over to discharge it’s first potful of molten metal. The scene always reminded me of what I thought Dante’s Inferno would look like – flames up to the rafters, (sometimes bringing a flurry of pigeons down), the furnace hand on the tapping stage hurling the alloying charges of coal, niobium, ferro-manganese etc. surrounded by smoke and light and heat. The furnace tilting further and further with each potful until it was spent. The pots in their turn travelling sedately to the Ingot Shed across the way and charging rake after rake of ingot moulds with the liquid metal. Sometimes a ’flying stopper’ made it more hazardous to empty the pots as it was then impossible to stop the flow of metal between moulds and everybody in the Ingot Shed would get a scorching (if they were unlucky they’d get a lot worse!) – and, as Bob says, a wet pot could create a shower of incandescent metal dancing around the pitside.

This was always a beautiful sight to behold – a portable spout was placed into the gaping door (usually an end one) of the furnace and with its siren whooping the crane would manouevre the sizzling pot of iron over it, then delicately empty the pot into the furnace – it always reminded me of bonfire night!
I think this must have been taken on my shift (’C’ shift I think it was ), because I recognise the first hand with his back to the camera – Sid Carter (thanks for that Eric!) – he used to let me fettle for him as ’acting-temporary-fifth hand’!

Thanks for pointing out the sample pot Eric – yes, they used to keep us busy around tapping time (well, from about an hour before, right up to blowing 5!) and the sample lad ( a Theaker from Boosbeck, I think) used to curse if the sample was over-quenched and wouldn’t drill!  Sid was always impatient – he would wait in the balance room/bait room pacing up an down while Stan (or Derek, the 2nd Chemist) did the analysis – as a lowly 3rd Chemist I was only allowed to do slags and iron samples!

When I was at Skinningrove this had fallen out of favour and the equipment lay at the end of the Talbot’s, next to ‘D’ furnace. Sound in principle and obviously successful in other areas (this is the basis for Basic Oxygen Steelmaking), it never seemed to catch on at Skinningrove!

This is the view i used to get just out of the door of the Shift Lab on the Talbot’s, the ‘A’ end of a furnace (in this case either ‘B’ or ‘C’). It is easy to see the difference between this image and the image of the gas-fired one in an earlier post. The burner end is mobile for maintenance and carries much more complex pipe work.

Taken from the top of No. 5 perhaps (maybe during its construction in the 1950’s?).

A different view of the iron and steel works, looking inland, and down into the valley.  The two rows of Furnace Cottages can be seen.

I spent the last 12 years or so of my employment here as a metallurgist in the Bottom Test House (just to the right of the water tower and partly hidden by the tall chimney, nearly in the centre of the picture)

Skinningrove Rolling Mills evolved as completely self-sufficient units, capable of developing the rolls for new sections and manufacturing them from blanks. A number of highly skilled men were involved, from the draughtsmen drawing up the profiles, the pattern makers manufacturing the cut profiles for the roll turners to manufacture.The roll turner in the photo is Harry Roberts.
This photo was taken in the old roll shop which was situated under the mill arch and mill gantry crane, proably taken in the late 60’s as the present roll shop came into operation in 1970/71.
Thanks to Mike Hore for the update.

I’m not sure which stand this is in the 18″ Mill, perhaps someone can enlighten me?

The same applies here, it was almost a taboo place for the ininitiated, the steel used to hurtle around on the mill floor – very scary!

A view down the shop.  18″ mill before remodelling. in 1956.

As the mining industry modernised the coal mine in particular moved across to steel for its roof supports and Skinningrove was quick to capitalise on this, its 18″ (or Little) Mill being ideally suited to producing small ‘H’ beams (or ‘I’ beams, if you prefer) and as the order book grew so did the Colliery Arch Department. They were all cold-formed on these rotary bending machines.

How do you make perfectly finished squared ends to your steel products – with a cropping machine like this.

The rotary tippler at Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works. When this plant was working my white collars would turn a paler shade of grey in no time!

This is the Skinningrove I knew and loved! In the foreground, under that water tower was the fuel lab (upstairs) and the day lab (downstairs). I spent my first twelve months on the ’Grove as a junior chemist here.

Flying towards the sea this time, the Talbot’s with its 4 smoking chimneys was where I spent about nine months on the shift lab with Stan Agar and learned to weigh off a sample of slag or iron while the scrap kibbles rolled past – no mean feat!

A completely emasculated Skinningrove now, almost a green field site, merely a merchant mill producing special sections to feed the plant that has sprung up mid-left of the image – Caterpillar. Not forgetting all of the other special sections made here of course!

You had to watch out for these – they had a habit of sneaking up on you when you were crossing the floor! A hot bloom leaves the re-heater for the Roughing Stand to start its journey to a finished section.

The photo shows the stacking machine which was installed around 1992. The machine is fed by rollers with single bars then the feed bank pushes them and turns them before putting them onto a table which lowers to enable the next bar to be stacked. The complete stack is then lifted by the table onto the rollers which passes the bundle through the strapping machine which is then ready to load.
Martin Byers is the guy stood in the control pulpit.
The section is a Single Grouser that is used for Caterpillar track shoes.

(thanks to Colin Hart for the information – rodders (it was after my time at Skinningrove))

These are the cooling banks in the 36″ Mill finishing prior to the Lamberton straightening machine. The door on the left is now sheeted over to prevent noise as it was facing Carlin How.

(thanks to Colin Hart for setting me right! – rodders)

I used to spend many a happy hour on the footbridge over the output side of these two stands – trotting beteen the two, taking pass temperatures with a hot filament optical pyrometer when we were making 8 x 8 angles or rails, so we could prevent failure problems due to either cooling the steel too quickly or not cooling it enough (leaving too open a crystal structure in the steel).

Once again I ask who were these men and what date was this photo taken.

It’s getting a bit repetitious now!  Looking towards the loading bay this time we have more of the jetty workforce – can you name them?

Taken from the Jetty platform looking up the incline towards the engine house this image shows – who?  Can anybody name them?

This is the image that everybody has seen at some time.  Taken half-way up the rope incline from the works it shows two rakes of pig iron bogies, one of the company steam tramps and the dock-side cranes.

Taken by George Skilbeck, photographically the incline trackway leads the eye into the image and out through the curve of the jetty, which is probably why it has stood the test of time; it has good artistic composition.

I spent many a happy night fishing off the end of this old structure, sadly now a lot the worse for wear and lack of maintenance.  Here it is in it’s heyday, the coffee-pot steaming away and a rake of pig iron bogies waiting to load.  The steam cranes are working on one of the company ships and it’s a good solid industrial image.

An extremely clean SS Skinningrove moored at the Jetty.  First of the four steamers owned by The Skinningrove Iron Company, she was employed carrying pig iron to the Company’s customers.

At some point in the history of the ironstone industry in the Skinningrove valley the NER tried to raise the carrying costs for iron ore.  As a result the NER lost the business (for good), an aerial ropeway (known locally as ”the buckets”) was constructed to take the stone from the valley floor up to Skinningrove Ironworks on the cliff top.  This is the middle stanchion, the roofed structure over the road was to catch any falling stone jerked out of the buckets as a result of passing over the stanchion pulleys.  This system was in use until local stone was superceded by cheaper foreign ores. (The topmost stanchion was still in place at the top gates of Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works when I worked there, adapted as a floodlight tower!)

Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works the caption says and I won’t dispute that.  My workplace for 14 years and I still cherish the memories.  The view is from Carlin How towards the Talbot’s – the Scottish Agricultural Slag plant is off to the left – you can just see the basic slag heap from the Talbot furnaces.  Railway station right foreground with the loco water tower just in view. Stockyards mid-right of the image.  You’ll not see the like of this these days!

Another of Skinningrove’s delightful little loco’s – Hilda, dumb-buffered like Minnie, built by Thomas Peckett of Bristol in 1899.  Minnie was built by Fox Walker of Bristol in 1878 – same town different works!

(thanks to D. W. Husband and Eric Johnson for that information – rodders)

I’m not quite sure why the image is at this angle, but it is – nothing to do with me I assure you!

Looking toward the 18″ mill buildings, 36″ mill stockyard on the right. the light coloured building housed the 18″ mill motors and also the electricians workshops. the high roof line and chimneys of the soaking pits on the left. (thanks Eric – rodders)

(image courtesy of A. Frank)

A nice eclectic industrial image with at least 3 locos in steam.  A load of bullhead rails en-route to the despatch sidings for train make-up to their eventual destination.  This one should suit you Eric, plenty of industrial action here.

Eric Johnson featured (at work) in front of the Wash Heater Charger, which forms part of the 36in Mill at Skinningrove works. Eric drove,  30 years after driving the chargers on the Talbots. Full circle.

Eric has contributed many photographs aand comments to date. Grateful thanks.

Here’s a newspaper cutting showing the top apprentices at Skinningrove. I remember this event taking place on a yearly basis.
(image courtesy of J W Knaggs)

A panoramic view of the steel works taken from Brotton Miner’s Hospital or somewhere near.  Still in the days of steam locomotives on the railway, so the works would be in full production.

Here’s a happy crew taking a tea-break in the sunshine.  It’s Skinningrove works, but which part – and who were they and when!

A very atmospheric shot of No. 5 blast furnace casting on Skinningrove – I can almost taste the sulphur!

The ”gate” in the sand runner is to skim the  slag off the iron and divert it towards the waiting slag ladles, the iron carries on straight ahead.

The most dangerous time in the tapping process is when the liquid iron and slag are almost exhausted – because the system is under pressure the pressure seal can blow  through the tap-hole sending slag and iron spraying in all directions, very pretty, but very dangerous!

The device which can be seen facing the camera is actually the “Clay gun”, a device for injecting clay into the taphole at the end of a cast, to stop the flow of iron.

It looks like the Frontside lads are tidying up at the end of a cast.

The large circular pipe above is the “Bustle main” which fed hot blast from the stoves into the furnace via the tuyeres which were spaced radially round the furnace.

Latterly the Clay gun was powered by electricity, and it was the shift electricians duty to be there in case the gun failed to work, as things could get quite hairy if the gun failed to stop the taphole.  The procedure was to start to bring the furnace “off blast” if the gun failed.  In the meantime as a safety precaution the furnace would
“Pull wind”.

(thanks for the comment Steve)

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 – in fact I’m 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.

This must have ben a pretty important day, judging by the number of people standing around  and the obviously posed nature of the image – Eric tells us that it was possibly the blowing in of the new No. 5 Blast Furnace  (- so that would be 1950 then? – rodders)

Minnie, obviously refurbished and resplendent in a new coat of paint, in steam, prior to disposal.

Minnie left in 1968 for the Kent and East Sussex railway but has since moved to the Mangapps Railway Museum in Essex. – thanks once more to Mark Thompson

Skinningrove riggers loading Minnie onto an articulated lorry, for transport by road to the Kent & East Sussex Railway.

She now resides in Mangapp Railway Museum.

(thanks Chris – rodders)

I think this photograph (and several others in previous posts) must have been taken after Skinningrove took delivery of the Sentinel diesels.  I believe these locomotives are awaiting disposal, they are certainly all cold!

A picture of Skinningrove Jetty at low tide, showing the vertical-boiler steam locomotive and a rake of pig-iron trucks, the two steam cranes and the fixed derrick crane on the end.

Of particular interest are the foreground structures – can anybody identify them?

Reg says ”Definitely not the heat exchanger foundations. They were through the tunnel on the Skinningrove side of the jetty. There was an open pond there which used to take the foul water from the gas washers allowing the sediment to settle. There was also a pump house immediately right which provided cooling water for the heat exchangers and pumped the cooled water back up the bank. This photo though seems to me to be prior to the heat exchanger”.

So that settles that – but what are they then?

A gloomy shot of a distant blast furnace and a single one at that, this could only be Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works.  The building on the right in the middle distance with the ”saw-tooth” roof would be the fitting shop, behind that is the Blacksmith’s Shop with the big extractor on the end chimney.  Behind that is visible the Sinter Plant and the blast furnace of course is Number 5.

If it is, where on the works was the cameraman?  (I was stood not far from the gantry over the ore crusher,fitting shop side, looking down to the blast end, No. 1 and No. 5 are visible, I can’t remember if No. 3 was still standing, it is a long time ago. – it took me a while for the light to turn on Eric!)

Same shot as the previous post, about 20 feet further along the track and squarer on.  I’m inclined to believe that the structure in the background was the conveyor to the Sinter Plant from the top end of the site.  The building in the background, housed the ore crusher, with conveyor belts from tippler in and belt out to No. 5 furnace. (thanks Eric)

Any other ex-Skinningrove men out there can help me out here? – I was only a staff man and didn’t see much of this side of the business (except as little sample packets with Nassington Ore written on them, despatched from the little cabin near the bottom Test House).

A rather poor photograph of Minnie.  I’d guess that the image was shot in poor light, possibly approaching dusk.

The building on the left housed the ore crusher, with conveyor belts from tippler in and belt out to No. 5 furnace, with the wagon tippler in this view in the background. Also can be seen the pedestrian gantry crossing the tracks and down to the fitting shop side. (thanks once again Eric)

This is a photograph of Minnie, a diminutive 0-6-0 saddle-tank loco, much loved on Skinningrove Works.  In her day she was the work-horse on the site, seemingly everywhere, fussing about with a train-load of trucks.

I believe she was a quarry locomotive originally and I also believe that is where she went to end her days too after Skinningrove outgrew her.

A good image of Skinningrove Jetty with SS Hummersea moored up for loading, with two steam cranes in attendance, either just before or just after high-tide – judging by the marks on the jetty wall.

Even more rare is the vertical-boilered railway engine (known as ”the coffee pot”) on the left with the train of pig-iron trucks – I’ve never seen an image with these on before, or with a vertical-boilered railway engine.  The pig-iron trucks were lowered from (and raised to) the works via a rope incline down Jetty Bank – a feature still visible when I worked there.

SS Hummersea looks pristine - I wonder if this was her first trip?  Her last according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was during World War I, when I believe she struck a mine and sank – I’d appreciate confirmation of that.

Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works in the days of steam locomotives, on the right the Fitting Shop, with the Blacksmith’s Shop behind it.

“Elizabeth” with a rake of galley (iron ore)pans, passing under the pedestrian walkway over the ore crusher, Fitting shop side.  Mobile steam crane behind was “Jumbo”. (much better words than mine  – and more informative! – thanks Eric)

I know this must be getting rather monotonous, but archives do sometimes!  This photograph is about 30 degrees right of the previous post and shows us that there are three blast furnaces in this set – definitely Clay Lane – taken off wind and closed down after the big one at Redcar was blown in.

All three had the same hearth diameter of 27 feet 6 inches and produced 1500 tons/day. These three all ran under high top pressure-if you look closely at 1 and 5 you will count the three bleeders at the top but if you follow the downcomer up you will notice a fourth smaller one. This arrangement allowed a higher gas flow rate without taking too much dust out. (from comments provided by Robert Proctor – rodders)

That big silo-type unit looks so familiar – it should do – it stood behind the left-most furnace of the three at Clay Lane (thanks to Mik G for his images on Flickr).  Thanks again to Eric Johnson for making me doubt my original conclusions.

This is a photograph of the old engine sheds at Skinningrove (please correct me if I’m wrong!).   The second small ”saddle-tank” loco from the left is the famous Minnie, so loved by all at ”the ’Grove”.

Of course I could be totally wrong – in which case I’ve got a good imagination and a large amount of egg on my chin!

I think I recognise ”the buckets” in this image.  I wonder if this is the construction of the new road into the site – it was adjacent to the aerial ropeway, the stanchions remained as a lighting column all the time that I worked there.

Can anybody date this image and provide more information?

The building of No. 5, confirmed by our friend Eric Johnson – it looks strange without it’s clothes on!  The tall cylinders then would be the de Kuyper stoves for the heating of the blast furnace gas (I think that’s what they call them – my memory isn’t so good these days).  Half-way along this bank of units was a long pipe  ending in a thin rubber pipe and at 10:30 each morning when I was on the Day Lab I would be standing there sampling the blast-furnace gas to test it for calorific value (among other things)

The front side of this fixed furnace (featured in the previous picture) has been the cause of much controversy on this site.  We’d love to know where it is!

Many thanks to Eric Johnson for information supplied to date

A photograph from the ingot shed (Pitside), looking at the tap spout of the furnace – again a brand-new furnace, so a unique photograph. Ingot moulds in the foreground are slab moulds. This is possibly an acid open hearth furnace, between 50 and 100 ton capacity. Thanks to Eric Johnson for additional information.

Many thanks to Eric Johnson and R Proctor for information supplied to date.

Another unidentified photograph.  But definitely not Clay Lane (see comments).

The two furnaces on the left of the photo are old hand charged furnaces, the barrow lift can be seen behind and between them.  The two more modern furnaces are using the vertical/horizontal charging arrangement, used more on the continent than here.  I know two works using this method, one at Scunthorpe, the other at Shelton Bar, Staffordshire.  Most mechanical charging on Teesside was by incline skip charging. with one at Port Clarence using incline bucket charging. (So says Eric and I’m not arguing!)

The railway wagons are all pre-BR regional stock, typical of the stock that used to be seen across the region on all the industrial sites – because they were made of wood they were usually defined by the number of planks on the body (i.e. 5-plank, 7-plank wagons) – although I suppose the local user simply chose the biggest one he could lay his hands on!  They are all train-braked (not having independent vacuum wagon brakes) – which restricted their use to small local trains.

I’m going to light the fire under this post again – these are furnaces for producing pig-iron in sand-beds, not pots of iron for use by a steel furnace.  That plus the unbraked railway stock makes me think of the 1920’s – 1930’s.  Any advance on that?

Once again your help required to identify this image, please!

This is a classic shot!

It evokes all the memories of what used to make Britain Great.  I worked in Steel for 14 years and when I look at this image I can still recall the thrill of tapping time on the furnaces at Skinningrove – once you’ve got Steel in your blood it never leaves you!

I can feel the heat from the metal in front of the worker on the right and can still remember how cold my back used to feel, when, as a steel plant metallurgist, I would stand and observe the fettling process as a furnace was tapped.

As Eric points out, the ”mud gun” (used to stop the flow of iron when tapping was finished) can be seen on the left, lit by the light from the iron.  Above that and running like a band across the image is the ”bustle” which carried the blast furnace gas to feed the furnace (I used to sample that stuff at 10:30 each morning).  The flag-like objects sticking up in the image were stoppers to stop (or allow) the flow of metal along the runners and into the pots.  One of them will be a skimmer used to divert any slag running on top of the iron into a slag pot.  This was no place for a stranger to the business – hot and gassy and easy to get in the wrong place!

I still can’t make up my mind for certain whether it’s No. 5!

This is an image of the Bessemer plant at the Cleveland Works (by concensus of opinion  and that, in this case, is good enough for me.  They were in pairs (I did know that) and one was always producing basic iron and the other ferro-manganese (which was used for alloying the steel at Skinningrove).

Rob Proctor informs us ”The word “Bessemer” could cause some confusion to the uninitiated reader , as it is a steelmaking process whereby air is blown through the liquid iron .The blast of air oxidised the impurities which as they burnt off conveniently raised the temperature of the metal so that the finished steel could be poured out . The vessel resembled a “tulip” sat on a pair of trunnions which could be tilted to the horizontal for the addition of hot metal and then turned into the vertical for the blow. The reason for name “Bessemer” for a blast furnace plant was because either one or two of these units had been sited there in the past”. – (thanks Bob, rodders)

An update from Andrew Mains: ”I worked on these two furnaces in the 80’s and early 90’s before they were shut down. There were two furnaces going together, but this changed when demand dropped, so it went down to one furnace operation. They were named no 4 and no 5 furnaces and the plant name was changed to Cleveland Iron.”

We have a series of photographs which are definitely not of Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works.   We need help in identifying them.

This image was taken looking through 3 and 5 Bessemer Plant Blast Furnaces with the Cleveland South Plant melting shop chimneys in the background. There was a North and South plant but when the North plant was demolished they installed two electric arcs. (thanks Robert and Eric – and Simon for jogging my memory to change the byeline! – rodders)

Another view of Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works from a nearer vantage point, clearly showing the slag processing plant. Also visible are three blast furnaces – ?

Taken from Brotton road an autumn day with the works in full production about early 60’s. Unless you know better.

I reckon this must have been brand new when photographed – there’s none of that characteristic brown staining from the sinter dust.

Commissioned in 1957, built by Head Wrightson and standing on the site of the old coke works and blast furnace range. An industrial photograph – high contrast, very effective and ”grungy”.