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1939, Sorting shale from ironstone on the large convetor belt at Loftus where the ironstone mine re-opened after being closed since last August. This will mean employment for several hundred men, the ore extracted will be supplied to Skinningrove Iron works where 2 addition calcing kilns are ti be re-lighted. The second picture is the first load up at Loftus.
How many times did Loftus mine close and then re-open?
A lovely photo of the mine, but I think it may be a postcard. Someone has cropped the card (not guilty) but part of Geo. Skilbeck’s name can still be seen.
A different photo of the mine showing the ’buckets’ taking the shale to the tip behind the mine. The ironstone went to the works via the shaft for North Loftus mine (the head gear was inside the works). This image is probably dated c. 1930.
Although it says Bell Brothers Brownlee Collery on the side of this ambulance, it is housed at the mining museum at Skinningrove. If I remember rightly it was restored by some apprentices at the I.C.I. at Wilton. Another memory recall is that the body of a rescued man was put in in a certain way, one way he was alive and another way he was dead, but which way was it? (photo courtesy Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum.)
The image is taken from a series of photographs produced by Bruce who was a Loftus photographer, producing lots of images around old Cleveland. Many considered the name was emphasised because of the link to de Bruce of Skelton Castle and Kilton. THanks to Derick Pearson for the update and information. John
Not a very clear picture but we can make out Glover’s Path and Kilton Mill and on the hillside ’Duck Hole’ pit. It got this name because of the working conditions; it was so wet the men could be ankle deep or more in water while working down there – it’s real name was North Loftus Mine. Also to be seen in the picture are the remains of the original Whitecliffe mine. North Loftus mine was completely separate and only worked as an independent mine in the 1870s’. Later the shaft was acquired by Skinningrove Iron Co. and used to raise ironstone from Carlin How and Loftus mines, only being infilled about 1947. Thanks to Simon Chapman for the addition to this post
Taken from the railway lines above, the picture clearly shows Duckhole in the foreground with Skinningrove or Loftus pit farther down in the valley.
A working photo of the aerial ropeway, locally known as ’the buckets’. We can see a full bucket of ironstone being taken up to the iron and steel works, with the mine in the distance at the bottom of the picture. Loftus mines ironstone was transported up to Skinningrove Works from 1895 by connection into the abandoned workings of the North Loftus mine to avoid paying haulage charges to the N.E.R. By 1932 the North Loftus shaft steam winding equipment was thoroughly antiquated so the aerial ropeway was built to avoid using the shaft which was later filled in. Thanks to Simon Chapman for information in the last paragraph.
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!) |
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