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

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

All through the life of the mines there was a constant battle to increase yield without increasing manpower.  Ironstone was won by blasting a portion of the rock face out and then loading the stone into a tub (or sett) to be taken back to the heapstead.  To place the shot the miner had to create a hole into which he could place his powder, detonator and fuse. This was the time-consuming part of the job initially carried out by hand, then by hand ratchet drill, then by either compressed air, petrol or electric drill.  This obviously posed photograph is a record of the testing of just one such drill – I’ve no doubt that somebody out there will be able to tell me the name of the miner (please!).

This picture and the other one entitled similarly are two out of a group of four pictures taken about 1900 when Whitecliffe Mine was re-opened and this compressed-air drill was tried out underground. From the earliest times the hand ‘jumper’ drill was used, in 1875 the first compressed-air powered rotary drill was invented. Loftus Mines introduced such drills in 1891 but they were big and cumbersome so this one illustrated was tested but never adopted.
Later electric drills were used in Loftus but about 1895 hand-operated rotary drills were introduced (the so-called ‘ratchet’) and eventually superseded the powered drills. Loftus Mines, however, were never as mechanised as the Dorman Long mines in Cleveland. (words by Simon Chapman)