South Skelton Ironstone Mine
The most prominant building on site is the square compressor & haulage engine house.
The attached upcast winding house is situated adjacent to the capped shaft (216 feet deep - capped c.1985), a guide roller can still be seen in the slot through which the cables travelled.
The wooden stable blocks and unique for the area, and its pretty amazing they havn’t been demolished or burnt down when you see the general state of the site and people who hang around there.
Numerous other buildings can be seen around the site, which is remarkably complete.
(note the weather wasn’t wildly changable that day, the photos are taken about sixth months apart)
March 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I walked past this site a number of years ago. It can be seen from the disused railway between Slapewath and Boosbeck and at the time appeared to be in use as a farm. It appears to be a lot more run down now and possibly disused.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Some years ago in the early 1990’s there was and exprression of interest by Cleveland County Council (and of which i was a member of at thar time) in acquiring these buildings so they could be preserved in situ as they were and as a ‘living museum’ My recollections were that the tenant farmer and the landowners were not interested one bit. I did look round at the time and the buildings did seem to be in a fair condition, but quite a few winters have come and gone since.
March 20th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I should have added that in addition to the above site, the old County Council was also interested in a similar management arrangement for the Park Pit site. Alas, the attitude of the fsarmer and the lanodowner was as with the South Skelton site (I seem to reacll that the landowner was Skelton and Gilling Estates although i stand to be corrected)
March 21st, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Skelton & Gilling are notorious in Skelton & Brotton area for riding roughshod over any idea that won’t make them silly amounts of money. To the extent that they would rather leave things to go to rack and ruin than earn anything at all.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:32 am
It seems a shame. I have often wanted to visit Skelton Park having driven past it countless times, but have been put off by the fact that permission is required and the whole site is on private land. I suppose the only way such sites can be explored (without a lot of money being spent) is if they lie on a properly designated footpath, such as Lumpsey.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Don’t tell Skelton & Gilling, but if you go down the path that leads off from Back Lane, Skelton Green, you come to the rear of the park Pit complex, and povided no-one’s around you can have a nose round. That path BTW carried on along the hard standing of the old railway track that cnnected Park Pit to the main network near to Waterfall Farm. It is NOT a right of way but it is still well used, and has a good surface most of the way.
April 11th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Having revisited the site this morning I can confirm that the farmer, who was in tenancy and working the site a few years ago, has definitely gone. The site appears to be unoccupied and falling into disrepair, with little effort being made by the landowner to secure it in any way.
PS there appears to be two shafts on the site, no more than say 80 feet apart. Judging by the size of the caps they must have been considerable in size!
May 21st, 2009 at 7:43 am
There is a very good post of Skelton Park on the Mine Explorer website. I didn’t know it was such a large site, in such an original state!