The sea wall and slipway are constructed from the stone sleepers of the original Stockton to Darlington railway (the worlds first steam hauled public railway) the footing can be seen in the stones.
Henry Pease who built the resort of Saltburn was the son of Edward Pease the railway pioneer.
Drifts were cut near Post Gate Hill around 1870, traces of these remain although now appear to be used as a modern water source.
The only sizeable remains on the site are those of a bridge under which an incline from the mine site seems to have run. The tramway from this location entered a tunnel around NZ 774054 then travelled below Glaisdale village and emerged onto a trestle bridge near the ironworks around NZ 777055.
The Glaisdale Ironstone mine operated between 1862 and 1876, supplying the nearby ironworks.
The powder house has only recently lost its roof.
The structure was close to the 252ft shaft, in a depression nearby iron stained water is being forced up out of a pipe.
This attractive packhorse bridge crosses the Esk near Glaisdale
The structure bears the date 1619 and the initials T.F. for Thomas Ferris
There are a couple of stories about the bridge, so just choose the one you prefer.
Lost love and the Spanish Armada or less fancifully a tramp
Iron Ammonites by Steve Tomlinson and pupils of Saltburn Primary School
The ‘Organism’ sculpture has been made by Middlesbrough artist Andrew McKeowan.
It was inspired by microscopic sea organisms called diatoms
There are two more sets of boots and gates where Old Station Road crosses the Teesdale Way.
With seven sets of boots in total, there are two more still to be located
Despite having no railway, Kirkleatham does have a row of railway cottages from 1847, they were dismantled and moved from Redcar in 1861 when the railway line was extended to Saltburn.
Designed by John Middleton, these are the last remaining buildings of the Middlesbrough & Redcar Railway.
Spigot Mortars had a range of 100 meters with 20lb anti-tank and 450 meters with 11lb anti-personnel mortars.
The impressive octagonal mausoleum was built in 1740 by Cholmley Turner and designed by James Gibbs.
The Mausoleum was in memory of Marwood William Turner, who died at the age of 21 whilst on a the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe.
The Gibbs design is very similar to two pavillions at Stowe, although they are now missing their pyramids, and his Octagon Room at Orleans House Twickenham
Hidden away in a staff car park and with no information board.
Iron was poured into this vessel and taken to the caster plant and tipped into “pigs”
The other unusual item is apparently a scale car from the Cleveland Iron Plant. It picked up the charge for the blast furnace before dumping it in the furnace hopper cars.
The “Old Hall” museum itself is always worth a visit, although it was actually the Free School built in 1709 perhaps by William Wakefield or Robert Hooke
The garden ‘defences’ are believed to have been built around 1740 by James Gibbs
Unfortunately many other garden features were lost recently. A Pavillion Temple of the same date also by Gibbs demolished in 1953 and a Pigeon Cote by John Carr demolished in 1964 (Although I believe a modern garden feature by the roadside is a homage to it)
The stables are the only surviving part of the Hall which stood on the site of the current modern school, they have stood moth-balled for all of my lifetime and must be in a poor state internally by now despite being a Grade II listed building.
An interesting look circular tower can be seen from the outside.
The Local Development Framework released today specifically mentions the regeneration of Kirkleatham so lets hope it delivers.
“ The Core Strategy recognises the importance of addressing these issues to conserve the historic environment at Kirkleatham, and the aims of the Spatial Strategy for the Redcar Area include safeguarding and enhancing the conservation area, listed buildings and historic parkland as well as improving visitor facilities at Kirkleatham village. “
I’m unsure of the origin of the phrase, as it only seems to appear in local council literature relating to this specific arch.
The arch was constructed for Charles Turner around 1770 by the architect John Carr
Here again on a less photogenic day.
A ropeway ran south-west from the main site of the Belmont mine to tip shale in the hillside, since the recent harvesting of the trees in this area the base of part of the ropeway can now be seen on the bare hillside.
The second phase of working at Belmont started in 1907-1908 after the original working there ceased around 1886.
Hunters Hill Farm consists of a large range of building which constituted the stables and workshops of the mine, close to the road is a huge concrete wall which one supported one end of the tipping gantry where railway wagons were loaded.
Continuing a short way up the path you first reach the collapsed drift entrance with an electrical sub-station next to it, the remains of ceramic insulators can be seen in its back wall.
A little further up the hill again stands a powder house now filled with earth.
I also noticed that the nearby allotments have a vegetable bed constructed from Pease bricks, although as Pease never ran Belmont they could just be anomalous
Victoria Ironworks were built between 1856 and 1858, the site is located on a geological fault and this lead to a landslip that destroyed most of the works on 22nd March 1858, only a couple of months after it started production.
The works were rebuilt and stuggled on under various owners for a few year before closing.
Two arches from calcining kilns can still be found on the cliffs
The site today is difficult to reach and overgrown, the shale cliffs continue to collapse and be eroded. There is a mine shaft filled with water at the cliff edge, it shows the speed of erosion as this was recorded as 90ft from the edge in 1862.
The remain of Victoria Harbour can be identified on the shore by a line of stone.
This set of kilns for roasting iron ore is located at the top of the banks just outside Rosedale Abbey
This was also the location of the Rosedale Chimney which was demolished in 1972
An inclined tramway ran from the top of kilns, down toward Hollins Magnetic Mine
I’m afraid I’m keeping the exact location of this one off the site.
Its clearly been forgotten by the local kids due to the lack of any recent litter/beer cans, its only a few hundred meters from a playground and the condition of the place is very poor looking liable to collapse in places, so I don’t want to put it back on their radar.
There are three main areas inside, with several open vertical shafts running to the surface as well as two side entrances.
If you think about ironstone mines still open during the second world war, you may deduce where this is located.
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