Skelton Park Ironstone Mine
Skelton Park is the most complete set of ironstone mining buildings left in Cleveland, the mine was operated by Bell Brothers between 1872 and 1923, then Dorman Long through to 1938.
The most substantial building on site is the Main Winding House, dated 1872. This housed a steam winding engine which wound cages in the adjacent 384ft deep downcast shaft. The roof of this building was intact until late 1994 when it finally succumbed to the elements.
The largely intact Power House originally housed an air compressor for drilling and haulage, attached to this are a small ambulance room and time office.
The impressive Schiele fanhouse building also houses the 378ft deep upcast shaft. The different coloured 8ft of bricks at the top of shaft date from its conversion to also be winding shaft as well as ventilation.
Next to the fanhouse is a Secondary Winding House, its construction suggest it was modified for hauling in the upcast shaft and may originally have been used during construction of the downcast shaft which can be seen from the window.
Numerous other ranges of mine buildings still exist, such as a saddlers shop and Provinder House used for preparation of feed for the horses.
Also a Blacksmiths and Joiners workshops.
A substation from the electrification of the site in 1909 is shown below, the base of a chimney, weighbridge, boiler pump house, horse gins and a couple of powder magazines are also hidden away within the site.
Please note that the mine site is on private land and the mine managers house approached from Skelton Ellers has been converted into a private residence so should not be visited. That said the path from Back Lane in Skelton is heavily used by dog walkers. A detailed survey of the site can be found in the excellent “Skelton Park Ironstone Mine” by Simon Chapman.
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Excellent post - very informative.
September 7th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Have had another look at these excellent photographs and it has to be said that this really is a fantastic site. Does anyone know what the current status of the site is? Is it a working farm, or purely a residence? I believe from previous comments that the site is owned by S & G Estates but as we can see from South Skelton (another S & G plot?) they appear to have abandoned that site completely, with little attempt made to either keep the site in use or even secure it in any way.
September 7th, 2009 at 7:37 am
The buildings are listed, but unfortunately that also makes it very difficult to undertake repair work to stop them falling down.
September 7th, 2009 at 8:22 am
in terms of the surrounding land, it is largely a working farm, but mamanged from another farm in the area. I imagine the pople lving in the farmhouse have either rented or leased the building as a home. On that basis i guess the buildings are not put to any faming related use, as such buildings, for obviouls reasons, need to be secure
September 10th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I believe park house was sold in the late 80s ,the Thomas’s were the last tenents of Skelton estates .
When they lived there I was a regular visitor and me and Ian who lived there at the time opened a door on a toilet building within the mine and thought’people have been in here recently’ as there was a lot of graffiti on the walls. When we read it it had been done by the miners,I remember one saying ‘Gerry is coming!’ and another with last train loaded and some names underneath .Why this was in the loo god only knows!
Shame to see how much the site has deteriorated in the last 20yrs or so.
Great site Chris,as I now live in Norfolk need a regular fix of good old Cleveland industrial remains
September 25th, 2009 at 7:33 am
The substation shown above appears to be of similar construction style to the one built at Spawood.