Hidden Teesside

This tunnel which is now a footpath to the NYMR engine sheds was originally built around 1834 by George Stephenson as part of the Whitby to Pickering Railway. Grosmont at the time was just known as “Tunnel”

The original carriages were horse drawn, but the the line was developed by George Hudsons’ York and North Midland Railway between 1845 and 1849, the large double track tunnel built just over a decade later shows the pace of development at that time.

With the nights closing in, I’m having to trawl my old photos for new material.

On the Rosedale Railway, at the head of the incline down towards the Farndale mines are the remains of a hand powered windlass.

Many other scraps of railway embankments and cuttings lie in the immediate area.

The Cleveland Extension Mineral Railway was proposed in the 1870s to run from Kilton Thorpe to the ironworks at Glaisdale, the contractor was John Waddell.

With the collapse of mining in Eskdale the line was never completed although embankments and cuttings for the line can still be seen in several places.

The Station Hotel was also built in anticipation at Moorsholm, but the railway never materialised.

The original 1846 Redcar railway station was located just near the town clock, its long gone and the site is now a modern building. However one of the new Redcar Heritage plaques has very recently been erected there.

 
The location can be seen marked as “Central Hall” in this previous post about the railway cottages

Alpha Place was the first building in “new” Saltburn, the foundation stone was laid by Joseph Pease on 23rd January 1861, before the line opened on 19th August 1861.

It stood directly in the middle of what is now Milton Street between Garnet Street and Ruby Street, and was demolished in 1908 to extend Milton Street.

The foundation stone has since been reused and can be seen in flats on Marine Parade.

This plaque just marks the location of the first Middlesbrough railway station, which had a passenger service as part of the Stockton to Darlington Railway . The original station itself no longer exists and was replaced in 1847.

Port Clarence just across the river already had a goods connection with the rival Clarence Railway in 1834

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.

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.

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

This small stretch of wall is built from the tuyeres, which allowed air into the Bessemer converters of the Eston Steelworks.

The railway that ran along the embankment served the Eston Ironstone mines.

The 8 arch Waterfall viaduct carried the Cleveland Railway which served many of the ironstone mines in this area, it is very close to the main road, but becoming harder to see over the years as trees grow around it.

Just to the west, on the approach to the Spa Wood ironstone mine is another interesting bridge with offset stonework.

Perhaps one of reasons this website ever came to exist, as a small child I came here many times and always wanted to find out what was down the tunnels.

So I finally took the opportunity to don my wellies and head torch and have a look, pictures aren’t fantastic as I only had a pocket camera with me.

The largest tunnel is perhaps 25m long and turns underneath the railway embankment before emerging on the other side.
  
A second short tunnel leads into someone private garden, looks like they have a personal waterfall.

Nearby the main track also leads under the railway embankment, the bridge is surprisingly large suggesting this route used to be a lot more important than it is now.

I’m not sure why the weir exists, old maps seem to suggest it probably only arrived with the railway, and I can find no evidence of there ever being a building on the site, although the place always gave the impression to be there had been something here.

There a photo of the same area in the 1960s here

Some time between my last photos on 20/04/08 and 05/05/08 the portal of the tunnel completely collapsed as the metal bracing seem to have finally snapped. Just glad I wasn’t underneath taking a photo at the time !

Access is still possible although there are still a few dangerous stones overhanging.

A long overdue return with a decent torch and decent camera.

The Kettleness portal is looking much closer to collapse than ever before, with a large amount of soil falling through from above and large stones hanging.

Although once inside this end of the tunnel constructed from large blocks still looks very solid, although there was some bowing of the walls and collapsed layers of brick in certain areas towards the brick-built Sandsend end.

There are four ventilation shafts along the length of the tunnel, which seem to come in large and small varieties. All are capped, with fallen bricks and water cascading down them.

There are two escape shafts which run from the bottom of air shafts, although both looked extremely muddy due to the water from the shafts so we didn’t venture down them.

There are some impressive mineral formations lining the walls of the tunnel.

Also stalactites growing from the roof.

Dozens of alcoves line the full length of the tunnel, with the occasional bit of amusing graffiti.

Exiting at the Sandsend portal is a small climb, although once you’re jumped over the wall there’s no easy way to go back.

After a years break I made a return to the Kettleness Tunnel to get a few more photos, the condition of the tunnel hasnt changed noticeably.

We ventured into the escape tunnel about halfway along for the first time, after a short distance daylight becomes visible at the end.

Theres an interesting variety of coloured minerals leaching through the brickwork in places.

The 16 arches of the old kilns are as promentant in the valley as the new kilns also being around 90m long.

There are 4 kilns with 4 arches each, the arches are about 4-5m wide.

The upper parts of the kilns have gradually collapsed and are spilling out through the arches.

Above the arches is a ventilation chimney associated with the mine, which stands 7.5m high with a small door at the base allowing a view inside.

The three large bays of the calcinating kilns are about 90m long and can be easily seen from all around the valley.

The iron ore mined here was carbonated which required calcining before smelting.

In one of the bays the retaining wall which looks to have been anchored with large wires has collapsed, the faces of wall were once lined with wrought iron which was removed when the mine was abandoned.

Ironstone and coal would loaded into the top and calcined ore drawn out from the bottom, it has been estimated that each kiln could produce around 2000 tons of calcined ore a week using about 80 tons of coal.

t has been estimated that each kiln could produce around 2000 tons of calcined ore a week using about 80 tons of coal.In a more complete bay the top courses of fire bricks are balancing precariously on small pins.

While there are four small tunnels / flues entering the faces of the bay at the base.

The remains of a house complete with chimney and fireplace still stands by the track before New Kilns.

There are substantial remains of a row of cottages above the New Kilns, known by some as Black Houses although I think that might just relate to buildings closer to the main track.

The mines and railway closed between 1926 and 1929, so presumably the cottages were abandoned at the same time.

Directly adjacted to the cottages are a block of workshops.

A single wall remains by the side of the track, the stucture once held a water tank.

It can be easily located walking down from the Lion Inn