The remains of some sort of machinery are stuck in a hole in the rapidly eroding sea wall.
Unfortunately I have no idea if this relate to the period of ironstone mining when ore was loaded here, or just some later scrap.
Also there is possibly the wheel of a mine tub by one of the fishermans huts.
The site is on a public footpath, although its appear very rarely used as I lost the track several times.
The fanhouse is beginning to collapse, compared with 70s photos where the concrete roof is straight and uncracked.
The building contains the decaying remains of the actual sirocco fan, which has now collapsed compared to the photo from the 70s when it still held its original shape and covered the holes to the right and left. The small room to the right contains concrete base which presumably held the motor for turning the fan.
Mines were originally ventilated by having a furnace at the bottom of the shaft to draw air through the mine, with the associated fire risk.
Two types of fanhouses seem to be used across most of Cleveland (they often seem to be the only remaining buildings)
The Guibal is earlier and uses a lower speed, large diameter fan to pull the air from the mine up through the chimney as seen as Huntcliffe and Skelton Shaft
The Sirocco is a later centrifugal fan, invented by Samuel Davidson , with narrow
blades curved forward, mounted at the periphery of a braced, open drum. It
is a high-speed, small-diameter fan. One of these exists at Grinkle.
Skelton mine was located above what is now Waterfall Farm near Guisborough, a very busy area for mines being only a short distance from Skelton Park, Spa Wood, Tocketts, South Skelton and Aysdalegate.
The void where the fan stood is accessible through a very tight squeeze on the eastern wall, or by scaling the western wall.
The top of the filled shaft is visible as a ring of bricks just to the south of the fan house.
Its difficult to imagine such a picturesque place once being an area of heavy industry. The pit closed in 1911 but the shaft is open and only surrounded by a fence, a constant rush of water being heard from inside.
The corner of the mine managers house remains standing (although I don’t know for how much longer)
The shale heap is visible from miles around and a number of building survive on the ground.
Although one building, possible a workshop is in danger of complete collapse.
The winder house is much more sturdy as its built from reinforced concrete, although in recent years the steps pictured have collapsed
Note: This substantial structure was subsequently demolished and is sadly no longer on the site
The capped 694ft shaft is also visible
In the side of a small shale heap is a small tunnel, perhaps some kind of shelter or storage area as this isn’t a drift mine.
Away in the woods to the east is a small building, I initially though it may be a powder magazine but its not very sturdy and a 1950s map shows a meter house for the Cleveland Water Company in this area.
In Dunsdale but known as the Kirkleatham mine. The entrance to the drift mine is open but the tunnel is filled/collapsed about 10 metres in. Old maps of the area also show a second tunnel running under the road slightly to the north (not for the stream) and a powder magazine but no trace of either can now be seen.
A fantastic building hidden away in the woods, an 1876 fan house to draw fresh air through the mines, the fan inside was 30 feet diameter by 10 feet wide.
Named “SS Castle” due to the wall ties. The layers of graffiti suggest its been a popular haunt for the junior drinkers of Eston and Lazenby for many years.
The listed building entry calls this “Lovell Drift Fanhouse” but the origin of this is confused. The area was known various as Lazenby Pit / North Drift / Wilton Drift / Eston Quarry / Lowther Quarry bit never Lovell Drift, Lovell Hill is 1 mile to the east.