Belman Bank Alum Works

Overview

Sir Thomas Chaloner's alum works at Belman Bank in the woods south-east of Guisborough, named by the Dictionary of National Biography as the first in England and dated by the Chaloner family's own history to 1605 - though nearby Slapewath is separately reported as earlier. It is the works the legend of the stolen papal secret attaches to.

History

Belman Bank lies in the woods about two miles south-east of Guisborough, and it is one of the two or three places that can claim to be where the English alum industry began. Alum was a mordant, essential to dyeing and tanning, and until the seventeenth century it was imported, chiefly from the Pope's works at Tolfa. Sir Thomas Chaloner of Guisborough began making it here, assisted, his family's history records, by a cousin also named Thomas who had learned alum-making in Ireland. Exactly when, and whether it was first, is genuinely contested. The Dictionary of National Biography and Bulmer's directory of North Yorkshire both name Belman Bank as the first alum works in England. The Chaloner family's own local history dates the introduction of manufacture there to 1605. But Slapewath, a hamlet a mile and three quarters east of Guisborough, is reported to have had an alum works developed in 1604 and is described as reputedly the oldest alum quarry in Cleveland and the United Kingdom. What is not in dispute is that within a few years there were works at Slapewath, Belman and West Bank, all close to Guisborough, and at Sandsend on the coast. The legend that attaches to the place is older than the argument about priority. Chaloner was said to have obtained the secret by luring workmen away from the papal alum works, smuggled out in barrels, and to have been cursed by the Pope for it. The archive holds that story under its own culture record; the sources nearest the events say the workmen came from Rochelle in France. The works quarried and calcined the local alum shale, steeped the burnt rock, and boiled the liquor in great lead pans with an added alkali until the alum crystallised. Belman Bank worked until the close of the eighteenth century, by which time the inland works had been overtaken by the larger and more efficient sites on the Cleveland coast; a restart is recorded in 1852-53. The industry it began went on to Boulby, Kettleness, Sandsend and Peak.

Geology

Worked the alum shales of the Lower Jurassic (the Cleveland alum shale), quarried and calcined to yield alum.

Workings

The alum shale was quarried and burnt in clamps, the burnt rock steeped, and the liquor boiled in lead pans with an added alkali until alum crystallised.

Closure

Belman Bank worked until the close of the eighteenth century, the inland alum works being overtaken by the larger, more efficient sites on the Cleveland coast; a restart is recorded in 1852-53.

What remains

The site in Guisborough Woods survives as earthworks, including the great bowl left by the quarrying.

Earthworks in Guisborough Woods, including the quarried hollow and the remains of the works.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Peak Alum Works — Belman Bank at Guisborough was the first alum works in England, about 1600; Peak, found in 1640 and at work from about 1650, belongs to the industry it began.

Nearby mines

• Belmont Mine — 2.0 km NW
• Aysdalegate Mine — 2.3 km NE
• Spa Wood Mine — 2.3 km N
• Spa Mine — 2.5 km N
• Stanghow Mine — 2.9 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Culture

• Chaloner and the papal curse (Folklore)
  Belman Bank is the working the legend is about: the first alum mines in England, opened by Chaloner about 1600, and the works whose foreign labour the story concerns. Queued as a stub in this pass.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Dictionary of National Biography and Bulmer's directory of North Yorkshire name Belman Bank, about two miles south-east of Guisborough, as the site of the first alum works in England, begun by Sir Thomas Chaloner. (disputed) ^1,2
• Slapewath, a hamlet about a mile and three quarters east of Guisborough, is reported to have had an alum works developed in 1604 and is described as reputedly the oldest alum quarry in Cleveland and the United Kingdom, working on into the early nineteenth century. (disputed) ⁵

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The Dictionary of National Biography and Bulmer's directory of North Yorkshire name Belman Bank, about two miles south-east of Guisborough, as the site of the first alum works in England, begun by Sir Thomas Chaloner. (disputed) ^1,2
• The works quarried and calcined the local alum shale and boiled the liquor in lead pans with an added alkali to crystallise the alum. ³
• Belman Bank worked until the close of the eighteenth century, with a restart recorded in 1852-53. ²
• It was the origin of the Yorkshire alum industry, which spread to the Cleveland coast at Boulby, Kettleness, Sandsend and Peak. ^3,4
• Slapewath, a hamlet about a mile and three quarters east of Guisborough, is reported to have had an alum works developed in 1604 and is described as reputedly the oldest alum quarry in Cleveland and the United Kingdom, working on into the early nineteenth century. (disputed) ⁵
• The Chaloner family's local history dates the introduction of alum manufacture at Belman Bank to 1605, and records that Sir Thomas Chaloner was assisted in it by a cousin, also named Thomas, who had gained experience of alum-making in Ireland. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900: Chaloner, Thomas (1561-1615) — Dictionary of National Biography (John Westby-Gibson, 1887), via Wikisource
2. (secondary) Guisborough (Bulmer's Directory of North Yorkshire, 1890) — Bulmer's Directory of North Yorkshire (1890)
3. (secondary) The Alum Industry of North-East Yorkshire — East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland
4. (secondary) Alum, Alchemy and Ammonites: the Guisborough Works — Tees Valley Wildlife Trust
5. (secondary) Slapewath — Wikipedia
6. (secondary) Guisborough History Notes: Chaloner — Guisborough History Notes

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026