Chaloner Ironstone Mine

Overview

Bolckow, Vaughan and Co.'s ironstone mine on the Chaloner estate north of Guisborough, worked by drifts from 1869 as an outlier of the great Eston mines three miles away, its stone hauled over the hill to Eston in three electric stages from 1915. Dorman Long took it with the rest of Bolckow Vaughan in 1923 and worked it out on 12 August 1939, weeks before the war.

History

The Chaloners had held Guisborough since Thomas Chaloner bought the priory lands in 1550, and it was Thomas Chaloner II who began the Cleveland alum industry there in 1600. The ironstone under the estate came into Bolckow, Vaughan and Co.'s hands after the Eston discovery of 1850: the Cleveland and Teesside Local History Society's timeline has a Chaloner mine opened just north of the town in 1853, the same year as Belmont to the south, while the Durham Mining Museum dates the pit from October 1869, and both may be right about different workings. The company's cottages at Mount Pleasant, built in 1873 within sight of the mine, housed its men. The museum returns ironstone from 1873, with the mine standing in 1882, 1888, 1890 and 1894 and its people counted with Eston in most years: 1,015 across Eston, Chaloner, Upsall and Wilton in 1902, 657 in 1921 and 566 at Chaloner and Eston together in 1930. Chaloner was worked by drifts, like Upsall, as one of the Eston group. A narrow-gauge railway built in 1915 carried its stone over the hill to the New Bank incline of the Eston mines: the Iron and Coal Trades Review described in 1937 how sets of 21 tubs went over the surface in three stages, the three double-drum haulages a mile apart each driven by a 300 horsepower motor, and how the stone was passed over a Ross roller screen at Eston to take out the fines before calcining. Dorman, Long and Co. absorbed Bolckow Vaughan in April 1923. The pit was worked out on 12 August 1939, and the surface tramway and New Bank stopped with it. Thirteen deaths are named between 1873 and 1933, nearly all falls of stone in the bords: Thomas Mounsey in 1876, barring down a large stone above him that came away and crushed him, leaving a widow and four children; William Tones, a deputy, in 1897; Robert Corner in 1930; and Arthur Pearey of Walkers Row in December 1933, buried with Isaac Park of New Marske under a heavy fall, Park critically hurt. Ralph Noddings, a quarryman, was killed by a fall of clay in 1911. The Corner family still lived at Chaloner Pit, Mount Pleasant, in 2020.

Geology

The Cleveland Main Seam of the Cleveland Ironstone Formation, the same seam worked at Eston, here on the northern flank of the Guisborough outcrop; the stone ran from fines to fifty-pound lumps.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Drifts into the seam worked by bords, like the rest of the Eston group; a 1915 narrow-gauge surface railway to Eston's New Bank incline with three 300 hp double-drum electric haulages a mile apart, one of whose transformer houses stood at Wilton Bank Top until 2008.

Closure

Worked out and closed on 12 August 1939, weeks before the outbreak of war; the surface tramway and New Bank ground to a halt with it.

What remains

The Mount Pleasant cottages of 1873 still stand and are lived in; the mine site was used as a domestic refuse tip and has been reclaimed; the course of the 1915 railway can be traced near Dunsdale Farm, where a concrete bridge has been filled in, and its transformer building at Wilton Bank Top was demolished in September 2008. Ponds at Dunsdale probably result from the ironstone workings.

The Mount Pleasant cottages; the course of the narrow-gauge railway; ponds on the reclaimed ground.

Related mines

• Eston Ironstone Mines — Chaloner was worked as one of Bolckow Vaughan's Eston mines: its employment was returned with Eston's, and from 1915 its stone crossed the hill by narrow-gauge railway to Eston's New Bank incline and screens.

Nearby mines

• Kirkleatham Ironstone Mine — 0.9 km N
• Waterfall Mine — 2.2 km E
• Belmont Mine — 3.2 km SE
• Spa Wood Mine — 3.7 km SE
• Eston Ironstone Mines — 3.8 km W

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

Recorded claims

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

• The Durham Mining Museum dates the mine October 1869 to 12 August 1939; the local history society's timeline has a Chaloner ironstone mine opened just north of Guisborough in 1853. (disputed) ^1,2
• Bolckow, Vaughan and Co. Ltd, then Dorman, Long and Co. Ltd from April 1923; employment was counted with Eston, 1,015 across Eston, Chaloner, Upsall and Wilton in 1902, 657 in 1921 and 566 at Chaloner and Eston in 1930. ¹
• Chaloner's stone went three miles over the surface to Eston in sets of 21 tubs in three stages, each haulage a 300 hp double-drum electric plant, and over a Ross roller screen at Eston (Iron and Coal Trades Review, 1937); the narrow-gauge railway was built in 1915 and ran to 1939. ^3,4,5
• Mount Pleasant cottages were built in 1873 for the mine's workers within sight of the pit and are still occupied. ^6,7
• Thirteen named deaths 1873–1933, all single; Thomas Mounsey was crushed barring down stone in August 1876 and Arthur Pearey killed by a heavy fall in December 1933 that critically injured Isaac Park. ^1,6,8

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Chaloner (Ironstone) — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Guisborough — Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society — Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Eston (Ironstone) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (observational) Disused industrial building, Wilton Bank Top (Geograph photo 22755, 2005) — Geograph
5. (observational) Course of Old Narrow Gauge Railway, Near Dunsdale Farm (Geograph photo 484309, 2007) — Geograph
6. (secondary) Guisborough Miners' Graves — East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland — East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland
7. (observational) Mount Pleasant (Geograph photo 22758, 2005) — Geograph
8. (secondary) Fatal Mine Accident At Guisborough, 19 August 1876 — Durham Mining Museum newspaper transcription — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026