Cragg's Hall Mine

Overview

Pease and Partners' ironstone mine south-west of Skinningrove, the largest employer of the four mines Bulmer's described in Brotton parish in 1890: four hundred men and boys and four thousand tons a week from a single winding shaft.

History

Cragg's Hall was one of the five ironstone mines at work in Brotton parish in 1874, the others being Brotton, Kilton, Cliff and Huntcliff. It belonged not to Bell Brothers, who held most of the rest of this coast, but to Pease and Partners, the Darlington firm whose Loftus mine at Skinningrove was the first ironstone mine in Cleveland and who had built the miners' hospital at Skinningrove in 1871.

Bulmer's directory of 1890 makes it the biggest of the mines it describes in the parish: about four hundred men and boys employed, an output of some four thousand tons a week, and the ironstone worked from a winding shaft two hundred and forty feet deep. By the time the Victoria County History came to describe the parish the mines were disused. The Northern Mine Research Society's list of the Cleveland mines dates the working from 1871 to 1893, which fits Bulmer's 'working' of 1890 and the Victoria County History's 'now disused' a generation later.

Geology

The Cleveland Ironstone Formation, worked here from a shaft rather than from the hillside as the coastal mines nearby were.

Workings

A winding shaft two hundred and forty feet deep, raising about four thousand tons a week with four hundred men and boys employed at the time Bulmer's described it — a third as deep again in output as Lumpsey and Carlin How, and nearly three times their workforce.

Closure

The Northern Mine Research Society's list of Cleveland mines gives 1871 to 1893; the mine was described as working in 1890 and as disused by the Victoria County History a generation later.

What remains

Nothing is recorded of the mine site as it now stands. Craggs Hall itself, the farm the mine took its name from, stood between Brotton and Carlin How and was lived in well into the twentieth century.

None recorded.

Related mines

• Carlin How Mine — The two are described together in Bulmer's account of Brotton parish in 1890 and lie a short distance apart, but they were not the same firm's: Cragg's Hall was Pease and Partners' and Carlin How Bell Brothers'.

What's uncertain

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

• A family history of east Cleveland ironstone miners attributes a Cragg Hall ironstone mine at Carlin How to Bell Brothers, working from 1871 to 1892. Bulmer's directory of 1890, written while the mine was at work, gives it to Pease and Partners. The directory is the better authority and this record follows it; the discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Cragg's Hall Mines, belonging to Messrs. Pease & Partners, give employment to about four hundred men and boys. The ironstone is worked from a winding shaft two hundred and forty feet deep. The output is about four thousand tons per week. ¹
• The Victoria County History lists the Craggs Hall mines, south-west of Skinningrove, among the five at work in Brotton parish in 1874, and describes them as disused at the time of writing. ²
• A family history of east Cleveland ironstone miners attributes a Cragg Hall ironstone mine at Carlin How to Bell Brothers, working from 1871 to 1892. Bulmer's directory of 1890, written while the mine was at work, gives it to Pease and Partners. The directory is the better authority and this record follows it; the discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved. (disputed) ¹
• The Northern Mine Research Society's list of Cleveland ironstone mines has Craggs Hall Mine, Brotton, working from 1871 to 1893. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Bulmer's History and Directory of North Yorkshire (1890), Brotton parish — Bulmer's Directory, transcribed by GENUKI
2. (secondary) The wapentake of Langbaurgh (east): Brotton — Victoria County History, via British History Online
3. (secondary) Cleveland & North Yorkshire Moors Iron Mining — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026