Goathland Whinstone Mine

Overview

A whinstone mine at Grosmont on the North York Moors, working the Cleveland Dyke underground for roadstone from 1894 to 1930 under three generations of Schofields. Like Langbaurgh thirty miles west along the same dyke, most of its workforce was below ground: twenty of twenty-four in 1905, twenty-six of thirty-six in 1910.

History

The Cleveland Dyke runs some thirty-one miles across the North York Moors, a near-vertical wall of hard igneous rock, and wherever it comes near the surface it was worked for roadstone. At Grosmont the Schofield family worked it for nearly forty years: Schofield & Sons in the 1890s, George and William Schofield in the 1900s, and Schofield & Sons again in the 1910s. The Durham Mining Museum titles the record Goathland (2), which implies an earlier Goathland working of the same kind; the 1888 List of Mines gives both a Goathland mine at Grosmont under William Schofield and an Egton mine at Grosmont under George Scholfield, with the family name spelt both ways in the one return. The returns run from 1894 to 1930, whinstone throughout until 1929, when the entry changes to igneous rock. Employment peaked at thirty-seven in 1894 and thirty-six in 1910 and then fell steadily away — seventeen in 1921, twelve in 1927, eight in 1929 and 1930. Two deaths are recorded: Pennock Sleightholme, a miner of twenty-four, killed in 1886 by a fall of stone from the side of a whinstone mine, eight years before this record's returns begin; and John Hodgson, fifty-eight, killed instantly by a fall of roof at half past nine in the morning of 5 October 1894, in the third hour of his shift.

Geology

The mine worked the Cleveland Dyke, a Palaeogene intrusion associated with the Mull volcanic centre in western Scotland, which travelled east as a near-vertical sheet of magma and set as a wall of basaltic andesite cutting the Jurassic rocks of the moors. The rock is called whinstone locally; too hard for building, it made excellent roadstone as hardcore and as dressed setts. Following a vertical sheet rather than a bed is why these workings went underground: the dyke could be followed down and along rather than stripped from above.

Geological setting: Faults and Fractures (well documented example)

Workings

Largely underground, which is what puts it in the mines returns rather than among the quarries: thirteen of thirty-seven were below ground in 1894, but twenty of twenty-four by 1905 and twenty-six of thirty-six in 1910, the balance shifting underground as the surface rock was worked out. The two recorded deaths were both falls — one from the side of the working, one from the roof.

Closure

Igneous rock was returned in 1929 and 1930 with eight people employed; the mine does not appear in the returns after that.

What remains

No description of what survives of this particular working has been found. Other whinstone workings on the same stretch of the dyke, notably Sil Howe on Goathland Moor, survive as recognisable sites, but no source read establishes whether Sil Howe is this mine under another name or a separate working.

None identified for this working specifically.

Redevelopment

None recorded in the sources consulted.

Related mines

• Langbaurgh Whinstone Mine — Both worked the Cleveland Dyke — the same named intrusion, followed underground for roadstone about thirty miles apart along its length, and both returned as whinstone and then as igneous rock in the same years.

Nearby mines

• Grosmont Ironstone Mines — 4.4 km S
• Woodsmith Mine — 8.6 km NE
• Rosedale Ironstone Mines — 8.8 km SW
• Whitby Jet Workings — 12.9 km NE

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 mine was worked by Schofield & Sons in the 1890s, George and William Schofield in the 1900s and Schofield & Sons again in the 1910s. ¹
• The workforce shifted underground over time: thirteen of thirty-seven below ground in 1894, twenty of twenty-four in 1905 and twenty-six of thirty-six in 1910. ¹
• The 1888 List of Mines gives a Goathland whinstone mine at Grosmont under William Schofield, with G. W. Waddington of Whitby as owner, and an Egton mine at Grosmont under George Scholfield listed immediately above it. ²
• Two deaths are recorded: Pennock Sleightholme, 24, killed in 1886 by a fall of stone from the side of a whinstone mine, and John Hodgson, 58, killed instantly by a fall of roof at 9.30 a.m. on 5 October 1894. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Goathland (2) (Whinstone) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) 1888 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act: Whinstone Mines — Mines Department, via the Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026