North Skelton Mine

Overview

The deepest and last-surviving of the Cleveland ironstone mines, worked from 1872 to 1964 beneath the village of North Skelton, producing over 25 million tonnes of ironstone for the Teesside iron industry across nine decades.

History

The ironstone deposit was found in 1865, part of the wider rush to secure ore for the smelters of Middlesbrough, and land was leased from Squire Wharton of Skelton Castle. After extensive preparation work the mine opened in 1872 under Bolckow, Vaughan & Co, who built 236 workers' houses at a cost of £80 each in 1871 to house the new workforce. Until 1915 a separate mine at Longacres, a mile north, worked the same seam through its own shaft; from then on Longacres' shafts were kept only for ventilation and winding men and materials, with all ironstone brought to North Skelton's own shaft via a self-acting incline 1,650 yards long. Peak production ran from 1875 to 1920, averaging some six million tonnes a year archive-wide across the Cleveland field, with North Skelton's own output reaching 247,735 tonnes by 1880; by 1910 four full freight trains a day were carrying its ore to the Teesside smelters. Ownership passed to Dorman, Long & Co in 1929, who worked the mine through to closure.

Geology

The mine worked the Cleveland Main seam of Jurassic ironstone, reached via a shaft 720 feet deep -- 400 feet below sea level -- with the seam itself rising gently northward at an inclination of about 3 inches to the yard.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Ironstones (well documented example)

Workings

Ore was worked from the Cleveland Main seam and brought to the shaft bottom using a system of self-acting inclines, since the mine lay in a shallow basin with the seam rising in every direction from its lowest point -- gravity did much of the work moving stone from the working faces down to the main haulage roads. Water was a constant hazard: pumps handled over 3,000 imperial gallons a minute at a depth of 384 feet, and three turbines were installed to keep the workings dry.

Closure

North Skelton's closure in January 1964 ended ironstone mining across the whole of Cleveland -- every other mine in the district had already closed by that date.

What remains

The site now lies within a components manufacturer's premises. The winding house, carrying an 1871 date stone and a small door for the winding ropes, is the most substantial original structure still standing; other original buildings survive but have been adapted for other industrial uses, and a small modern headframe monument stands outside the site, differing from the original structure it commemorates.

An 1871-dated winding house, several adapted mine buildings, and a modern headframe monument outside the site.

Related mines

• Longacres Mine — Longacres worked the same seam as North Skelton a mile to the south, and from 1915-16 sent all its ironstone there by a mile-long underground incline, keeping its own shafts for ventilation and for winding men and materials.

Recorded claims

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

• North Skelton's winding shaft reached 720 feet, 400 feet below sea level, making it the deepest ironstone mine in Cleveland; the Cleveland Main seam itself lay 390 feet below sea level. ^1,2
• North Skelton closed on 17 January 1964, the last ironstone mine to close anywhere in the Cleveland district. ^1,2
• The winding house, carrying a date stone of 1871, is the most substantial original structure still standing at the site; other original buildings survive adapted for other uses. ³
• Located at about 54.555 N, 0.959 W. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) North Skelton Mine — Wikipedia
2. (primary) North Skelton (Ironstone) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (observational) North Skelton Ironstone Mine — Hidden Teesside

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 30 August 2026