South Skelton Mine

Overview

The Cleveland ironstone mine that outlived its neighbours by eighty years. Leased in 1865 and sunk in 1872 beside Boosbeck under T. Vaughan & Co., it absorbed the Boosbeck workings when those drowned in 1887 and went on through Clay Lane, Bolckow Vaughan and Dorman Long until it closed in 1954, taking the Cleveland Main seam from two shafts 217 feet deep. Its surface buildings stood almost complete into the mid-1980s, and a pair of pony stables above ground, rare in a district that kept its horses below, survived to be photographed in 2009 before they too came down.

History

The original lease was signed in 1865 from Mr Wharton, and the two 217-foot shafts were sunk in 1872, when mining began. Ownership then runs through the consolidation of the whole Cleveland trade: T. Vaughan and Company from 1872 until Thomas Vaughan's bankruptcy in 1878, the trustees of the company for a year after that, the Clay Lane Iron Company from 1879, Bolckow Vaughan and Company from 1900 and Dorman, Long & Company from 1929. The mine employed 348 men in 1883. When the neighbouring Boosbeck mine was abandoned in 1887 after a water feeder beat its pumps, everything worked in that ground afterwards came under South Skelton: the returns for 1896 and 1900 are given for Boosbeck and South Skelton combined, 275 and 416 men. The mine was substantial and long-lived, and it was kept modern. It was electrified in 1912 and a Sirocco fan installed in 1914; the original wooden headgear was replaced with steel in 1924, the 71-foot angle and lattice braced frame by Redpath, Brown & Company that the Durham Mining Museum describes, put up with a new stone-cleaning plant; and in 1935 a picking belt was brought in from the Spa Wood mine. Employment ran above 400 through the 1900s and 1910s, peaking at 451 in 1910, and was still 422 in 1923 before the interwar decline took it down to 252 by 1929. In 1935 it stood idle with thirteen men keeping it, but it came back: 444 men in 1945, 364 in 1950 and 293 in 1954, working the Cleveland Main seam. Twelve deaths at the mine are named in the museum's list, from John Ellis, a fourteen-year-old driver crushed by a tub in 1875, to Harry Bennison of Boosbeck, a driller buried by a fall of stone in 1952.

Geology

The mine worked the Cleveland Main seam, the principal bed of the Cleveland ironstone — a sedimentary Jurassic ore lying in seams through the Lias of the Cleveland Hills, reached here at a little over 200 feet.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two shafts, 217 feet deep. The winding shaft carried an electric winder by Robey & Company driven by a 320-horsepower motor, with a Robey overwinder fitted with a King's slow banker and automatic Beien cage keps. Underground the main haulage was an endless rope a mile long driven by a 100-horsepower motor, running on a practically level plane fed by self-acting inclines from the rise side and main rope haulages from the dip. The mine also took the stone from Carlin How, brought about a mile to the terminus of the endless rope by a surface rope haulage from the Carlin How shaft. Pumping was by two turbine pumps, each driven at 1,460 rpm by a 200-horsepower slip-ring motor.

Closure

The mine closed in 1954, with 293 men still employed on the Cleveland Main in that year's return. The headgear was demolished in 1956. The fan house and winding house followed in 1985 and the shafts were capped at the same time, which is when the site stopped being a nearly complete set of colliery buildings.

What remains

The site is now private property and is being redeveloped for housing. When it lay abandoned it was remarkably complete: photographs taken about 2009 show the square compressor and haulage engine house, the upcast winding house beside the capped shaft with a guide roller still in the slot the cables ran through, and numerous other buildings around the site. Much has been demolished since. The wooden stable blocks, unique in the district and photographed in 2009, have gone.

What survives is not recorded in the sources read. The compressor and haulage engine house, the upcast winding house, the capped shaft with its guide roller and a pair of stable blocks built at different dates, the earlier of 1870, were all standing and photographed about 2009; the stables have since been demolished and much else with them, and the ground is being built on. Stabling pit ponies above ground was unusual in Cleveland, where they were normally kept below, and the earlier block was probably only ever temporary accommodation.

Redevelopment

The site has passed into private ownership and is being redeveloped for homes.

Related mines

• Boosbeck Mine — South Skelton took over the Boosbeck workings after Boosbeck was abandoned in 1887, and the two were returned as one in the Lists of Mines for 1896 and 1900; both were also owned by the Clay Lane Iron Company.
• Spa Wood Mine — A picking belt was taken from Spa Wood to South Skelton in 1935, after Spa Wood had stopped working.

Nearby mines

• Boosbeck Mine — 0.4 km NE
• Stanghow Mine — 0.9 km S
• Skelton Park Pit — 1.6 km NE
• Aysdalegate Mine — 1.7 km S
• Spa Mine — 1.7 km SW

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 Lists of Mines give the owners as T. Vaughan & Co. in the 1870s, the Clay Lane Iron Co. Ltd. in the 1880s, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. Ltd. in the 1910s and Dorman, Long & Co. Ltd. from 1 November 1929. ¹
• The 1896 and 1900 returns are given for Boosbeck and South Skelton combined, 275 and 416 employed, after Boosbeck was abandoned in 1887. ¹
• Two shafts 217 feet deep; a 71-foot steel headgear by Redpath, Brown & Company; an electric winder by Robey & Company on a 320-horsepower motor with a King's slow banker and Beien cage keps; a mile-long endless rope haulage on a 100-horsepower motor; and two turbine pumps on 200-horsepower slip-ring motors. ¹
• A 2009 account describes the site as remarkably complete, with the compressor and haulage engine house, the upcast winding house beside the capped shaft, and two wooden stable blocks unique in the district still standing. ²
• The original lease was signed in 1865 from Mr Wharton, and the two 217-foot shafts were sunk in 1872, when mining began. ³
• T. Vaughan and Company held the lease from 1872 until Thomas Vaughan's bankruptcy in 1878, the trustees of the company for the following year, the Clay Lane Iron Company from 1879, Bolckow Vaughan and Company from 1900 and Dorman Long and Company from 1929 to 1954. ³
• The mine was electrified in 1912, a Sirocco fan was installed in 1914, the original wooden headgear was replaced with steel in 1924, and a picking belt was brought from the Spa Wood mine in 1935. ³
• The mine closed in 1954, the headgear was demolished in 1956, and the fan house and winding house were demolished and the shafts capped in 1985. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) South Skelton (Ironstone) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (observational) South Skelton Ironstone Mine — Hidden Teesside
3. (secondary) South Skelton Ironstone Mine — East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026