Spa Mine

Overview

One of two ironstone mines a hundred metres apart in the Slapewath gap, on the Skelton side of Alumwork Beck where Spa Wood lay on the Guisborough side. Known locally as the Branch Mine, because its entrance ran under the railway, it began in 1864 as Bell Brothers' route out for stone from Skelton Old Shaft, passed to Gjers, Mills and Company in 1874 and closed in 1886 when the ground it had leased was worked out, paying off seventy men.

History

Spa was opened in 1864 by Bell Brothers, and not at first as a mine in its own right: the page kept by East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland records it being used to give a route for stone out of Skelton Old Shaft. Its entrance ran under the railway, which is why it was known locally as the Branch Mine. Gjers, Mills and Company took the lease in 1874 and leased a further twenty acres from Mr Wharton. In 1879 a collapse under the railway very nearly caused a train accident. By 1883 the twenty acres of Wharton ironstone were completely worked out, and in 1886 the mine closed and seventy men were paid off. The lease itself ran on to 1904, which is the date the tabular sources give for the mine's end.

It stood on the north, Skelton side of Alumwork Beck at Slapewath, within a hundred metres of Spa Wood on the Guisborough side; the two were worked by different companies on different royalties and are separate mines despite the names.

One death here is recorded in detail. On 7 June 1883 Joseph White was on only his second shift at Spa. He had been a soldier for seven years and had returned from India a few weeks before. He was working alone, his mate being off for the day, and having fired a hole he was filling a wagon when the stone came down and killed him on the spot. The inquest found that he had fired his hole and begun to fill the wagon without trying the stone the shot had loosened, and that for want of a little care and forethought he had lost his life. By an unhappy coincidence the neighbouring Spa Wood mine also lost a man on 7 June, seventeen years later: John William Walker, a deputy of thirty-seven, killed by a fall while drawing a jud.

Geology

The mine worked the Cleveland ironstone of the Lias, the bedded Jurassic ore of the Cleveland Hills, here at about 120 metres above sea level on the northern side of the Slapewath gap.

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

Workings

Worked by both drift and shaft: the drift driven into the valley side and a shaft sunk as well, the usual arrangement where the ore could be reached from a hillside but ventilation and winding wanted a second opening.

Closure

The mine closed in 1886, seventy men being paid off, after the twenty acres of Wharton ironstone it had taken in 1874 were completely worked out by 1883. Gjers, Mills held the lease until 1904, which is the closing date usually given; the working itself had ended eighteen years earlier.

What remains

The site is covered by a large scrapyard and is private land. Where Spa Wood's remote powder house survives in the woods on the other bank, nothing comparable is recorded here.

Nothing is recorded as surviving: the accounts read describe the site as covered by a scrapyard, in contrast with the buildings and powder house that survived at Spa Wood across the beck.

Related mines

• Slapewath Ironstone Mine — Both worked the Cleveland ironstone in the Slapewath gap within a few hundred metres of each other, Slapewath from a drift and shafts south of Hollin Hill Farm and Spa across on the Skelton side of Alumwork Beck.
• Spa Wood Mine — Spa and Spa Wood lay within a hundred metres of each other on opposite banks of Alumwork Beck at Slapewath, worked by different companies on different royalties; each lost a man on 7 June, seventeen years apart.

Recorded claims

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

• Buddlepit records the mine as worked from 1864 to 1904, under Bell Bros. in 1864-65 and Gjers, Mills & Co. Ltd from 1872; the Wikipedia table of Cleveland mines gives Spa at Guisborough, 1864-1904, worked by drift and shaft at NZ639158. ^1,2
• Spa and Spa Wood were two ironstone mines within a hundred metres of each other at Slapewath, Spa on the Skelton side of Alumwork Beck and Spa Wood on the Guisborough side, operated by different companies working different royalties. ³
• Joseph White, a former soldier recently back from India, was killed at Spa on 7 June 1883 on his second shift: working alone, he had fired a hole and begun filling a wagon when the loosened stone came down on him. The inquest attributed it to his not having tried the stone the shot had loosened. ³
• The mine closed in 1886 and seventy men were paid off, the twenty acres of Wharton ironstone having been completely worked out by 1883; the lease ran on to 1904. ⁴
• Bell Brothers used the mine from 1864 to give a route for stone out of Skelton Old Shaft, and its entrance under the railway earned it the local name Branch Mine. ⁴
• In 1879 a collapse under the railway nearly caused a train accident. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Ironstone mining in Cleveland and North Yorkshire — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Spa Mine — Buddlepit Mine Database (from Northern Mine Research Society data)
3. (observational) Spawood and Spa Ironstone Mines — Out & About (fhithich.uk)
4. (secondary) Spa Ironstone Mine — East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland

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