Waterfall Mine

Location	near Guisborough, North Yorkshire — 54.5462, -1.0333 (approximate)
Commodity	Ironstone
Type	Ironstone
Worked	1880 or 1892–1901
Maximum depth	No depth figure has been located in the sources read.
Operators	Cargo Fleet Iron Co. Ltd (1892–1901)

Overview

A short-lived Cleveland ironstone mine in the valley north-west of Guisborough, worked by the Cargo Fleet Iron Company and closed in 1901 after perhaps a decade. The sources disagree by twelve years about when it started.

History

Waterfall was worked by the Cargo Fleet Iron Co. Ltd and closed in 1901. How long it had been going is not settled: Buddlepit, drawing on Northern Mine Research Society data, gives the mine as worked from 1892 to 1901 with Cargo Fleet holding it throughout, while the Wikipedia table of Cleveland mines gives 1880 to 1901. Either way it was among the shorter lives in a field where the bigger mines ran for eighty years, and it sat low in the landscape at about 103 metres, on the Guisborough side of the hills near the Waterfall Beck that the Cleveland Railway crossed by a stone viaduct built between 1858 and 1862.

Geology

The mine worked the Cleveland ironstone of the Lias, the bedded Jurassic ore of the Cleveland Hills, here at around 103 metres, the lowest ground of any of the Guisborough mines in this group.

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

Workings

Buddlepit classes the working as a mine and the Wikipedia table does the same; no description of its shafts, drifts or plant was found in the sources read.

Closure

The mine closed in 1901, at the end of the Cargo Fleet Iron Company's tenure. Both sources agree on the closing year and differ on the opening one.

What remains

The site is private land. Nothing of its present state was established from the sources read for this pass.

Nearby mines

Spa Wood Mine — 1.8 km SE
Spa Mine — 1.9 km SE
Kirkleatham Ironstone Mine — 2.3 km NW
Belmont Mine — 2.8 km S
South Skelton Mine — 2.9 km E

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.

Buddlepit gives the mine as worked from 1892 to 1901 under the Cargo Fleet Iron Co. Ltd; the Wikipedia table of Cleveland mines gives Waterfall at Guisborough, 1880 to 1901, at NZ626172. (disputed) ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Buddlepit: Waterfall Mine (reference)

The Northern Mine Research Society data for the mine: its working period, the Cargo Fleet Iron Company's tenure, coordinates and elevation, with its own bibliography.

View source

Ironstone mining in Cleveland and North Yorkshire (reference)

A survey of the industry with a table of its mines, giving Waterfall's dates and grid reference alongside its neighbours.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Ironstone mining in Cleveland and North Yorkshire — Wikipedia
(secondary) Waterfall Mine — Buddlepit Mine Database (from Northern Mine Research Society data)

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