Skelton Park

The article below featured in the York Herald on Saturday 31 October 1874, it makes specific reference to the gunpowder store at Skelton Park Pit being 64 yards from dwellings rather than 200 yards. Also suggesting that miners at that time were in the habit of keeping open casks of gunpowder under their beds ! The gunpowder […]

A lovely vintage photograph taken at Skelton Park mine, sadly I have no specific names or a date. A couple of points to note, many of the miners are carrying their own ‘midge’ lamps with a naked flame, rather than a Safety/Davy lamp that many people expect to see. Local mines rarely had explosive gases (although the […]

David Stephenson has kindly allowed me to reproduce some photos he took at Skelton Park during the mid-1980’s. I have returned to the same points today and aligned the images as best I can, here’s the first one, you can use the slider to compare the two. The most noticeable difference is of course the […]

Member of Cleveland Mining Heritage Society hard at work today at Skelton Park, their long-term commitment to Skelton Park has been key to securing this project funding. The structure being extracted from the undergrowth today is something of a mystery and may not have originally been related to the ironstone mine, they could be Nissen huts related to […]

This ironstone obelisk was cut for exhibition at the Royal Mining, Engineering and Industrial Exhibition at Newcastle in 1887, it consisted of the entire main seam of ironstone and was originally 9ft 4ins high. It is engraved “Skelton Park Mines” The pillar was later displayed at the North East Coast Exhibition in 1929 After the exhibition […]