Walk the Cleveland Way – in 1866

An ideal trip back in time for anyone planning to walk the Cleveland Way when lockdown is over, or for people who know it well.  Actually, this isn't actually the whole Cleveland Way but only a section of it.  It's an account written in 1866 of a two day walking holiday along the coast from the newly-built and select resort of Saltburn by the Sea to the ancient town of Whitby.  The writer, who styles himself J.G. (in those days, newspaper articles were anonymous), is drawn by the prospect of a hearty walk and the scenery, but it's the industry and geology that really capture his attention:

Yorkshire Gazette, 14 July 1866

A visit to the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland

The Yorkshire sea coast is upwards of 100 miles in extent, and is, more or less, interesting to the tourist.  The coast of the East Riding begins at Spurn Head, and ends near Filey, and that of the North Riding from near Filey to the Tees mouth, near Redcar.  Desirous of spending a couple of days on the sea coast, and of seeing some of the ironstone districts of Cleveland, about which much has been said, we happened to look into a little book styled North Yorkshire by John Gilbert Baker, lately published, and at page 148 it is stated 

Now that the railway runs to Saltburn on the one side, and to Whitby on the other, this grand sweep of craggy coast is brought within the range of easy access to tourists, and it is to be expected that it will be more visited, and become better known than it has been.

The tide is often inconvenient for paying a visit to the crags from below, and to skirt their upper edge necessitates 

a good deal of rough scrambling, but to those who are able to make it, and who care for either magnificent scenery or geology, the walk between Saltburn and Whitby will richly repay the exertion.

Here is the very tract of country mapped out for a two days' trip, embracing in its range everything that is requisite for healthy exertion and for a general knowledge of the ironstone strata of the Cleveland hills.

The train which left York at 6 a.m. arrived at Saltburn at 9.30 on Tuesday, the 26th of June.  The Zetland Hotel, not far from the station, was built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company at a cost of £30,000, and on each side, with a southern front, are built rows of handsome lodging houses and shops and detached villas.  On the sands were ten bathing machines, and besides the usual comforts of a popular sea-bathing town, there is the two mile romantic walk of Skelton Glen, the entrance to which is opposite the beautiful range of lodging houses.

Zetland Hotel today
by Donnylad, licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0

Enchanting as everything appeared we had no time to linger, so we began our trip from the beach and walked onward to Huntcliff, on the way to Whitby.  This cliff rises to an elevation of 360 feet, upon which the men at the ironworks of Mr Morrison are engaged in removing the earth which overlie the ironstone, and filling trucks with the ironstone and taking it away on iron rails by an engine to a depot, from whence it is taken by rails to Middlesbro' to the blasting furnaces.  Whilst some part of the mining had been done by gunpowder explosion, we saw some of the men working at the extreme edge of the cliff removing the earth and rubbish from the surface of the ironstone and throwing it over the cliff; and others with mattocks removing the ironstone and filling the trucks, – a more simple and inexpensive method cannot be conceived.  The seam crops out near the surface, and the wealth in iron ore to be extracted from these hills must be incalculable.  We took a few specimens of the mineral, and walked onward through a gorge where gorse and ferns and shrubs in their native beauty luxuriate, and entered Skinningrove Bay.  

Cleveland Way footpath, Cattersty Sands
and Skinningrove jetty (built in the 1880s)

Here all was solitude.  The beach appeared to be rarely trod, except by the foot of the occasional tourist, or the miner at the Lofthouse [Loftus] works.  The glen and stream of Lofthouse, with their native beauties, had to be passed by, when we scrambled up the rock cliff and on to Boulby; this elevation is 660 feet above the sea.  Care must be taken all along these cliffs that the edge is not approached too nearly, for otherwise the danger is imminent; here and there the pathway of even recent time has fallen away into the sea, and the margin left between the stone boundary of the adjoining fields and the edge of the cliff is so narrow that the pathway is dangerous to walk upon.  Wherever this happens it is always better to get over the stone fence and walk in the adjoining fields until the pathway becomes less near the edge of the cliff, or is otherwise safe.  In several places the stone fence of some of the fields will be soon undermined and fall into the sea.

Staithes from the south

We passed through Boulby and down Colborn Nab to Staithes.  Entering this fishing town from Boulby the incline is steep, and the houses and buildings hang beside the ravine and overlook the beck or stream which runs through the town into the sea.  We crossed a wooden foot bridge and got into vile nooks and strange lanes, and passed numerous half-naked children and oddly draped women and lazy looking men.  We entered the Royal George Inn, hastily got some refreshment, and as speedily as we could left the place, for the stench from fish curing was beyond endurance after we had been inhaling the sweets of mountain breezes.  The people here are much to be sympathised with; they are often afloat in the storms and perils of the deep; their fare is hard; their clothing coarse; and their household is cheerless.  

A cold looking building had "National School" upon its wall, and we heard from a medical gentleman of Hinderwell, in which parish is situated the town of Staithes, that the church service is performed in this room.  These things ought not so to be.  There is here living a large number of people and a very large number of young children without a church in which to meet together for public worship.  The ladies and gentlemen of Hinderwell might soon remedy the evil by forming themselves into separate working committees and extending their solicitations amongst the local and wealthy county families.  The Christian work would begin and get forward until the church was erected, and divine worship celebrated for the spiritual good of this out-of-the-world and hitherto uncared-for people.  

Port Mulgrave: O.S. map 1888-1913
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland website

Soon after we departed from Staithes we visited the ironworks and pier at Port Mulgrave, belonging to "Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited."  These works are to the north of and near to Runswick Bay, and they appear to be well adapted for the purposes required for getting the ironstone and shipping it off by sea in boats of 40 tons each and towing them by steam tugs to the blasting furnaces of the company.  There are about 300 men employed here.  

The pleasant and respectable village of Hinderwell is about a mile from the sea, and as the cattle plague has not visited this part of the country the cows in the fields and in the village added a charm to the beauty of the surrounding scenery.

A new built inn, not far from Runswick Bay, called "Albert Hotel," and kept by Mrs Wardell, was the house at which we stayed for the night.  As this house is about halfway between Saltburn and Whitby, and the accommodation is good and the charges moderate, it is desirable to remind the future tourists that there did not appear to be a house on the coast at which to stay where cleanliness, and civility, and comfort, and cheapness were to be had in combination so well as in this house.  Mrs Wardell is a widow, a middle-aged person, and has, so she said, lived in her early days with some of the aristocratic families in the west end of London.  The house was taken by her last year.  Persons desirous of enjoying the sea and the beautiful and romantic scenery in and around this locality cannot do better than secure accommodation here.

Shoreline north of Runswick Bay, O.S. map 1888-1913
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland website

Although the ironworks are found to be so profitable by the proprietors, yet there are evidences in this locality that if the managers are not competent or well-looked after, the owners will soon be ruined.  A little to the north of Runswick bay there are in a state of utter decay ironworks which have cost about £30,000.  They are built at the foot of a cliff, and consisted of a pier, a blasting furnace, engine house, and the usual erections for getting the iron manufactured and shipped.  The works are about to pass into fresh hands, but a large sum will be required to re-construct these works and put them again into working order.  

The bay of Runswick is extensive; the cottages forming the village are on the south side of the cliff, and are here and there nestled among shrubs and flowers, and are approached by circuitous paths or trackways.  

Kettleness Point

We walked on the beach and over the rocks which lie scattered by the waves in wild confusion as we neared the alum works of Kettleness, which we passed by, and then through Goldsbrough to Lyth.  The perils attendant upon cliff mining and working appeared to be great, but the men and boys when we thus spoke to them seemed indifferent to our caution.  The first head-stone in the churchyard of Lyth told of the danger as we read of a young man, aged 31, who had been recently killed whilst jet mining.  Near this church are the woods and domain of Mulgrave Castle, and a fine view of Whitby.  From Sandsend we walked on the beach to Whitby, which we left at 6.5p.m.  

During the summer months it is found to be difficult to know where best to spend a few days.

In the coast district there is in the entire extent from Saltburn to Whitby a fine agricultural country, diversified by hills and glens, amongst which delightful and romantic drives can be taken.  The botanist will here find an intelligent director in Mr Baker's book.  The geologist will be practically assisted by Professor Phillips' work on the Geology of Yorkshire.  The fossil and mineral collectors can fill their baskets with stores for the enrichment of their private museums.  The draughtsman as he sits on the cliff, the beach, or in the glens and bays, will speedily fill his portfolio with sketches, which never fail to charm the lovers of English coast scenery.  The man of business in his town life vocation requires to know where he can enjoy the mountain and the sea air in the balmy hours of a summer's day in a part of the country which is detached from his artificial existence.  To such persons, and they are multiplying every years, take the paths we have taken, and make your stay there as long as your time will allow.  The infirm can be driven from Whitby to the glens and villages near the sea coast, and enjoy the diversified scenery from which so many at this time of year derive substantial benefit.  J.G.

Notes

North Yorkshire: Studies Of Its Botany, Geology, Climate And Physical Geography (1863) by John Gilbert Baker (author) is still in print

Saltburn

The Victorian resort of Saltburn by the Sea was still very new and the Zetland Hotel only three years old when J.G. arrived.  It was the brainchild of Henry Pease, who set up the Saltburn Improvement Company in 1859, and a history of its development can be found here on the Saltburn by the Sea website.  The Pier and the Cliff Lift would be built within a few years of this article's appearance.

Huntcliff Ironstone Mine

This was the Cliff Mine, owned by Henry William Thomas from 1857-1865 and by Bell Brothers from 1865 until it was abandoned in 1887.  I don't know why J.G. says it's Mr Morrison's mine – perhaps he was the manager.  Hardly any trace of the mine remains.  You can see details of it here on the East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland website.  The remains that can be seen are from the later mine owned by Bell Brothers.

Loftus Ironstone Mine 

This mine was in operation until 1958 (see the East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland website for details).  The Cleveland Ironstone Museum opened on the site in 1983.

Boulby Cliff is the highest cliff in England.  Nearby is Boulby Potash Mine, the second deepest mine of any kind in Europe, where the Underground Laboratory operates and experiments such as the search for Dark Matter in the Universe are carried out.

Colburn Nab = Cowbar Nab

Staithes  

J.G. does not like Staithes!  It was only from about 1880 that it became a magnet for artists and became the home of the celebrated Staithes Group (1894-1909).  But his depiction of it as a God-less place is inaccurate and far from fair.  He is writing only of the Church of England.  Staithes was a Nonconformist village.  The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel – Robert Slater in Artists' Colonies in Staithes and Runswick Bay c1880-1914 (March 2010) writes that "an adapted Wesleyan Chapel at Staithes appeared on the Guisborough Circuit list" in 1821 and that in the year that J.G. passed through a purpose-built Wesleyan Chapel was opened.  A Congregational Chapel was opened in 1823 (the Whitby Gazette, 25 November 1865, reports that the Earl of Zetland gave £5 to the Congregational Church to reduce its debt).  The Primitive Methodists came rather later to Staithes but found an enthusiastic welcome and a chapel had been opened in 1858 (see the website of My Primitive Methodists).

Port Mulgrave & the disused ironstone mine just north of Runswick, as described by J.G:  

Charles Mark Palmer (1822-1907) and his brother were the founders of Palmers, the famous shipbuilding company in Jarrow.  Cleveland ironstone could be mined all along the Cleveland coastline and Palmer bought land around Staithes to mine ironstone for his Jarrow works.  Palmer's mine was in the area known as Rosedale at Rosedale Wyke; it became known as Rosedale on Coast to distinguish it from the ironstone mines in the moors at Rosedale.  He constructed a harbour there in 1856-7 and named it Port Mulgrave.  As to the disused mine – I haven't got a copy of Peter Tuffs' book on Cleveland Ironstone which may hold the answer, but I notice that the Northern Mine Research Society website distinguishes between the two mines near Hinderwell: Port Mulgrave Mine, which operated between 1856 and 1893, and the Rosedale on Coast Mine, which was in operation between 1854 and 1876.  The map (above) shows Old Ironworks and Old Shaft.

Photographs of the remains of the Port Mulgrave mine can be seen here on the website Hidden Teesside.

Cattle plague

There was a largescale outbreak of rinderpest in the British Isles between 1865 and 1868

Alum and jet mining at Kettleness 

The alum works at Kettleness would close in 1871 according to the website of the Archaeology Data Service.  The jet mines at Kettleness had been in operation in the 1850s.  There is a newspaper report in 1854 of the accidental death of a labourer there, Dalton Taylor, who fell from the top of the cliff on to a piece of broken rock and was killed on the spot.  

 

There is a really good history of alum mining in North East Yorkshire here on the website of East Cleveland's Industrial Heartland.