Ironstone mining in Cleveland and North Yorkshire occurred on a sizeable scale from the 1830s to the 1960s in present day eastern parts of North Yorkshire but has been recorded as far back as Roman times in mostly a small-scale and intended for local use. This Cleveland is not to be confused with a smaller area covered by the county of Cleveland from 1974-96.
Around the year 1850, large seams of ironstone were discovered in the Cleveland Hills, later also in and around Rosedale and Eskdale. Mining of these seams accelerated an industry around the River Tees's south eastern banks and around the River Tyne, where many new ironworks were built. Settlements around the Tees and Tyne, especially the Cleveland town of Middlesbrough (on the Tees) as iron and steel processing centres. These received large amounts of ironstone, first by ship and later by railway. The industry experienced a meteoric rise, in the space of twenty years (by 1870), ironstone from the Cleveland part of Yorkshire was supplying 38% of the steel and iron requirements of Britain.
Ironstone workings in Yorkshire's Cleveland declined from the 1930s onwards, imported iron ore was able to be shipped in vast quantities to the quaysides at Middlesbrough and on the Tyne. The last commercially operated ironstone mine was near Skelton-in-Cleveland, the North Skelton Mine, closed in January 1964. Restoration programmes have remediated some mine sites and they have been opened to public access, mine water has polluted some watercourses in the area.
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