Margrove Park

Boosbeck and Margrove Park lie in a hollow in the hills. At the end of the last Ice Age the whole area was a great melt-water lake. The ironstone seam here dips down into a saucer- shaped depression and it is covered by a waterproof layer of jet and alum shale. In this hollow ‘a great underground lake’ was trapped, covered by a thick layer of porous sandstone.

When Stevenson, Jacques & Co tried to sink a deep shaft, to tap the seam here, they struck this lake. In February 1886 ‘a huge spout of water suddenly shot into the air’. The speed and force of the flood-water was far more than the early pumping gear could contain. The shaft was abandoned. Having been tapped, the waters seem to have drained away gradually, probably into the surrounding countryside and via nearby working mines. A few years later Bolckow, Vaughan & Co leased the land from the Skelton Castle estate and tried again. They were more successful. Their mine was worked for many years, but it frequently suffered from flooding and associated problems. Not until it was modernised, and anew entrance shaft sunk by Dorman Long in 1929, did the mine become really profitable. Four hundred and fifty men were employed there in 1945.

When the mining village was being built, Mr J. T. Wharton of Skelton Castle donated land for a parish church, and St Aidan’s was dedicated in 1901. Until then the area had been part of the ecclesiastical parish of Skelton.

By far the oldest buildings are at Holly Well Farm, on the junction of the Lingdale and Margrove Park roads. For many centuries a habitation has been shown at this spot on successive maps. In the 13th century it appears at Holly Keld Cote (Keld meaning stream or well). Of the 19th century village some of the earliest homes would have been the row of terraced cottages, built near the church, to house the brick workers. The Carrs Tilery and Brickworks were opened in 1867, half a mile south of the new village. Remains of the clay pit and quarry can be seen today, to the left of the road.

At the turn of the century Boosbeck also boasted a Methodist chapel, a railway station, a picture theatre, an institute and a school. The station served the first four miles of track on what eventually became the Guisborough-Whitby line. A report in the Whitby Gazette dated 3rd November 1878 tells of a near tragedy. Shallow workings in the Skelton Park Mine collapsed due to flooding. The sudden subsidence left 40 ft of the up and the down railway line suspended in mid-air. The noise was heard by the signalman, and by platelayers working just outside the station. Just in time they managed to stop an on-coming train carrying some 30 passengers, men, women and children.

The railway line is now closed and the station site is used for industrial purposes; the picture theatre has gone; the old school is now a nursing home, but the village is far from dying. Anew school has been built, also serving the surrounding villages. Houses are going up again to supplement the old terraced cottages, and the Lockwood Beck Parish Council is determined to bring anew lease of life to the area.

Boosbeck stands to the north of the tiny hamlets of Margrove Park, the Charlton?s and Slapewath, overlooking the valley with its beautifully wooded hillsides. The old village school at Margrove Park houses the Heritage Centre. Here a permanent display, as well as changing exhibitions, reflects the past, present and sometimes future plans for the region. A nearby caravan park and an old inn at Slapewath, which offers good food and accommodation, all add to the tourist potential. It is hoped that more holidaymakers will turn off the busy Guisborough-Whitby road and seek out this hidden valley.

NB
The village information above is taken from The Cleveland Village Book, written by members of the Cleveland Federation of Women’s Institutes and published by Countryside Books. Click on the link below to view Countryside’s range of other local titles.

Birk Brow was a hazardous road and even now needs treating with respect in bad weather, although it has been altered. The road has given rise to present day village occupations, with two garages, two repair yards and a breaker’s yard. In the 1920s and 1930s when cars first came on the road, lads used to sit at the awkward bends and when cars stalled ‘they earned a copper or two’ by helping to push them up the steep hill.

The railway came in 1861, and enabled the ore to be transported to the furnaces of Stockton and Middlesbrough. Men were employed from all round the area and as lead mines were closing in Teesdale, these miners transferred to Cleveland.

The village itself consists of two straight terraces of houses with six tall houses at the front which once housed oversees and deputies; it has one corner shop. Rents in the 1920s were three shillings and four pence per week, when each yarded house had an allotment and each house kept a pig and killed their own. Food was plentiful and ‘not one piece of the pig was wasted’.

The houses were bought by Dorman & Long, when they became mine owners. In 1962-1970 they were sold to sitting tenants for ?100 each. Today there are only eight council houses, the others being owner-occupied. There was a third row of houses – Reading Room Row was demolished because of mine subsidence.

At the back of the houses to the right is the old stable, reminiscent of drovers’ road stables, which housed the horses from Sporwood Mine. This is now a vehicle repair yard. Adjoining it is Noddings Abattoir, at one time a tannery but now dealing with animals and animal feedstuffs.

Charltons is now a quiet village with an independent breed of people. In the 1920s and 1930s it was a hive of activity. There was a butcher’s shop on the road to Hollins Farm, a haberdashery in someone’s sitting room, a baker’s and a sweet shop. There was also a fish shop at which ‘Nelly-one- pan’ operated – she only ever used one pan for, fish and chips. Nicknames are prevalent and pertinent in this area. Norman Broadley made bikes out of scrap, painted them black and sold them for six shillings. The village had a brass band, football team and a cricket team. The wooden Miner’s Institute maintained by Dorman & Long had a library, reading room and billiards, and a hall for dancing and meetings. The reading room had been on the end of the street which had to be destroyed. Underneath there were miners’ baths. They walked from all round the area to dances played for by a pianist, and many people still go dancing, especially the 60 to 70 year olds. The Institute was burned down in the 1970s but a new community hall is still well used and at the moment houses the Lockwood Beck Textile Map of five villages which has been made in the community.

The water supply to Charltons came from a spring on the hill to three ‘taps’ at the back of each street. It was 1952 before houses were given running water and flush toilets. The spring was used until the 1960s when Scaling Dam was opened. Water was collected daily for each house. On Friday nights the residents took their soap and towels down the three streets to queue in the brick waiting room for their turn in one of the three baths provided. There was an old iron bellied stove for heating the water. Sometimes they waited for hours to bath and if they filled the bath too full they were in trouble because people had to wait even longer for the water to heat again. The charge was three pence per bath and two children had to share a bath of water. ‘The ladies went in before the men from the mine came home’. Unfortunately at that time if a man lost his job then he lost his home as well.

Transport was with Readmans and John Dobson, who ran brakes with horses to Guisborough and surrounding villages. When brakes with two horses went up Birk Brow then people got out and walked. John Dobson then progressed to buses – the rattling Charltonians which did not appear to run on time. Today the village has a firm of coaches, Best Way Travel, and is served by the local bus.

Among the older people there can still be heard the old dialect, which is nearly Old English with even an odd Saxon word. It is spoken with phonetic pronunciation and a diphthong. A pity this is being lost as it is from the old Cleveland.

NB
The village information above is taken from The Cleveland Village Book, written by members of the Cleveland Federation of Women’s Institutes and published by Countryside Books. Click on the link below to view Countryside’s range of other local titles.

Charltons Village web page.

Shops in Margrove Park.

In the early 1900s Margrove Park

Had two shops. A hardware store

And a co-op.

Subject

: Jimmy Wootton

Information received from Mr J Dobson regarding the cobblers shop that stood at the entrance to Margrove Park
Also more information on Mrs A Smith nee Dobson.

Hello I have just read your bit about Margrove Park shops.
It was my Aunnt Annie who ran the shop at No.41.
I lived with her from the 1940.’s until I married in 1962.
She was Annie Dobson from Charltons before marrying Wilf Smith from Charltons.
Next to the old Co-op was Jimmy Woottons cobblers shop. He was there for years, my dad, said Jimmy was an old man when he was a boy and Jimmy was still there in 1961. He was a god send to us kids after the war. Everybody bought football boots from him and of course he was fully occupied with repairs. He lived with his sister in Lingdale and caught the 7-10 bus everynight.
We spent hours in his workshop, keeping warm around his stove. We got him wood for the stove and chopped it up. In return we had his wonderful hospitality and if you were lucky he would let you scrape his enamel bowl out, in which he used to cook his rice pudding.
The old tin shed was passed its best and every morning he would pile the ashes from his stove up against the side of the hut to keep the draught out. Jimmy was great, we were lost when he locked up at 7-00 pm and kicked us out.
John Dobson.

Before the second World War a Mrs A. Smith

Purchased No 41 Margrove Park and turned it into a shop.

She ran the shop until the late 1950s

It was then purchased by a Mr & Mrs P. Smith who ran it until the

The middle of the 1970s. It was then sold and the new owner turned the premises back into a house.

Sometime between 1948 and 1952 the co-op moved

To new premises on the opposite side of Margrove Road .It was closed in the 1980s and then became a DIY shop for a few years. It is now derelict

With special thanks to Jim Wallace.

STANGHOW MINE
NZ 654156
Abandoned (Plan NO. 9599) 14 th November 1928
Shafts (2 N0) 126 feet and a Drift into the Main Seam
Section* Ironstone 3 feet 4 inches
Shale 1 foot 10 inches
Ironstone 2 feet 2 inches
* Section taken from abandonement plan.

1972-1892 Stanghow Ironstone Company
1889-1892 Downey and Company
1893-1928 C0chrane iron Company

A branch line left the Cleveland Railway near Slapewath Junction, it curved up to the mine located adjacent to Margrove Park settlement. The houses at Margrove Park were constructed for miners’ accommodation.

The first lease was taken by the Stanghow Ironstone Company from Mr J. T. Wharton for a period of 42 years from 1st July 1871, at 6d. per ton. Under this lease the shafts were sunk and the first ironstone worked was .5,477 tons by July 1872. The mine was idle from January 1877 until January 1880, in 1880, 29,284 tons were worked. The mine was then idle until the Stanghow Ironstone Company went into liquidation in 1892. Stone went to the Middleton Iron Works at Fighting Cocks during this period. Walker’s drills were used to get the stone. The method employed was to use machine to get the stone and “Fillers after the machines” would load it into the waggons. A great deal of shale occurred with the ore and this was removed on a picking belt.

In 1893 Cochrane and Company took a lease on the mine at 3d. per ton. They worked large tonnages, the ironstone going to their Ormesby Iron Works in Middlesbrough. First output was in June 1893 with 252 tons. Yearly average output was around 240,000 tons. In February 1921 the last stone, 799 tons was worked. The mine was effectively finished June 1924, although not officially abandoned until November 1928. (click on map to enlarge)

1938 – 1950 Map

The mine is known locally as Margrove Park mine, or Magra Park, sometimes just Magra. In early account books it is referred to as Magra Pit.

Present Day:-The furnace ventilation shaft, with a wheel at its top, still stands. The site which contains a caravan park is now very difficult to interpret. Foundations are mixed the debris of later enterprises. The very large spoil heap was removed from across the main road to the mine, some years ago, and the site stands empty.

Stanghow mine, early view of winding shaft with wooden headgear and furnace ventilation

Stanghow mine, later view of winding shaft with steel headgear

Acknowledgement to Jim Wallace for the above information.

Heartbreak Hill is located on Margrove Road between Boosbeck and Margrove Park. There is somewhere else I am about to mention, Dartmoor. Not Dartmoor in Devon but on the hills above Margrove Park. Both these areas play a very significant part in the history of village.

In the early 1930’s both these areas were uncultivated. A scheme was brought about to give unemployed miners and their families an alternative source of work and support. Both areas of land were worked collectively as seperate smallholdings.

It is said that sixty unemployed miners joined the scheme,each was to contribute at least 3 hours labour per day. The wives were organised to form a sewing and knitting workshop at ‘Rushbys Rooms’ an empty shop in Boosbeck.

Considerable co-ordination and co-operation was needed as these were not just allotments. Public generosity had to be sort as stock and equipment had to be bought.

English, German and Scandinavian students became involved in the land reclamation. Workcamps were established, providing free labour. The miners and the students joined in cultural activies. The students were accommodated in the pit yard at Margrove Park.

People organising these schemes had various reasons for their involvement ie general concern, political or religious.

If anyone has any further information or photgraphs we would be very grateful to receive them.

I obtained this information from a book called Heartbreak Hill by Malcolm Chase and Mark Whyman.
Written by jean.wallace

Information about the history of Margrove Park is taken mainly from the Durham Archaeological Journal during 1994.
Margrove Valley is a small glacially formed valley that contains four distinct communities, Charltons ,Margrove Park, Boosbeck and Aysdale Gate, all of which were constructed after the arrival of the railway in 1861. The records for 1871 records two further dwellings, the Tilery cottages which were occupied by the workers, at the recently opened brickworks.

The first houses for ironstone miners appear to have been constructed in 1872 to provide accommodation for the migrant workers.
Whilst some local residents believe the name Margrove Park to be a Victorian gentrification of the area, it appears the place name is much earlier The earliest documentary reference is for Magerbrigge which appears etween 1230 and 1250 in the Guisborough Cartulary. Whilst more recognisable Maugre Park is documented in 1407. Said to be a Deer Park at some time in the past.

HOUSES AT MARGROVE PARK

The Deer Park at Margrove Park was 355 acres. Stanghowe Iron company constructed a total of one hundred houses at Margrove Park in 1873. The permission to build the houses was agreed in 1870 when a document was signed between J Wharton for the Skelton Estate and G. Wythes and J Cochrane of the Stanghow Iron Co.

The houses at Margrove Park are thought to have been built of bricks from the Carrs Tilery, half a mile away from the site.The houses were erected on the southern slopes of the Margrove Valley. There are two rows of houses situated round three sides of the village green. No’s 1 to 52 on the up slope ,ending to what is known as the barracks, and is subdivided in to three blocks or terraces. The other row is also divided into three terraces, No’s 53 to 66 along the top of the green and 67-83 and 84 to 100 on the down slope.

The houses were built of bricks laid in English bond with five rows of strechers,then a row of headers.
The brickwork is fairly uniform. Except for two rows of decorative white bricks separated by red, just above the window on the ground floor. There were two windows at the front and three at the rear. All with vertical sliding sash. The windows at the front had sandstone lintels and sills, whilst at the rear the windows had brick lintels but were otherwise similar. The roof was made of slates.

The history of the Margrove Park houses is incomplete. However, some information can be garnered from census documents. One record exists outside this sequence is an account of a visit in 1873-4 to East Cleveland by John Foreman. President of the Durham Miners Association, and William Grieves, President of the Northumberland Miners Association.

The deputation noted ,”Workman’s cottages were erected in open situations, and not in streets, according to the usual custom, and having gardens in close proximity, all the minor conveniences being duly cared for.
The census for 1881 records that sixty -four houses where occupied at this time, whilst the remainder were empty. The census for 1891 provides more information: