Margrove Park History
The following articles will tell you some of the history of our village. Information has been obtained from a variety of sources. Please feel free to comment on our stories or send us more information (to magrapark@gmail.com)
Click on a title to read the story.
Margrove Park, East Cleveland in the 1930’s
Shops that where in the Village
About The Village
The houses were built in a square in the 1850s to house miners. Stanghow (Margrove Park) mine still has a tall air shaft making it a landmark. Thomas Ward dismantled the mine in 1930. A bystander at the time remembers that they couldn’t make the mine shaft fall so they loaded a truck of stone on a train, fastened it to the shaft and with a steady pull it fell. Sleepers were sold from there for sixpence, some still evident in gardens. The row of shops which formed the bottom of the square – grocer’s, cobbler’s and shoe shop, fish shop and a big dancing pavilion, were pulled down because of lack of use or mining subsidence in the 1930s. There are no shops in the village now. The village used to be served by the Charltonian bus but there is now a half hourly service from Guisborough.
In 1940 the houses were sold to the occupiers for ?160, a mortgage being available from Guisborough Provident society (Co-operative). It was paid back at ten shillings per week with the grocery bill.
In 1932 when the mines closed and unemployment was rife, Major James Beaumont Pennyman had the idea of making allotments on Heartbreak Hill just outside Margrove Park. It was a rocky place. The men started to work and were helped by university students who slept in the old mine offices. Any vegetable produce grown was sold and then seeds bought to be put back into the land. The men earned a halfpenny an hour but no money was given, wages were in kind. It cost one shilling and three pence to mend ladies shoes so a man worked 30 hours in order to have them repaired. A man’s shoes cost one shilling and nine pence.
Prince George came to visit the Heartbreak Hill project in the 1930s, at the same time planting a tree at Guisborough grammar school and giving the boys a half day’s holiday. The scheme went on for some years.
Opposite the bottom side of the square of Margrove Park is the bird-watching area of the Carrs, with Canada Geese and many other migrating birds. The area around ‘Maggra’ is most attractive, with trees, fields, bushes and hills and rusty soil which reveals the iron ore which used to abound. There were two large shale heaps in the area but they have been removed and used for the foundations of buildings in the Guisborough area.
A large caravan site houses the many holidaymakers who come to the beautiful nearby coastal area, increasingly many German and Dutch visitors. The old school on the main road has been made into a Heritage Centre. Here one can see models of Iron Age man with his artefacts and the abundant flora and fauna of the area. There is also a good space for the display of exhibitions and crafts.
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.
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.
Slapewath iron stone mine
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:
