Read the article here Antiquity. Thanks to Jon Purday for pointing me to the article. Escaping the crowds of Saltburn we headed to Cattersty Sands. Iron was mined here before the discovery of the main seams in the hills at Eston and prior to mining, iron-rich stone was collected from the beaches at Hummersea.
An ironworks was established above the town in the late nineteenth century to process the local iron ore with coal and limestone imported from County Durham. The slag from the furnaces was poured onto the cliffs and also used as a building material in and around the village. The cliffs are an impressive site and are now home to nesting Fulmars and Jackdaws.
The names Cattersty, Hummersea and Skinningrove are all Scandinavian in origin. The cliffs to the south of the village are the highest on the east coast. Archaeologist Dr. If you want to learn more about Dr. Old Men that would be loath to have their credyt crackt by a tale of a stale date, report confidently that sixty yeares since, or perhaps 80 or more, a sea-man was taken by the fishers of that place, where duringe many weeks they kepte in an oulde House, giving him rawe fishe to eate, for all other fare he refused; insteade of voyce he shreaked, and shewed himself courteous to such as flocked farre and neare to visit him; β fayre maydes were wellcomest guests to his harbour, whome he woulde beholde with a very earneste countenaynce, as if his phlegmaticke breathe had been touched with a sparke of love.
Anyone who is unfamiliar with the history of Skinningrove may be confused by the cliffs that tower over Cattersty beach. The horizontally bedded Jurassic cliffs of the coast have been replaced by what appears to be the remnants of ancient lava flows. The origin of the cliffs are not Volcanic, I guess they could be called Vulcanic. There was once a large iron works on the clifftop, slag from the blast furnaces would be tipped, by trains, over the cliff edge completely covering the existing strata.
The blast furnaces have long gone, the cliffs are home to nesting fulmars and the occasional peregrine falcon. Skinningrove, a little creek formed by the Liverton Beck, has gained a weird picturesqueness by its ironworks on the verge of the cliff and its mountains of spoil from an iron mine. The Cleveland ironstone is used in conjunction with imported ironstone and if access can be obtained to the dressing-sheds β where the Cleveland ore is picked over by boys for the elimination of unprofitable stone β characteristic fossils, particularly the ammonite Amaltheus spinatus, can be obtained.
