SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
1868 ~ 1869

Halfpenny Bridge, 700 feet long and 130 feet high. Completed 1869.
1868 4th September - Work on the the Halfpenny Bridge started.
Middlesbrough News and Cleveland Advertiser:-

"On Monday the foundation stone of the bridge, which is being built across the glen by Mr J T Wharton esq. of Skelton Castle, was laid by Mr Wilman, the engineer in charge.
The spot selected for the site is a little south of Balmoral Terrace,close beside the entrance to the path leading down to the wood.
The bridge will be a handsome structure, mainly of iron, and is being erected by Messers Hopkins, Gilkes and Company Limited.
The cost will be £7,500 and it is expected that the bridge will be ready for traffic next year.
It is understood that Mr Wharton's object in the construction of the bridge is the bringing into use a large tract of building land on the east side of the glen; and, therefore, a considerable increase in the rising little town may soon be looked for."

This latter expansion never materialised and the bridge, apart from saving the local populace a long and circuitous trip across the valley of Skelton Beck, turned out to be something of a white elephant.

Pall  Mall  Gazette
Wednesday,   7th April 1869.>
FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT - THREE MEN KILLED.

The Leeds Mercury reports that yesterday afternoon a shocking accident happened at Saltburn-by-th-Sea, causing the death of three workmen, through the falling of a bridge. Messrs Hopkins, Gilkes, and Co., of Middlesbro', are building an iron bridge of 700 feet in length across the famous glen, along which the Skelton beck runs at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, for Mr. J. T. Wharton of Skelton Castle. The work has been in hand some time and the whole of the piers, eight in number, which consist of cast-iron columns, were finished some time ago, and four of the girders, which are about 85 feet in length, are fixed, and the flooring completed. Yesterday a strong force of workmen were employed fixing a pair of girders upon two of the piers, which are eight tiers in eight, reaching 130 feet from the ground. Everything appeared to be progressing favourably, when suddenly one of the girders, from some as yet unexplained cause, slipped from its holding upon the pier, swung to and fro, and then struck against the other pier, smashing the two girders and one of the piers absulutely into scrap iron. Upoin the pier which was broken there were three workmen employed. One of them, seeing the impending danger whilst the girder was swinging in mid air, jumped to the ground, a distance of some 130 feet, but was overtaken by the falling girders and killed upon the spot, The other two men remained at their dangerous posts, and one of them was killed instantaneously. The other was fearfully injured, in fact he had to be literally "jacked" out from underneath the debris. The bodies were a sad mangled sight, one man having his head literally smashed to atoms. The man who breathed a few minutes had both his legs broken. The names of the deceased are George Simpson, James Denny (foreman), and James Miles.
30th May - On Wednesday an accident occurred at the Shaft, Skelton Mines to two men, Thomas Thompson of Guisborough and Joseph Winter of Skelton. They were engaged in removing the centre pieces from a newly erected powder magazine, when the top fell in upon them cutting and bruising them severely. They are recovering.

16th September - The death of John Vaughan aged 69, ironmaster and the discoverer of workable ironstone in East Cleveland.
He left half a million to his only son, Thomas Vaughan, a massive fortune in those days. £3,000 per annum to his widow and besides this the estate and mansion of Gunnergate, Cleveland Lodge and other properties.

Skelton was made a rectory and Brotton constituted as a distinct parish. The Skelton curate's 'living' was £570 per year.

Mr J T Wharton of Skelton Castle leased land between Waterfall Farm and Skelton side of Airy Hill to Bell Bros for iron stone mining at 6d per 22 and a half hundredweight.

Transportation of criminals was ended.

Rushpool Hall. Built 1869. Burnt down 1904. Restored 1905.

1869 - Income tax was sixpence in the pound or 2.5%.

Rushpool Hall was erected for John Bell of the Bell brothers, who owned Skelton Shaft Mine.
It was built with blocks of ironstone taken from the mine, which gives its red appearance.

The Halfpenny Bridge was completed.
Pedestrians paid one halfpenny to cross, with other tolls rising to sixpence for horse-drawn carriages.
Three workmen were killed in the course of its construction.
There were many other suicide cases during its existence, who, the old sick joke said, paid only a farthing to jump off halfway.
It was finally demolished in December 1974, but had long been considered unsafe and closed to vehicle traffic. See page 1886-89 for copy of Toll Book and page 1909 to 1910 for Bridge Keeper.

5th Feb CHURCH ORGANIST AND MUSIC TEACHER BANKRUPT.
Robert Bell, of Skelton, near Marske-by-the-Sea, in the county of York, late Musician and Musical Instrument Dealer, and now a Musician, having been adjudged bankrupt under a Petition for adjudication of Bankruptcy, filed in the County Court of Yorkshire, holden at York on the llth day of

January, 1869, which petition has now been transferred to the County Court of Yorkshire. holden at Stokesley, a public sitting, for the said bankrupt to pass his Last Examination, and make application for his Discharge, will be held at the said Court at Stokesley aforesaid, on the 19th day of February instant, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon precisely...
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