SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY


1881 ~ 1882

Population growth in Skelton due to the effect of opening ironstone mines and health improvements.

1881 - The new All Saints Church in the High St was started to a design by R J Johnson of Newcastle.

The national census of this year showed Skelton, [including Lingdale, Boosbeck, N Skelton] having a population of 7820 with 4224 males and 3596 females.
There were 1433 inhabited houses with 263 being built or vacant.
The national population was estimated at 26 million.

Guisborough Workhouse had some 120 inmates including two people registered from Skelton. "John Elcoat, widower, agricultural labourer, imbecile, age 58." and "Thomas Hepton, General labourer, age 64."

At the other end of the social scale The Mount Girls Boarding School at Darlington registered "Martha Petch, Boarder under 15, Skelton, York, England."

In the last ten years the number of houses and people had trebled and in last 40 years had multiplied tenfold.

The total population of Skelton, Skelton Green, North Skelton and New Skelton was 4791,
Of these 955 worked in the Ironstone mines.
These 955 miners included 48 boys aged 15 or under and 10 of them aged just 13.
One 10 year old was working as a "trapper boy".
300 gave Durham as their place of birth, 234 Norfolk, 129 Devon Cornwall, 106 Lincolnshire, 65 Northumberland and 64 Suffolk.
There were only 4 people aged over 80, the oldest woman being Anne Steel,age 87 and the oldest man was retired plumber, William Gowland aged 80.
21 men gave their occupation as boot/shoe maker or cordwainer [the old name for the trade.]
25 people were registered as school teachers/pupil teachers.
There were 34 dressmakers/seamstresses.

New mines were opened and mining techniques and machinery were improved.
Although the miners were paid by the ton produced , they did not benefit greatly by improvements in output, as the mineowners reduced the rate paid.


North Skelton Primitive Methodist Chapel
["Primitive" applied to the religion, not the building.] Built 1881.

The drop in output between 1877 and 1881 was due to lack of demand for ironstone throughout the industry.

5 January.Longacres Mine. Thomas Hart,a miner aged 51 was killed. ""While stemming a charge of powder it exploded when he had got about a quarter of it stemmed."

15th Feb. John Plummer was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for assaulting Joseph Mallett with an iron sprag in Old Shaft mine. Mallett was knocked insensible and woke up in the surgeons.

16 April. Skelton Park Pit, George Bringloe, aged 36, was killed by a fall of stone while he and deputy were putting up props after a shot.

25th May. - A local miner records that there was a - "First demonstration held at Boosbeck, speakers were Mr.A.McDonald, M.P., F. Burt, M.P., Charles Bradlaugh, M.P."

July. Primitive Methodist Chapel was started at N Skelton, built of wood and corrugated iron sheets. This was situated on the corner opposite the present C of E Church, and was the only building there at the time. The Loftus Advertiser reported that this "iron chapel" was paid for by the local mine owners Bolckow and Vaughan. It could seat 250 and cost £350.

Cleveland ironstone mine output. Nothing in 1850 to one and a quarter million tons 1877

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