23rd January. James Chisholm, who had been mining engineer at North Skelton for 31 years, retired on a pension of £150 per annum. [about £10,000 in the year 2000]

24th January - Boer War, British defeats at Spion Kop by Afrikaaners led by Botha.

Feb 14th - Local miner records "Snowstorm in Cleveland when Mr. Proctor of Guisborough broke his leg and a girl was killed at Brotton Station."

March 1st. The death of John Thomas Wharton.
He is buried in New Skelton cemetery.
Parish Magazine - On Sunday afternoon, March 4th, the remains of the old squire were laid to rest in the Skelton Cemetery.
The funeral was conducted in accordance with his own wish in plain and simple fashion without flowers.
A large number of the people of Skelton joined the procession on the way to the Cemetery.

The Yorkshire Post - The Venerable Squire belonged to a family with a very interesting pedigree.
On his mother's side he could trace descent back to Robert De Brus of Castle de Bruis in Normandy, who came over with William the Conqueror.
On his father's side he was of a race of Westmoreland country squires.
Skelton Castle, formerly the home of the De Brus or Bruce, did not come into the possession of Mr Wharton's paternal ancestors until the 17th century, when it was purchased from the Trotters, who had in like fashion acquired it from the Fauconbergs, to whom it had passed through the Bruce female line.
The Whartons were of Kirkby Stephen and also of Gilling near Richmond, Yorkshire.
For 114 years there have been but 2 owners - Mr John Wharton, who succeeded John Hall Stevenson [the friend of Laurence Sterne] and his nephew the squire, who has just died.
The late squire was the eldest son of the Rev Wm Wharton, Vicar of Gilling and Charlotte, daughter of the first Lord Dundas and was born at 19 Arlington St, London on March 9th 1809.
His early school days were spent first at Ripon Grammar School and then at Charterhouse, thence proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A.
When he learnt the valuable character of his property Squire Wharton lost no time in turning it to good accound.
The land was drained, decent cottages were erected, farm building were put in repair or reconstructed, allotments were provided for the poorer people, the whole tenancy were made glad and prosperous.
Skelton village took to itself a new lease of life.
In 1854 by his marriage with the daughter of Mr H W Yeoman and Lady Margaret Bruce there was forged another link with the far away past when the De Brus Lords reigned over these sea-bordered uplands.
The Lady Margaret was the daughter of the first Earl Zetland.
The late Squire was keenly interested in agricultural pursuits. He entered heartily into the projects of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of which he was a life governor and president.
From 1871 to 1874 he held the post of Master of the Cleveland Fox Hounds and rode to hounds to the age of 86.
He did not greatly care for the invasion of the district by the mining fraternity, much as it meant an increase of prosperity for all concerned.
He was at home with the agriculurist, pure and simple. Yet he was generous to all alike.
When times were bad for the farmers he showed his sympathy by reducing the rents and during the great Cleveland and Durham strikes he dispensed liberal hospitality to the needy.
He was the first member of the Skelton Local Board, which was formed in 1866. In Politics he was a Whig, but altered his position after Mr Gladstone's Home Rule procedure.
A faithful son of the Church of England - the new church at Moorsholm was built at his expense and he gave the tower, clock and bells to the Skelton Church, when it was built some 15 years ago.

South Skelton Mine is taken over by Bolckow, Vaughan & Co and is linked up underground to the N Skelton and Longacres mines.
The company extended the lease on North Skelton from the Skelton estate for another 40 years for £8000 for 360 thousand tons of ore.

17th May. Relief of Mafeking. Boer War.

28th Nov Skelton Park Pit. George Ridley, aged 18, was killed. "Attending endless rope.
He was employed to see that tubs went round the curves on endless rope all right, and by some means he got caught between a tub and a curve and was killed.
Probability is that he was riding on tub at time"

1901 - 22nd January.- Parish Magazine - The Queen died at Osborne House, Isle of Wight. The body remaining there till February 1st, when it was conveyed to Windsor, the funeral being a military one, taking place on the 2nd.

2nd February - On Saturday at 2 o'clock the time fixed for the funeral of our late beloved Queen the Memorial Service was held in our Parish Church.
The shops were closed and the mines rested and by general consent the day was observed as a day of rest and quiet.
The bells rang a muffled peal, the minute bell being to toll clear every other round for an hour before the service. The Church proved too small to contain all who wished to enter, some hundreds we are told failing to secure admission.

31 March. - The National Census was taken.
The population of the Urban District of Skelton and Brotton was 13,240.
The area of the urban district was 4310 acres, with a rateable value of £63,354.
Totals for each village were:-
Boosbeck and Lingdale 3001.
Stanghow 1220.
Brotton 3323.
Kilton 445.
Moorsholm 446.

The total for Skelton was 4796.

This breaks down into:-
Old Skelton - 1529.
Skelton Green - 1578.
North Skelton - 1244.
New Skelton - 445.
The census produced the following statistics.
In 1901 there was no one in Skelton over 90 years of age and only 7 people over 80.
The oldest person was 87.
In fact, only 81 people [1.5%] were over the age of 70 – [one of these was 74 and still working down the Ironstone mine.]
A third of the population was under the working age of 13.
There were approximately 1200 working men in Skelton at this time and 978 of these were employed at the local Ironstone mines.
There has been a myth in this area that many of these miners originated from the failing tin mines of Cornwall, but the statistics do not bear this out.
Only 38 people [0.7%] of both sexes were born in Cornwall.
Whereas, there were 174 residents who gave Norfolk as their place of birth and over 300 from East Anglia as a whole.
Presumably poor agricultural wages and increased farm mechanisation there and the promise of definite work and housing in this area drove them to uproot.
219 people had been born in County Durham.
The mine managers and overseers tended to be those who had earlier experience of the coal mines.
51 females were registered as Dressmakers with 14 people as Boot and Shoe makers and 16 working in drapery.
There were public entertainments at Skelton Institute and elsewhere and, lodging with local families, there were 11 actors and actresses as well as 2 musicians.
98 people were listed as Servants, but these included farm workers who were living in.
4 policemen were named.
165 persons were registered as Boarders.
47 residents gave their occupation as teacher or assistant teacher. Many of these were still in their teens.

5th May - Parish Magazine - On Sunday morning there passed away one whose familiar figure was well known in Skelton.
As verger of the Parish Church for 17 years, Sergeant Armstrong was well known by nearly everybody.
In earlier life he had reached the rank of Sergeant in the Royal Artillery and served with his regiment in the Crimean War.
He was on duty up to the last.

7th May - CHURCH LAD'S BRIGADE - A meeting was held in the Church Rooms on Tuesday to form a detachment for Skelton of our Company of the C.L.B.
The military name and organisation do not mean that the brigade "is playing at soldiers". They have a more serious purpose - teaching the great lessons of order, obedience, discipline voluntarily submitted to and to turn out into the world strong, true, upright, Christian men.
The Squire took the chair. Some members of the Boosbeck detachment, in uniform, were present with their officers.
It was decided to limit the number to 25 or 30 members, who will be chosen out of the recruits for enrolment in about 6 week's time after a certain number of recruit drills have been held.
Proficiency in drill, attendance and behaviour will secure the first places.
Recruit drill is held in the Church rooms on Tuesday evenings at 7.30.

June - Parish Magazine - Events begin to show that "all things come to him who waits". The sites of station, station yard and master's house, the necessary approaches which have been pegged out for months, have now been fenced round and the platelayers of the Company have received orders to lay the rails into the yard and make connections with the main line. It has been announced in the local paper that the tender of Mr Porteous of Guisborough to build the station has been accepted and the contract signed. The plans give a station master's house of pretty design, of a rather unusual style in England, after a Norwegian pattern, in which timber is largely used instead of the familiar brick or stone. This will stand on the west side of the line, while the warehouse, weigh office and sidings will be in the square enclosure on the east side. The passenger platforms will run paralled to the main line starting from the white gates and running southward towards North Skelton. The station buildings, ticket office and waiting rooms will, we expect, stand on the near side with a shelter on the far sided across the line.
The path from Long Acres Mine to North Skelton is being diverted so as to pass round the station buildings instead of through the middle of them.

July 3rd - A local miner records political activity - "Third demonstration at Boosbeck, speakers were Mr. H. Broadhurst, M.P., Mr. H. Wilson, ex M.P., and Rev. A.T. Guttery."

Parish Magazine - We are in correspondence with the North Eastern Railways to use a special train to Scarborough for our annual trip for the members of our choirs and Sunday School Teachers.
Next year, when we may expect that the NER will have exhausted all the tricks of their procrastinating policy, have built the long promised station and are willing to give Skelton some facilities, we might, perhaps visit the Lakes or Scotland. or even the Isle of Man.

September - A Library has been opened for the use of members of the Skelton Literary Institute. A considerable number of new books has been provided and the trustees of the old Free Library have also place their stock at the disposal of the committee. No additional charge is made for the use of the library beyond threepence for copy of catalogue and library card. A class on mining, conducted by Mr G Whitbread, has been arranged for Wednesday Evenings.

4 South Terrace was a Convalescent Home for soldiers wounded in the Boer War.

The matron was a Scotswoman, Mable French.
She lived there with her husband Tom, a blacksmith, and their adopted daughter, Edith Martin age 2.

There were eight patients at this time :-

Tom Thursgood of York, age 23, serving with the 9th Lancers.
Walter Watson of Leeds, age 24, with the 2nd West Yorks Regiment.
Fred Jones from Staffordshire, age 30, with the 19th Prince of Wales Own.
Arthur Jones, from Dewsbury, age 22, with the Kings R Rifles.
Charlie Palmer of Cambridgeshire, age 26, with the Army Ordnance Corps.
Arthur Clements of Guisborough, age 21, with the 19th Prince of Wales Own.
Jim Horan of Northumberland, age 36, with the Northumberland Fusiliers.
Tom Hawkey of Cornwall, age 32, serving with the 2nd West Yorks.