Upleatham Mine and the   Derwent Iron company

During the period between 1830 and 1870, the so called 'Iron masters' of Great Britain were able to exploit the rapidly developing markets, both at home and abroad, for their iron production in for its time a refreshing atmosphere of free trade. 

Production of pig iron in Britain rose from just under one million (Imperial)tons per annum to slightly over five million during that period. The growth of these years followed closely the demand created by the booms in railway construction throughout the world. 

However, it was not a period without its own special problems: there were marked depressions in every decade, the Ironmasters had to cope with the increase in the scale of operations caused by expanding demand and output but also the advances in the technology of Iron and Steel production. One such operation was the 'Derwent Iron Company'.

In I840, Consett was a small rural community of no more than a couple of isolated houses on the wild moorland of Northwest County Durham in England. In that year, a partnership had been formed to exploit the minerals of the district for ironmaking. 

The following year, (1841) the partnership styled itself the 'Derwent Iron Company' and, within five years had grown into the second largest iron-making concern in Britain, being surpassed only by Dowlais Iron Works in Wales. 

The Derwent Iron Company however became famous not only for its size, with eighteen blast furnaces but also for its inability to return a profit for shareholders and the Banks that invested in it.

The industrial and commercial activity, around the North-East of England was very much influenced by the local 'Quaker' community and the foundation of an ironworks at Consett was'nt exceptional and was certaily appropriate, as nearby in Shotley Bridge, one of the earliest strongholds of Quaker activity in the North of England, had been established what is believed to be the first Quaker Meeting House built in England. 

Even though the members of the 'Society of Friends' to give them their correct title, were dispersed widely throughout the County. By the nineteenth century much of the property in the vicinity of Shotley Bridge was owned by them. 

So, it was purely by chance then, that in 1839 William Richardson due to his bad health, visited the area to partake in the mineral properties of a local Spa. Whilst there he became friendly with a local cartwright and amateur 'Minerologist' John Nicholson, having shown Richardson some samples of ironstone that he had found on the 'Blue Heaps' around Consett, which was in reality spoil from the local coal mines. 

Richardson had this stone analysed and shortly after test holes were bored to prove that the stone was satisfactory for the production of 'pig iron'.Approaching the owners of the Redesdale Ironworks and with an initial investment of £10000 in 1841 the 'Derwent Iron Company' was formed.

Above is the same place in 1840...

Unfortunately, the adventure never actually returned any profit, even though there were at least 14 blast furnaces as well as fettling and puddling furnaces erected on the site at Consett. Only by means of continued lending from the Northumberland and Durham District Bank was the enterprise kept going. 

The managing director happened to be Jonathan Richardson, the brother of William Richardson (one of the founding shareholders of Derwent Iron Company) and in 1847, an Act of Parliament had created the Darlington to Stockton Railway. 

Initially the owners of which, the Pease family of Darlington, bought up the small farming hamlet of Middlesbrough and the adjoining land on the south bank of the river Tees, the plan was to create wooden coal staithes to export coal from thier coal mining properties in County Durham. 

This would create an easier navigable port than Stockton, and so 'Port Darlington' as it was to be known became the 'Middlesbrough Estate' destined to become the focal point of the North East of England for nearly two centuries.

In 1850 it had been finally recognised by John Marley a mining engineer, that the ironstone outcrops along the Cleveland Hills were in fact the 'Cleveland Main Bed' which though it had been known about for centuries along the coast north of Whitby. 

Indeed this ironstone had been collected from the beaches along the coast and had been loaded onto small flat bottom ships that were drawn up on the beach as the tide receaded, and had been sent north to the Tyne for several decades.

Following these discoveries, other Ironstone outcrops were recognised, especially along the hill known as 'Errington Hill' just south of the small fishing village of Marske by the Sea. 

The Derwent Iron Company sought licenses with the landowner Lord Zetland, to mine the Ironstone from this hill and by 1853, as seen by the map above https://maps.nls.uk  from the National Library of Scotland website.

Not only had mining started to a large extent by quarrying the face of the Ironstone Outcrop, but the means of carrying it from Upleatham Mine as it became known, had been created in the form of a self acting incline. 

This incline had a tramway running down it from the top of the slope at the mine entrance, where the tubs of stone were subsequently lowered down the incline by steel rope from a pair of drums situated at the top of the incline.

As the full tubs travelled down the slope, they hauled up a set of empty tubs from the bottom of the incline. Where a marshalling yard had been created, to marshall the tubs into what became known as a 'rake', these tubs were then hauled part way down another tramway. 

This tramway had been created to run to Coatham on the Tees where the stone was weighed, put into rail wagons and sent up the Middlesbrough extention of the Darlington and Stockton railway, before onward travel to Consett for use in the blast furnaces that had been built on the Derwent Ironworks.

The view above is a magnified image of the system established to collect and then send on the full tubs of ironstone. If you lok carefully you can see there looks is a tunnel under the old Longbeck Lane, a 'stationary' steam engine was located there which hauled the tubs part way along the tramway to Coatham, where it was then hauled along by narrow gauge steam locomotives.

In 1857, the continued loans to support the Derwent Iron company became too much for the Northumberland and Durham District Bank and combined with a slump in the iron markets, the Bank became overextended and was forced into bankruptcy. Jonathan Nicholson was ruined by this episode and he never quite recovered from the ignominy. 

Fortunately those wide awake 'Quakers' the Pease's had family connections with the Quaker Gurney banking family of Norfolk, Joseph Pease was able to arrange re-financing for the Northumberland and Durham District Bank, through the Barclays Banking company of London. 

The Derwent Iron Company, now without funding failed but again Joseph Pease stepped in with others, to create a new company now known as the 'Consett Iron Company', not only did this give the Pease's a stake in iron production in the area, but they also gained the mining Leases at Upleatham as part of the deal. 

This meant that they produced Ironstone in Cleveland, Coal in Durham as well as Limestone in the Pennines. All of which was brought to Connsett via thier majority shareholding in the Darlington and Stockton Railway company.

Next time I'll move on to Upleatham Mine, The Pease Years... so stay tuned folks it's quite a ride...