!['...Where Angels Fear To Tread' [Explored- Thank you] | by johnalbiston](http://live.staticflickr.com/4363/35763377393_85914fe0a8.jpg)
'...Where Angels Fear To Tread' [Explored- Thank you]
Another one of my evening forays during our recent family holiday to Whitby. I'd read about this place before we'd gone on holiday and it was only a 10minute drive from where we were staying. It sits at the base of a 300' cliff on a lonely strip of shore beneath a clutch of houses.
Port Mulgrave ironstone mine was opened by Sir Charles Palmer in the 1850s to provide for his & his brother's blast furnaces & ironworks in Jarrow 30 miles to the north near Newcastle. The ironstone was extracted directly from the cliffs and loaded at the port via wooden jetties onto ships.
(see inlanding.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/maurice-grayson-hin...)
By the 1870s the ironstone was depleted and another seam at Grinkle Park 3miles away was linked by a railway to the sea at Port Mulgrave via this 1mile tunnel, a series of 3 wooden viaducts and a further tunnel.
The system was still used until 1917 when the Whitby-Loftus Railway was built and that was used to transport the ironstone. A fire damaged the wooden jetties and in WW2 the Royal Engineers blew up the stone harbour to stop the Germans using it.
This photo is taken in the 1st brick-lined section of the tramway tunnel standing on one of the submerged rails. Simple light-painting. The outflow adit where the water raced away into darkness can be seen on the right(I tucked a red torch up it for lighting effect).
Several websites warn of the "DEADLY(sic) nature" of this mine featuring as it does multiple roof collapses along the way & deteriorating air quality the further in you get... I didn't feel it was that unpleasant!
The title is an acknowledgement that these aren't the most sensible places to hang out in. I've already used the title 'Fools Rush In':
My full set of photos for this trip here:
www.flickr.com/gp/9132734@N08/828z63
'...Where Angels Fear To Tread' [Explored- Thank you]
Another one of my evening forays during our recent family holiday to Whitby. I'd read about this place before we'd gone on holiday and it was only a 10minute drive from where we were staying. It sits at the base of a 300' cliff on a lonely strip of shore beneath a clutch of houses.
Port Mulgrave ironstone mine was opened by Sir Charles Palmer in the 1850s to provide for his & his brother's blast furnaces & ironworks in Jarrow 30 miles to the north near Newcastle. The ironstone was extracted directly from the cliffs and loaded at the port via wooden jetties onto ships.
(see inlanding.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/maurice-grayson-hin...)
By the 1870s the ironstone was depleted and another seam at Grinkle Park 3miles away was linked by a railway to the sea at Port Mulgrave via this 1mile tunnel, a series of 3 wooden viaducts and a further tunnel.
The system was still used until 1917 when the Whitby-Loftus Railway was built and that was used to transport the ironstone. A fire damaged the wooden jetties and in WW2 the Royal Engineers blew up the stone harbour to stop the Germans using it.
This photo is taken in the 1st brick-lined section of the tramway tunnel standing on one of the submerged rails. Simple light-painting. The outflow adit where the water raced away into darkness can be seen on the right(I tucked a red torch up it for lighting effect).
Several websites warn of the "DEADLY(sic) nature" of this mine featuring as it does multiple roof collapses along the way & deteriorating air quality the further in you get... I didn't feel it was that unpleasant!
The title is an acknowledgement that these aren't the most sensible places to hang out in. I've already used the title 'Fools Rush In':
My full set of photos for this trip here:
www.flickr.com/gp/9132734@N08/828z63