Boosbeck Subsidence 1883

By Simon Chapman.

In Issue 135 Josie Bland described the calamitous events in 1883 when several streets of houses in Boosbeck collapsed and literally overnight people were forced out of their homes because of mining subsidence.

Subsequently the landowner Christopher Jackson was taken to court and bankrupted paying for the damage. But this is a more complex story and as the nearby villages of Skelton, Brotton, Loftus and Lingdale were also undermined but never suffered such catastrophic subsidence what went wrong at Boosbeck?

Although described as a butcher Christopher Jackson must have come from a reasonably well-heeled background as he owned farms at Normanby and Crag Hall.

In 1862 the Cleveland Railway was being extended east from Slapewath towards Skinningrove and Jackson sensing an opportunity to make money decided to buy land made available by railway construction on which to build houses for the expected influx of workers coming into the area to work in the future ironstone mines.

Subsequently he had a plan prepared for the proposed village and awaited developments.

These started in 1871 when Messrs. Stevenson, Jacques & Co. began sinking two shafts on land belonging to Robert Marley of Rokeley House in order to mine ironstone for supply via the railway to their Acklam Ironworks in Middlesbrough. The Main Seam was reached at a depth of almost 300 feet and found to be 8 feet thick.

Several landowners had to be contacted and individually negotiated with to allow mining of the ironstone beneath their land and agreement reached regarding rent i.e. how much the company was prepared to pay and how much the landowner was prepared to accept depending on trading conditions and any other factors for consideration.

It was in the matter of these other factors that Jackson appears to reveal his lack of experience!

Jackson sold the surface land to various individuals for building and several streets of houses were built but he retained to himself the minerals beneath. Consequently in 1879 when he leased the working of the ironstone beneath to Messrs. Stevenson, Jacques & Co. his lease contained the provision that pillars of unworked ironstone should be left for the support of the surface for which he, the lessor, was allowed to deliver written directions with a plan indicating how they should be done. It also contained a covenant that the lessor, Mr. Jackson, undertook to be responsible, and to indemnify Messrs. Stevenson, Jacques & Co. against all claims of all description for damage done to the surface by mining operations.

So by agreement, Christopher Jackson, a butcher, was undertaking to instruct a mining company how it should work and in the event of surface damage, he agreed to pay for it all! Messrs. Stevenson, Jacques & Co. must have thought all their Christmases had come at once!

The rent for the first two years covered an annual output of 15,000 tons, and 30,000 tons per annum for the remainder of the lease of 20 years. At a rate of 4d per ton the amount of rent payable would be £125 for each of the first two years and £250 for the remainder. If the amount produced each year was less, or more, than the amount quoted then there would be provisions in the lease to allow for this.

The output of ironstone depended on the market for it but generally the more that could be produced brought money to the mining company, the landholder and of course the individual miner.

A landowner, particularly of a non-mining background, needed to hire a qualified mining engineer to inspect the operations of the company to ensure the lease was being complied with and the mine worked in a suitable way, hence Jackson paying William Walker, actually the manager of the mine, to act on his behalf. This again suggests Jackson’s inexperience as Walker was therefore potentially biased but instead, as he was to become one of the foremost experts on Cleveland ironstone mining and a very inventive engineer, he did this task professionally and even criticised Jackson’s apparent meddling.

Cleveland mines were worked on the bord and pillar system; parallel passages driven the full height of the seam and the resulting ironstone sent to surface. Cross passages connected these forming pillars of ironstone to support the strata above until ideally the extent of the leased area was reached then returning splitting each pillar repeatedly until as much as possible of the stone was removed and the roof allowed to collapse afterwards. Such an area from which the stone had been extracted was known as ‘goaf’.

Beneath open farming land the effect on the surface might be minimal but to prevent damage beneath housing the pillars were left in place. Unfortunately Jackson, under the terms of his lease, was legally able to say how big the pillars were to be left under his land, and to gain a little more money was instructing Walker to have the pillars reduced in size, something Walker was cautious about until Jackson wanted to go further when Walker sent him a written notice that he should seek further independent advice, which Jackson ignored on grounds of cost.

Pillars approximately 20 yards square had been left as a suitable size for support but Jackson had some reduced to 5 or 7 yards square although this was still considered of ample strength. And so the scene was set for the disastrous collapse of a substantial part of the village of Boosbeck.

As a result, Thomas Allison, mining engineer for the Weardale Iron Co. and in charge of the Belmont Mines, made an inspection of the Jackson royalty under the village on 23rd August 1883, then almost a month later it was the turn of George Baker Forster, one of the foremost mining engineers in the North of England, to do the same. 3 days later it was the turn of William Henry Wood, another mining engineer. Each were unanimous in expressing their satisfaction with the conditions met with. They all however stated that a bed of quicksand about thirteen fathoms thick (78 feet) lay above the ironstone and contained much water.

Because of the area of goaf created at the eastern side of the royalty the strata had started to creep in that direction causing the disastrous subsidence and with the cessation of mining below the affected movement could be expected to consolidate and the surface regain stability.

Other mining engineers were invited to inspect the workings and W. H. Armstrong from South Skelton Mine and Robert Cuthbertson from Boosbeck Mine visited and pronounced the pillars satisfactory apart from one showing signs of crush.

Subsequently, as we know, there were court cases and Christopher Jackson’s determination to control and exploit the valuable mineral beneath his land came back to exploit him and he became bankrupt as a result of the Leeds Court findings.

Boosbeck Mine continued at work, after all the Jackson land was only a small area of the total mine workings, but only a few weeks later about 80 out of the workforce of 500 men were laid off because of a steep decline in the iron trade.

Then in February 1886 a feeder of water occurred into the workings in the direction of Skelton Green and steady flooding caused the closure of Boosbeck Mine a year later - but that is another story!