Land of Iron is a museum in Skinningrove celebrating the areas ironstone mining and steelmaking history, and is listed as something to do on a wet day if you're staying in North Yorkshire. Today was a wet day in North Yorkshire, so we booked our tickets (this was my wife's idea) and off we went.
Outside the museum there were a few things that grabbed my attention;
Should've packed a tape rule and notepad...
To be honest I would have liked to have seen some info on these exhibits, but then I'm probably not the typical visitor.
Once inside there's an interesting and well laid out room with displays on the industry, the mine, and, perhaps most importantly, the social history of the area. Mine tours are on the hour, and its recommended that you arrive half an hour early so that you can view the displays beforehand.
Once the tour starts you're handed a hard hat and taken into the mine buildings, starting with a talk about the ventilation system and a demonstration of the type of fans used, without proper ventilation mining would be impossible. Then into a tally room, and another talk, and a taped story, about the tally system and the roles of miners, loaders, etc.
After that we were taken down through a haulage tunnel;
We didn't go too far into the workings, the shaft was capped off just behind where I was standing when I took the above photo due to the water level inside the workings, but it did give a general idea of how the shaft would have looked and worked. Outside we could see the rain pouring down...
Our next stop was back inside the mine buildings, with a demonstration of how the rock would have been drilled (by hand!) and blasted using gunpowder and a squib in a section that replicated a section of the underground workings.
The guides were friendly and knowledgeable, as you'd expect, and the tour interesting. I reckon that most readers of this blog would get a lot out of a visit, we certainly did.
Paul.
