My last journey took me along the northernmost part of this route, taking in North Skelton, Brotton and Skinningrove railway stations. You can catch up on that journey here. Two weeks later I continued southwards, visiting the sites of a further three stations: Loftus, Grinkle and Staithes.
Carlin How to Loftus
I picked up where I left off two weeks ago in Carlin How, next to Skinningrove ironworks, and headed downhill under where a dramatic railway viaduct carries the freight line onwards to Boulby potash mine.
The footpath diverts across the road here, and continues alongside the western side of the railway line as it heads over Kilton Embankment. Kilton Embankment began life as Kilton Viaduct, but in 1911 the viaduct began to fail due to mining subsidence, so it was infilled with spoil from the local ironstone mines and converted into an embankment, although the original structure is still hidden inside.
Hear that lonesome whistle blow
Just after I’d crossed the embankment, a freight train came thundering across it, hauling empty wagons back from Teesside to Boulby potash mine.
I then took a diversion down through Whitecliff Wood to see the recent flooding of Skinningrove Beck. I’d visited this site the previous week while exploring the Skinningrove Zig Zag Railway. These photos of the debris screen across the beck were taken one week apart.
Liverton Mines
The footpath is diverted south of the railway line for a few hundred metres through the village of Liverton Mines. The mine itself was served by railway sidings off the Middlesbrough to Scarborough railway, but it closed 101 years ago. There are allotments on the site now
Loftus
A few minutes after leaving Liverton Mines I arrived at the site of Loftus railway station. Loftus station was open from 1875 to 1960. The station building itself was demolished a long time ago, but the stationmaster’s house is extant, next to where the railway crosses the road from Liverton Mines to Loftus.
The Station Hotel can be found about 200 metres beyond the site of the railway station. I didn’t have time to visit the hotel, but it’s very popular with the locals, by all accounts. And it has two cats.
Loftus became very wealthy as a result of the ironstone boom, and the High Street contains numerous fine Victorian buildings, the best of these being the Grade II listed Town Hall.
Grinkle railway station
I walked eastwards from Loftus to Grinkle, alongside the A174 Road, a distance of about 2 kilometres. The railway line runs south of, and parallel to, the road. I reached the site of Grinkle railway station, which served the nearby village of Easington. It was the shortest-lived station on the Middlesbrough to Scarborough railway line. It opened in 1883, closed as a wartime economy measure in 1939, but never reopened. The site is marked by a Network Rail access gate, but there are no remains of the station itself.
The station marks the boundary of the North York Moors National Park, which I now entered, but the park wasn’t created until 1952, and it didn’t exist when the station closed in 1939
Twizziegill Farm
I passed through the village of Easington then took the public footpath through Twizziegill Farm, on my way to pick up the railway at the bottom of Easington Beck valley. Twizziegill Farm is like most farms in the UK. A well-maintained working farm, a bit old-fashioned
but there are terrific views past the nearby Boulby mine towards the North Sea
The farmer has recovered some railway sleepers, which will find a practical use on the farm
Easington Beck
I made my way down towards Easington Beck, and crossed the railway line via a foot crossing.
We are close to the terminus of the working railway now. To the east, just beyond the photo, the Middlesbrough to Scarborough curved away to the right. When the line was reopened to serve Boulby potash mine in 1974, it was diverted straight ahead to freight sidings to the west of the new mine. I continued alongside Easington Beck. Extreme rainfall over the previous two days had caused the water level at the ford here to rise to four feet, but by Friday they had subsided, although I still wouldn’t risk riding a motorbike across it.
Just downstream of the ford, Easington Beck merges with Roxby Beck to form Staithes Beck.
Boulby potash mine
I made my way back uphill to the eastern perimeter of the potash mine which is owned, bizarrely, by the Israeli Government. This photo was taken from the site of the Middlesbrough to Scarborough railway line.
The current terminus of the line is on the other side of the main mine buildings. It is a busy railway, with seven or eight trains per day delivering polyhalite and potash to the freight terminal in Tees Port, and rocksalt to the Cobra depot in Middlesbrough. Boulby mine marks a change in the nature of my journey. Up until now, I’ve been following a live railway, but from now until I arrive at Scarborough I’ll be following the track of a ghost one. The section between here and Whitby closed in 1958. I exited the mine perimeter and made my way to the A174 road. The line crossed the road on a bridge here, but the road has been straightened since, and there is no trace of the bridge. It was located just near this milepost.
Staithes
After another few hundred metres, the railway crossed Staithes Beck on this viaduct.
The structure was prone to violent cross winds. If the wind picked up, a bell at the end of the viaduct sounded, and trains were forbidden to cross the structure. The viaduct was demolished in 1960, two years after the line closed,
The western abutment of the viaduct can be seen in this photograph.
Immediately after leaving the viaduct, trains swept into Staithes railway station.
The station opened in 1883 and closed in 1958. The station building is a private property now, and this is the closest I could get to take a photo.
I made my way down to the Cod and Lobster pub next to Staithes Harbour for a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker. Because you’re worth it.
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