Pirates, Sugar and Stone: The Carlton Bank Alum Works
Some industrial stories begin with a balance sheet. This one begins with a privateer’s cannon.
The alum works at Carlton Bank, gorged out of the Cleveland Hills, has a history that stretches from the Caribbean to the Cleveland coast. It is, when you look closely, a rather splendid ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/17/pirates-sugar-and-stone-the-carlton-bank-alum-works/
Not Guilty: The Carlton Bank Case, 1972
Carlton Bank. Even on a dreich day there was a surprising number of folk around. Yet, in May 1972, it was the scene of one of the more extraordinary legal cases the North Riding has ever seen.
A potato merchant named Kenneth Saddington drove five miles up to these moors one Saturday night with a body in his car. H ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/09/not-guilty-the-carlton-bank-case-1972/
From Stone Ruck to the the Lure of Fascism
A tumulus mapped as Stone Ruck with a view up to Brown Hill, the high point of Carlton Bank. A single boulder, pressed into service as a boundary marker, denotes the Feversham estate from that of the Marquess of Ailesbury. Curiously, the boundary is not drawn at the top of the tumulus but shy of it, as t ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/09/07/from-stone-ruck-to-the-the-lure-of-fascism/
The Alum Industry of Carlton Bank
It is difficult to imagine that 250 years ago this tranquil scene was a hub of intense industrial activity. For over a century, Jurassic shales were quarried here to produce alum crystals, which were essential as a mordant in dyeing textiles and as a curing agent in tanning.
A comment on a previous post about how the alum was transported and its destination promp ...
The sight of low cloud from Bilsdale pouring over the cols in the Cleveland Hills always leaves me with wonder
This is looking down on Green Bank, a flattish ring contour rise marking the head of Raisdale, and separating Cringle or Cranimoor from the steep slope up Carlton Bank. The col is nowadays more commonly known as the 'Lordstones' on account of t ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31321
#CarltonBank #ClevelandHills #CringleMoor #GreenBank #LordStones #NorthYorkMoors #19th-century
This is looking down on Green Bank, a flattish ring contour rise marking the head of Raisdale, and separating Cringle or Cranimoor from the steep slope up Carlton Bank. The col is nowadays more commonly known as the 'Lordstones' on account of the country park. On the 22nd December 1892, the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough … <p class="link-more"><a href="http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31321" class="more-link">Continue reading<span class="screen-reader-text"> "The sight of low cloud from Bilsdale pouring over the cols in the Cleveland Hills always leaves me with wonder"</span></a></p>
Mick Garratt