We believed this image was of miners in Eston Mine. David Richardson came to the rescue telling us: ”Eston Mine in ‘Harry Scott’s Headwess’, about 1925. The men have just finished barring lose ironstone down from the roof in the top left hand corner of the photograph. Tommy Seymour is breaking the stone apart with a pick while William Gill is loading the stone into the mine waggon.” Craig Hornby tells us: ”This I can confirm is Eston 1920 and if my memory serves me correct was taken in Park Headways district. ‘Headwess’ is extreme local pronunciation of ‘Headways’! The picture is one of a set entitled (drilling/filling/timbering/barring) taken to illustrate an article written by then Eston mine Manager – William Grace – for the ”Iron and Coal Trades Review” magazine. The article was called ‘Stratified Ironstone Mining in Cleveland’.”
Image courtesy George Pearson; with thanks to David Richardson and Craig Hornby for the updates.
I have a photo album with a photo the pit mouth Eston mine 1902