by its mineral wealth and the burgeoning tourist industry. At the beginning of the 17th century an amazing chemical industry developed to extract highly prized alum from a particular type of of shale. This industry lasted two and a half centuries and had a huge impact around the cliff-bound fringes of the North York Moors. From the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries, Whitby’s fishing industry specialised in whaling, and the town benefitted greatly. The 19th century was the peak period for jet production, often referred to as Whitby Jet. Railways were built in and around the North York Moors throughout the 19th century, bringing an increase in trade and allowing easier shipment of ironstone from the moors. Railways also laid the foundation for a brisk tourist trade, injecting new life into coastal resorts whose trade and fishing fleets were on the wane. Tourism continues to be one of the most important industries in the area, and tourism in the countryside is very much dependent on walking.
Whitby and Whitby Abbey as seen from the Whalebone Arch (Walk 44)
North York Moors industries
Alum
Throughout the North York Moors National Park huge piles of flaky pink shale have been dumped on the landscape, sometimes along the western fringes of the Cleveland Hills, but more especially along the coast. These are the remains of a large-scale chemical industry that thrived from 1600 to 1870. The hard-won prize was alum: a salt that could be extracted from certain beds of shale through a time-consuming process.
Wherever the shale occurred, it was extensively quarried. Millions of tons were cut, changing the shape of the landscape, especially along the coast. Wood, and in later years coal, was layered with the shale, and huge piles were set on fire and kept burning for months, sometimes even a whole year. The burnt shale was then soaked in huge tanks of water, a process known as leaching. Afterwards, the water was drawn off and boiled, which required more wood and coal, as well as being treated with such odious substances as human urine, brought from as far away as London. As crystals of precious alum began to form, the process was completed with a purification stage before the end product was packed for dispatch.
Alum had many uses but was chiefly in demand as a fixative for dyes, as it promoted deep colours on cloth, which became colour-fast after washing. The Italians had a virtual monopoly on the trade until the alum shale of Yorkshire was exploited from 1600. However, the local industry went into a sudden decline when other sources of alum, and more advanced dyestuffs, were discovered from 1850. The long and involved process of quarrying, burning, leaching, boiling, crystallising and purifying was replaced by simpler, cheaper and faster production methods. Two dozen sites are scattered across the landscape where the industry once flourished. Look upon these stark remains, consider the toil and labour and bear in mind that it all took place so that fine ladies and gentlemen could wear brightly coloured clothes!
Jet
Jet, often known as Whitby jet, has been used to create ornaments and jewellery since the Bronze Age. It is found around the North York Moors, often along the coast, but also far inland around Carlton Bank. Jet is a type of coal, but it is peculiar because it formed from isolated logs of driftwood rather than from the thick masses of decayed vegetation that form regular coal seams. High-quality jet is tough and black, can be turned on a lathe or carved and takes a high polish. Jet has been used to create everything from intricately carved statuettes to shiny beads and facetted stones for jewellery. Jet crafting has long centred on Whitby, with peak production years being in the 19th century.
Ironstone
Cleveland ironstone was mined and quarried from around 500BC, as evidenced by an ancient bloomery site (where malleable iron is produced directly from iron ore) on Levisham Moor. Large-scale working didn’t commence until around 1850, when coastal and moorland locations, such as Skinningrove and Rosedale, were exploited. As the steelworks developed, the tiny coastal village of Skinningrove became known as the Iron Valley. Ironstone from Rosedale was transported over the moors by rail to the blast furnaces in Middlesbrough. Huge quantities of coal had to be shipped to the area, as industry and commerce were hungry for the iron that was produced. The last local ironstone mine, at North Skelton, closed in 1964. The number of steelworks in Middlesbrough has greatly reduced, while Skinningrove only just manages to remain in production.
The Rosedale Ironstone Railway seen at the top of Rosedale Chimney Bank (Walk 30)
Fishing and whaling
The coastal towns and villages thrived on fishing, especially herring fishing, until stocks dwindled. In Whitby, mainly from the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries, the fishing fleets turned their attention to whaling. Whalers often spent months at sea and didn’t always return with a catch, but when they did, regular catches would bring great wealth to the town. Whale blubber was rendered for its oil, which was highly prized because when it burned it gave a bright and fairly soot-free light. Whenever the fishing settlements fell on hard times, smuggling provided an alternative form of employment, most notably at Robin Hood’s Bay.
Grouse shooting
Some visitors imagine that the moors have always been there and represent the true wilderness qualities of the area, but this is untrue. The moors have been man-managed over a long period of time and will only continue to exist with year-round maintenance. The uniform heather moorlands are largely a 19th-century creation, managed entirely for the sport of grouse shooting.
The red grouse, essentially a British bird, is tied to the heather moorlands on which it depends for food and shelter. Walkers know it for its heart-stopping habit of breaking cover from beneath their feet, then flying low while calling, ‘go back, go back, go back’. It is a wonderfully camouflaged bird, spending all its time in the heather. Grouse graze on young heather shoots but need deep heather for shelter. Natural moorlands present a mosaic of vegetation types, but as the sport of grouse shooting developed in the 19th century, it became clear that a uniform heather habitat, which favours the grouse above all other species, would result in much greater numbers of birds to shoot.
Moorland management required vegetation to be burnt periodically, and as heather seeds are more fire-resistant than other seeds, heather cover quickly became dominant. Drainage ditches were also dug to dry out boggy ground and encourage further heather growth. Heather was burnt and regrown in rotation to provide short heather for feeding and deep ‘leggy’ heather for shelter. Gamekeepers were employed to shoot or trap ‘vermin’, so that grouse could flourish free of predators; however, it remains difficult to control intestinal parasites that often result in the birds being in poor condition. Harsh winters and cold wet springs can also cause devastating losses among the grouse population. What’s more, old paths used by shooting parties have been widened for vehicular use, sometimes rather insensitively.
Come the Glorious Twelfth, or 12 August, the grouse-shooting season opens with teams of beaters driving the grouse towards the shooters, who station themselves behind shooting butts. Some moorlands charge very high prices for a day’s shooting, and shoots are very much a social occasion. Walkers who despise blood sports should, nevertheless, bear in mind that without grouse shooting the moors would not be managed and would revert to scrub. A lot of moorland has been lost to forestry and agriculture, and managing the moors for shooting prevents further loss. What remains today is England’s greatest unbroken expanse of heather moorland, and most visitors are keen to see it preserved.
Boulder-studded heather on the lower slopes of Easterside Hill (Walk 10)
North York Moors today
The North York
