Saltburn
Rutway Survey
intro
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Introduction
From
the late 17th century through to the early part
of the 20th century the production of alum and
the mining of ironstone were two of North Yorkshire’s
most important coastal industries.
Both
industries were heavily reliant on sea-transport
as the only practical and cost-effective method
of bringing in raw materials and taking out the
finished products. The small ships and boats used
in the trade would commonly be beached at high
tide and their cargoes off-loaded into horse-drawn
carts when the vessel became ‘dry’. At the next
high tide, the vessel would be refloated to continue
its voyage.
Large
quantities of material were needed to sustain
these industries, for example, nearly 1 ton of
kelp (1 tonne), over 112 gallons of urine (509
litres), and 6 tons of coal (6 tonnes), were required
to produce just 1 ton of alum. Given that between
May 1790 and April 1791, the Yorkshire works between
them shipped over 5000 tons of alum, some idea
of the scale of this transport operation can be
gained.
Traditionally,
two-wheeled Yorkshire carts were used to move
these materials. To increase available working
time, rutways were cut which “clearly served as
forms of railway, permitting carters to carry
on their work through the night and through the
tides, confident that as long as the cart wheels
remained in the ruts, the way ahead would be clear
of boulders, shingle or faulted ground” (Owen,
1986, p.26).
Large
sections of these rutways still survive today,
and are being surveyed by a team from Tees Archaeology,
the Nautical Archaeology Society North-East, and
the Teesside Archaeological Society. The results
of the combined 2005 and 2006 surveys can be accessed
on the reports page.
intro
| gallery | reports
| further information |
