I know very little about this, I only picked up on its existence from a Flickr photo. It follows the path which exits the wood so its highly likely its to do with the ironstone mines in Eston.
The track continued in a cutting on the other side of the road, heading off towards Dunsdale, although on closer inspection that is to the north of this area.
A tunnel is marked on this map at Waggonways which also suggest a second tunnel closer to Dunsdale
By way of a disclaimer and warning, its located on a scrambler track (possibly on private land?)
It’s likely unsafe, you’ll get very dirty and need a torch.
*Update 2008* Having visited more mining sites subsequently and spoken to other, I now believe this to be actual ironstone workings rather than a rail tunnel. Its unlined and a bord and pillar arrangement of passages is running parallel to the road not just under it, here are some internal shot taken with a better camera.
You need a person in those picture, for scale. Hop to it.
What are you doing at the weekend, you can be the scale.
I’ve been meaning to go into this as i believe there was a drift linking with Wilton Clay Pits Mine in the same cutting and if there are tunnels going off from the main one perhaps one of them linked to that drift.
There was a tunnel near dunsdale, it was made of concrete and was for Kirkleatham Mine but it has long since been filled or demolished.
now mate yeah i know a bit about it but am yet to check it out! supposedley it links to a drift it was basically a train line to pull carts through rather than going over farmers land to avoid paying him royalties! so not that many people know about this site which is good and hopefuly access can be gained but the airs gotta be bad so get the ba out or a big arse hose pipe does the trick!
Have visited the site and had a look around. There is a clearing due west which may have been some kind of pit yard or a continuation of the local surface tramway which I know ran through this site. I believe the original underground tramway linking the Lackenby/Eston area to the Chaloner area collapsed in the 1910/1920’s so a surface tramway was built, parts of which can be seen today. In fact the Wilton Lane/Eston hills area contains many such mining remnants, of which I know only a few!!
Hi
I suggest you may want to contact Craig Hornby
(www.pancrack.tv/news).
He has extensively researched the Eston Ironestone mines and has directed and produced dvd (available from Kirkleatham museum).
He also does a hike and guided tour of the eston hills a couple times a year.
During the hike he takes you close to this spot and mentioned that many of the mines were linked up through the drifts.
Hope this helps.
Leigh
I have been trying to find pics of barnaby moor – pit top or knowing as upsall pit
eston hills.
i know craig hornby he lives in saltburn near the art bank, saltburn,
thankyou
How do you find the Tunnel under Wilton Lane which is the best and quick way to get to it it look intresting.
The tunnel in the photo carried the tramway from Eston under Wilton Lane into Lovell Hill Ironstone quarry. Ironstone was taken underground from Chaloner Pit near Guisborough. When this stopped in 1918 they had to build a new overland tramway to Chaloner Pit. This went under Wilton Lane a few yards to the north of the old tramway which it crosses, the old tramway going underneath it in a concrete tunnel, two hundred yards to the east of Wilton Lane. There are a couple of recent videos on Youtube about this. See Charlyfarly 2.
I was here recently and nothing much has changed, brill place