Iron Valley | Roland's Ragbag

abandoned abandoned building architecture building

Photo by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.com

The streams descending from the hills
Ran red with the iron they brought.
It could as well have been lost blood
For all the wealth they sought.

Plenteous in ore and rich in scope
Those Northern hills were ravaged;
In the name of thrusting Revolution
My native land was savaged.

The earth’s spoils harvested to feed
the world’s gross need for steel;
So while the master’s pockets bulged
No stop to progress’s wheel.

The cost was counted in toil and sweat,
In the maiming of the land,
And the crying of unnumbered souls
Who did not understand.

NOTE: There were 400 fatalities at Eston, North Yorkshire, in the 100 years (in the 19th and early 20th Centuries) the mines were worked there in the Eston Hills, between Cleveland and the River Tees Estuary.

[ Photo Gallery # 78 ]

After my three Photo Galleries displaying the delights of Whitby, my next two galleries will cover some of the delights of the Yorkshire coast further north, now named the ‘North Yorkshire and Cleveland Heritage Coast’.

‘Heritage Coast’ sign at Sandsend

A sea mist masks the church and gravestones of the coastal village of Hawsker

Evening view to the north from the beach at Sandsend

Rough sea looking south towards Whitby from Sandsend.

Misty morning beside Westbek at Sandsend

The picturesque artists’ village of Runswick Bay

High tide in the bay at Runswick

Further view of Runswick Bay

The old mining village of Skinningrove where the Kilton Beck meets the North Sea and still runs red with the iron deposits carried down from the surrounding hills . Known as ‘Britain’s Iron Valley’.