Perched above the North Yorkshire coastline is a battered concrete structure that once played a vital role in keeping miners safe underground.
The unusual Huntcliff Guibal Fan House ruin stands beside the Cleveland Way between Saltburn and Skinningrove and once ventilated the Huntcliff Ironstone Mine.
Huntcliff Guibal fan house, Saltburn (Image: Chris Lloyd)
Bell Brothers ran Huntcliff mine from the 1870s until it closed in 1906.
The fan house held an enormous Guibal fan, about 30ft (nine metres) across, which ventilated the workings beneath Warsett Hill.
Huntcliff Guibal fan house, Saltburn (Image: Chris Lloyd)
Guibal fans took their name from inventor Théophile Guibal, with the huge fan at Huntcliff featuring around 10 or 12 curved plates and rotating at approximately 60rpm.
The fan pumped fresh air through the ironstone mines, keeping underground miners supplied with vital ventilation.
The mine’s ironstone supplied a key ingredient for Teesside’s steel industry, while the railway played an important role in transporting it from the site.
The mine entrance stood beneath the Cleveland Railway, with ironstone hauled in wagons to a loading ramp across the tracks before being transferred into railway trucks.
Huntcliff Guibal Fan House by the railway track (Image: Chris Lloyd)
Today, very little of the wider complex can still be seen.
The mine entrance and other buildings have been lost to coastal erosion, but the fan house has survived the test of time and remains a distinctive landmark beside the Cleveland Way.
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It is thought to be Cleveland’s best-preserved Guibal fan house, offering a rare reminder of the area’s ironstone-mining heritage.
Today, the simple concrete structure stands in stark contrast to its dramatic coastal surroundings and can be reached by walkers following the coast from either Saltburn or Skinningrove.
The surviving fan house stands as a reminder of a much wider industrial story that once unfolded along the Cleveland coast.