Skinningrove or ‘Scinergreve’ as it is first recorded in the thirteenth century is a listed conservation area by Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council.
The village is located on the north east coast of North Yorkshire its economy was originally focused around agriculture and fishing, all of this changed of course with the discovery of the ironstone seam.
In 1848 an industrial boom began in the area centered around the mining of ironstone.
In 1865 the North Eastern Railway reached Skinningrove. To reach Loftus Mine at the valley bottom a zig zag line was built from Carlin How down the side of the valley. In 1880 the jetty (picture below) was constructed to enable the export of pig iron from the ironworks using 4 ships SS Skinningrove, SS Cattersty, SS Hummersea and SS Northgate. All were specially built with shallow draft so they could sail right in along side the jetty at high tide.
The mining of ironstone continued in Skinningrove until 1958 and at North Skelton until 1964, but today the Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum, on the site of the former Loftus Mine, continues to keep alive the memory of that vanished industry
There are many supporters of the museum in the village such as the Riverside Cafe, Skinningrove Linkup, Skinningrove Local History Group and of course the local Chip Shop.
Every year the we have the Skinningrove bonfire.
Running for over 28 years this great spectacle attracts many visitors.
Each year the bonfire is set on a theme, as you can see in this particular year (2009) the theme was a viking longboat.
The area is a very popular spot for walkers as both the Cleveland Way and Cleveland Street run through the area. Some popular walks run along the coastal cliffs and onto the scenic Skinningrove Beach locally known as Cattersty sands and recently named by the Times Newspaper as one of the best beaches in England
Skinningrove is also a great spot for fishing, indeed an enormous Oarfish measuring 11ft 4in was famously caught here in 2003, perhaps the only one to have ever been caught off of the British coast.
If you would like to know even more about Skinningrove then you can visit the Skinningrove Linkup
There are many great reasons to visit Skinningrove so why not come and make a day of it to remember.