Cleveland Railway (England)
The line was jointly proposed by the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway (WHH&R), who provided half its capital, together with various landowners.
Its construction was repeatedly held up by disputes with its main rival, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which attempted unsuccessfully to use all means at its disposal to maintain its rail monopoly south of the Tees.
The construction of the line was prompted by the need of mine owners around Guisborough and East Cleveland to transport their iron ore to the River Tees.
The M&GR had been built by a group of industrialists based in Stockton and Darlington who used it to service their own mines, deliberately avoiding the estates of their rivals.
[2] The M&GR was unpopular with local people and mine owners who saw it as a would-be monopolist that served narrow commercial interests rather than the wider public good.
When one of those testifying to the Select Committee was asked what the local landowners would think of a new railway independent of the S&D, he replied that "they would all jump at having such a proposal made to them.
"[2] The West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway (WHH&R) and a number of landowners struck an agreement to construct a line from the Tees at Cargo Fleet via Normanby, Upsall and Guisborough to Skinningrove, with connecting links and branches to Staithes and Skelton-in-Cleveland.
Wharton of Skelton Castle, Anthony Lax Maynard of Skinningrove and Ralph Ward Jackson of Greatham Hall, Normanby.
Ward Jackson, who was the chairman of the WHH&R, was the driving force behind the project and envisaged making West Hartlepool into the industrial heart of Teesside.
The Ward Jackson group was allowed to build a railway east from Guisborough to Skinningrove with a branch at Slapewath to reach the mine at Skelton.
[4] Ward Jackson continued to seek independence from the M&GR and put forward a fresh proposal in 1859 to extend the line from Guisborough to the Tees at Cargo Fleet, so that the increasing demand for iron ore shipments to Tyneside could more easily be met.
The WHH&R instead resolved to build a jetty that would enable loaded iron ore wagons to be transported across the river on barges.
[9] The line was opened on 23 November 1861, with a total length of 13 miles (21 km) running from Skelton Mine to Normanby Jetty.
From there it ran on a nearly straight embankment across the fields west of Guisborough before curving northwards to Normanby through a gap in the Eston Hills.
[12] The middle section of the line from Normanby to Guisborough is in private ownership or has been built on, though the former railway's embankment can still be clearly seen running alongside the A171 Middlesbrough Road.
