麻豆社

At the start of the war, the small village of Skinningrove had an iron works and was said to have been involved in the production of mustard gas. It therefore became a target for German zeppelins. There are many stories of spies being captured on the north east coast, although many of these seem to be urban legend.

In a previously unheard interview, recorded for an oral history project in the 1980s, Linda Smith recalls being a teenager and witnessing someone she believed to be a German spy jumping to his death from a bridge: 鈥淗e鈥檇 been spying. The police were at one end of the bridge and the army were the other side.鈥�

Initially people hid in a local pub from the Zeppelins, but soon went underground. On one occasion a bomb exploded narrowly missing a TNT plant. The local population took refuge in the local drift mine in the darkness. A list exists at the Cleveland Ironstone Museum of the men who were called upon to keep order down the mine. Linda Smith said: 鈥淭here were rats running about. It was an awful business mind.鈥�

Location: Skinningrove Mine, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Redcar and Cleveland ST13 4AP
Image: Skinningrove mine in 1900, courtesy of Ironstone Mining Museum