Mark Lawton very kindly sent me a scan of a book that he’d recently found. It’s a lovely snapshot from 1974 of the South Teesside Works when it employed 16,000 people.
You can download the whole book using the link at the bottom of the page
Sinter
Sinter
Marske by the Sea
The old English name for Marske was Merse, meaning a marsh. The town was also called Mersc and Mersche.
The landowners in Marske mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086 were the Earl of Chester and Robert, Count de Mortain, the Conqueror’s half-brother. Hugh Earl of Chester died in the war in Wales, legend has it that he killed by an arrow shot from the bow of Magnus Barelegs, King of Norway. The Count was taken prisoner at the Battle of Tenchebrai in Normandy and his lands were given to Robert de Brus I.
The Principle of sintering: The principle of sintering involves the heating of iron ore fines along with flux and coke fines or coal to produce a semi-molten mass that solidifies into porous pieces of sinter with the size and strength characteristics necessary for feeding into the blast furnace.
Tradition has it that a fierce battle took place with the Danes in a field just outside of the village. The numerous earthworks in a field called Hall Close may be the source of this tradition. The earthworks are the remains of a Medieval manor house and dovecote. There are documents that mention the house in 1304 when the house belonged to the Fauconberg family. In 1366 the manorial settlement with its dovecote, orchards and gardens was assigned to Isabel, the widow of Walter de Fauconberg.
EXTRACT FROM ENGLISH HERITAGE’S RECORD OF SCHEDULED MONUMENTS
The manorial settlement is visible as a series of earthworks which include the foundations of buildings, enclosures and ponds contained within a rectangular enclosure. The surrounding enclosure has maximum dimensions of 126m east to west by 142m north to south, within banks of stone and earth on average 1m high and spread to a maximum of 8m. At the centre of the complex, at NZ 6356 2161, there are the foundations of a large rectangular or L-shaped timber building, interpreted as the main manor house. This building is about 40m long by 14m wide and is divided into at least two compartments. Immediately to its north there are the remains of two rectangular depressions 30m long and 10m wide flanked by earthen banks 4m wide; these are interpreted as the sites of two fishponds, and a third rectangular depression, 6m wide, situated immediately to their west is also considered to be part of the pond complex. The sites of further depressions, situated south and east of the manor house, one of which remained water filled until relatively recently, are interpreted as further remains of the system of fishponds. To the south of the manor house there are several linear banks on average 0.6m high and 3.5m wide which divide the area into rectangular enclosures interpreted as associated yards, gardens and paddocks. At the south-west corner of the site there are several rectangular platforms which are interpreted as the sites of rectangular buildings. Immediately adjacent to the southern wall of the surrounding enclosure, at NZ 6356 2160, there is a raised circular platform 8m in diameter which stands 0.5m high. This is interpreted as the remains of a stone built dovecote known from documents to have existed at the settlement in the 14th century.
The Smell of Water 