Origins of the line 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. Guisborough was already served by the
Middlesbrough and Guisborough Railway (M&GR), a subsidiary of the
Stockton and Darlington (S&D), which had built a line (opened in 1854) running along the south of the valley in which Guisborough sits. However, the line was an inconveniently long distance from the lucrative iron ore mines in the north of the valley, along the south flank of the Eston Hills, and provided no connection at all for mines east of Guisborough. The 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. It only provided a minimal passenger service to Middlesbrough – one train a day each way – and the line had originally not even been planned to have a passenger station in Guisborough. 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. The line would connect to the 's own route north of the river via a crossing of the Tees. Several local landowners through which the proposed line ran were key to the scheme – Captain Thomas Chaloner of Guisborough, J.T. 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 , was the driving force behind the project and envisaged making West Hartlepool into the industrial heart of
Teesside. The construction of the line was strongly opposed by the , which put forward a rival proposal that led to a parliamentary enquiry. The two companies each had part of their schemes accepted and part rejected. 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. They were not permitted to build their own separate line to Middlesbrough and had to rely instead on the for their connection to the Tees. The was allowed to build an extension from Redcar to Saltburn but was not allowed to build a new bridge across the Tees. An act of Parliament, the '''''' (
21 & 22 Vict. c. cxiv) permitting the construction of the railway was passed in July 1858. The company was capitalised with £120,000, half of which came from the , with Ward Jackson as its first chairman.
Extension of the line to Normanby Ward Jackson continued to seek independence from the 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 again opposed it. Although the House of Commons unanimously approved the Cleveland Extension Bill, it was rejected by the House of Lords. However, this left the door open for a private railway on the lands owned by Ward Jackson and his supporters. They began to construct it in 1860 under the auspices of the "Upsall, Normanby and Ormesby Railway". Once again, the opposed it, this time on the grounds that the new line had to cross the 's
Redcar branch line, but it eventually gave permission for the construction of a bridge to cross its line. A more serious problem was raised by the need to construct a new river crossing at the end of the line in Normanby. The had sought to build a bridge across the Tees at that point but had been blocked by the Tees Conservancy Commission, at the prompting of the . The instead resolved to build a jetty that would enable loaded iron ore wagons to be transported across the river on barges. The used its influence with the commissioners to stop the jetty as well. They undertook legal action in the
Court of Chancery to stop it but construction proceeded regardless. The dispute led to violent clashes between the two sides on 10 September 1860 in an event dubbed the "Battle of the Tees", when Tees Conservancy barges sent to blockade the jetty were forcibly removed by West Hartlepool steam tugs. The police had to intervene to restore order. The was the clear winner of the confrontation and was able to complete its jetty. The line was opened on 23 November 1861, with a total length of running from Skelton Mine to Normanby Jetty. Crossing the gorge at Slapewath on the eight-arched Waterfall Viaduct, which still stands today, it skirted the south-west of Guisborough and crossed Chapel Beck on wooden viaducts. 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. Branch lines and tramways connected the line to a number of mines along its route. It had no passenger stations and did not offer any passenger services, despite the poor connections from Guisborough that had caused so much discontent with the . Although the old Cleveland Railway had not provided any passenger services, during the 1870s the NER built a number of stations at the eastern end of the line. Passenger services began from
Brotton,
Skinningrove and
Loftus in 1875, plus
Boosbeck in 1878. The tortuous history of the Cleveland Railway had a lasting effect on the provision of rail services to Guisborough. It did not at any time offer a passenger service to the town, leaving that instead to the , which provided only a single-platform station at the end of its line into the town. This line was bypassed by the Cleveland Railway
en route to Skinningrove. After the westbound Cleveland Railway was closed, the eastbound line was joined with the line, leaving
Guisborough railway station at the end of a spur. Trains thus had to reverse out of the station before continuing along the line to Loftus. It remained this way until the line was closed in 1964. ==Cleveland Railway today==