East Cleveland Soundings

Gong soundings in East Cleveland included the St Helen’s Church coffee morning group, Carlin How; Teesworks Components Brass Band, Skelton; the choir of St Leonard’s, Loftus; on the beach at Skinningrove; and the opening of the new Loftus Arts building.  Students from Prior Pursglove College, Guisborough documented the area, and their photography and sound work was included in the project exhibition.

Skinningrove, Carlin How, Loftus, and Skelton are part of a network of small towns and villages between the coast and the moors in East Cleveland.  Following a long period when the area was the largest alum producer in the country, it grew in population again around the 19th century ironstone mining and ironworks which were at the heart of the region’s industrial ascendancy.  Nowadays, a small number of manufacturing, processing and engineering works have either sustained or grown in the area.  Many of the communities living in the area are known for their strong ties to their village,  a project participant suggesting that it takes three generations from arriving before a family are no longer ‘incomers’.