Iron in the blood
New Bank Top Ironstone mine, Eston, North Riding of Yorkshire.
It is a well known fact that the rural population of Great Britain began to migrate into the towns and cities from the second half of the 18th century onwards. In the case of the Fines family of southern Lincolnshire this happened quite abruptly in the mid 1800s when a large number of Fines headed north to the iron mines of Eston just outside Middlesborough.
Archer Fines was born in South Kyme, between Sleaford and Boston, in 1800. He married local girl, Maria Wingate when he was 21. They had 9 children before Maria died in 1848 when their youngest child was just 2 years old. At that time Archer was an agricultural labourer.
In 1850 Vaughan and Marley discovered a seam of ironstone in the Eston area just south of Middlesborough and mining of this valuable commodity commenced. In the next decade the area became the world’s biggest iron-mining region giving rise to the iron and steel industry around Teesside.
Word must have spread fast that there was work to be had in Cleveland. In 1851 Archer’s eldest son got married in Hull ( having sailed there from Boston) and by 1852, when his first child was born, he was living in Eston and working in the mines. Archer soon followed him north and by the time of the 1891 census there were 25 Fines listed in Eston. This had risen to 33 by 1921 including brothers John and Frederick.
John Thomas Fines
Frederick Elijah Fines