The King's Ear

In 2006 St. Joseph's School, Loftus celebrated its 100th birthday and made a film about life in Loftus in 1906, the children did all the acting, all the filming and helped write the script. The film was made in just two and a half days at eight different locations around Loftus and cost nothing to make; unfortunately we had little time for editing before the premiere, so the sound could have been better.

In 1906, our MP Herbert Samuel was also the Home Secretary, he was at first against giving women the vote, but after the Great War he changed his mind, he later gave woman the right to become MPs. (From the book People of the past in Loftus by Eric M. Jackson.)

Reviving Robin

It a year since Iron Awe assembled a choir in the Station Hotel Boosbeck, and sang songs from Sir Michael Tippetts first opera Robin Hood. We are still trying to get funding to complete the project.  BBC Radio 3 are repeating Reviving Robin on Saturday, October 30th at 12.15pm

This photograph was taken at Boosbeck in the1920s, it is said to be of a soup kitchen?
The photograph was kindly contributed by Margaret O'Shea. Her grandmother Sarah Robinson (nee Armstrong) is third from the left in the front row in the dark dress with the white collar. Margaret thinks her Grandfather George Robinson, who was a mines deputy, could be also in the photo but unfortunately she doesn't know which one he is - can anyone help?



Boosbeck and Lingdale

Boosbeck and Lindale are two old ironstone mining villages a mile apart, they were both involved with the land schemes of the1930s. (Heartbreak Hill) Two days ago some of the Iron Awe team took some of the film props from Demonstration day to Boosbeck and supported the opening of a new playground on the old pit yard. Three years ago we did the same thing when they unveiled a sign in the village.

Last year we went to Lindale when they opened a new playground with an ironstone mining theme. That's the way to keep children interested in their heritage.

Looking Back

I have been involved with dozens of storytelling projects, and once we start collecting stories its surprising how small the world seems. I have been looking at songs with the title Heartbreak Hill; Fats Domino, The Strawbs and Emmylou Harris have all recorded different tracks, the one below was co-written and is sung by Daisy Hicks an Australian who was born in England.
Mick Benson, a key member of the Iron Awe team, is director of the Ryedale Folk Museum and lives in East Cleveland, I regularly go with him to the museum and do volunteer work. The twenty mile journey includes going over Blakey Ridge a twelve mile stretch where the only building we pass is The Lion Inn.
In the early 1970s a three piece jazz band called Back Door started playing regular sessions at The Lion Inn, they quickly became popular and played at Ronnie Scott's Club in London, Colin Hodgkinson, the bass player, was a southerner, but Ron Aspery, the saxophonist, and Tony Hicks, the drummer, were both from Middlesbrough. The band split up in the late 1970,s and Tony Hicks took his family, including young Daisy, to Australia. Tony sadly died there in 2006.
When Back Door travelled from Middlesbrough to Blakey they would pass our Heartbeak Hill, they would also drive over holes in the earth where Cleveland miners had taken away the ironstone that became the Sydney Harbour Bridge, so although the links are tenuous, they are there - anyway its a nice song.


I am an unpaid storyteller, occasionally I get expenses for my work, but mostly I don’t. I want the world to know about the history of my part of the world and I always give credit to people for the work I use. This video was put on You Tube with buttons allowing it to be shared and before it was removed I was sharing it. John Lawson 03-08-2011


This is Back Door playing at The Lion Inn Blakey in 2003 - turning the clock back thirty years.


Middlesbrough born Chris Rea is closely related to Tony and Daisy Hicks.
This is Chris singing Steel River, a song about the river Tees.
(There would be no Steel River without the Cleveland ironstone miners.)

Heartbreak Hill

Tippett's Robin Hood is just one part of the Heartbreak Hill story, a fantastic story that deserves more recognition. Iron Awe will involve about 200 local people in the Heartbreak Hill/Robin Hood projects, many of these will be young people who will be trained in film making, scriptwriting, acting and music, for that we will need funding. The Iron Awe team are confident that the film Heartbreak Hill will be made, and a new version of Tippett's opera Robin Hood will be performed. Photographs from some of Iron Awe's projects in 2003.

I can only find one small piece of music from Iron Awes projects with children in 2003, the main music is played by university students who worked with us in 2003 on the award winning film The Accident.
(See Post "The Accident")

IRON AWE - The beginning

In 2003 a group of volunteers from East Cleveland, (ironstone mining country) took several bags of “old stuff” into old people's homes and collected stories, they then took the stories and “old stuff” into schools – Iron Awe was born.

Our community work atracted funding and we started using film and music to tell the stories, the award winning film The Accident, was followed by the epic film Demonstration Day; we have continued our community work and are now planning our biggest project yet.

A snippet of Tippett 2

Last night the Iron Awe team, together with people from Boosbeck and East Cleveland, spent a second evening in The Station Hotel, again singing songs from Michael Tippett's first opera Robin Hood, this time the event was recorded by BBC Radio 3*

We hope this will attract the support and funding necessary to make a new version of the Robin Hood opera, and make a film of the Heartbreak Hill story. *BBC Radio 3, 12-15pm Saturday November 28th, Reviving Robin