# Northants Ironstone Mines



## BikinGlynn (Jan 2, 2015)

I have lived in Northants all my life & can recall camp fire stories of "secret tunnels" around our county from when I was young.
Early 2014 I decided to do the research & find out if any were true. After a fair while I was ecstatic to stumbled across one of the well hidden & probably few surviving adits! (Incidentally this was the sole reason urbex is now a fairly big part of my life.)

Of course I now know these to be ironstone mines, which were owned by the Islip mining co & in use from 1860's to 1930's. There is miles of tunnels which are a maze to navigate & by most standards "quite small for mining". These were just big enough to be accessed by horse pulled cart which would be tipped into locomotives outside the mines for transport to the furnaces.

There was a total of 4 separate mines, mined by between 3 & 10 teams, a team being 2 miners & a helper whos job it was to sieve the stone to ensure no small pieces broke off which were liable to clog the furnaces!

Each teams would mine between 8 & 12 tons a day & pay varied between mines due to the varying difficulty of the rock types.

I have done 2 visits to date with some close friends, but gas levels can be bad so wont be going back until I have the correct equipment, here are some pics again with my poor quality camera, but I hope you enjoy.


1972305_301817696638873_511141258_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr


1506053_301818809972095_559513904_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr

Ancient Graffiti from candle smoke

1554521_304337209720255_13859424_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr

We wondered what the tins were laying everywhere... till we found this 

10168032_304336046387038_120653143_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr

Roof collapses looked dodgy, but left amazing colours in the ceiling.

1503401_304338706386772_1615786363_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr

1965059_304339046386738_973408895_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr


1625761_304337759720200_1651146012_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr

Was a fork in the tunnel here 

1002683_304336216387021_962706457_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr


1005937_304335823053727_143671479_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr


1613922_304336693053640_1763100001_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr

A welcome sight!

1958555_301819343305375_778150336_n by bikinglynn, on Flickr


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## krela (Jan 3, 2015)

Interesting stuff, glad to hear you're staying safe with it.


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## flyboys90 (Jan 3, 2015)

Splendid images, thanks for sharing.


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## borntobemild (Jan 8, 2015)

Not far from me. Researched their whereabouts but never got round to visiting. Thanks for posting.


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## The Wombat (Jan 10, 2015)

looks an interesting place
thanks for sharing


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## BikinGlynn (Jan 11, 2015)

borntobemild said:


> Not far from me. Researched their whereabouts but never got round to visiting. Thanks for posting.



They are a closely guarded secret, but if you have done the research & are down this way feel free to give me a shout.


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