# Northamptonshire's heritage of mining and quarries part one



## alex76 (Dec 14, 2020)

Hey guys and gals hope you are all well;
i have not posted in while as i kind of neglected my camera but the bug is back.
now this place has big place in my hart as its part of my birthplace in east Northants 

wee bit of short and sweet history 

on laying the track bed of the midland mainline from Leicester to Kettering and on to Hitchin in the 1850's they found the land was rich with the prehistoric minerals of iron ore laying under the bed of limestone.
mining and quarrying started roughly in 1866 which started with Glendon iron ore company then many other company's jumping in on the ore action including Lloyds Ironstone Company Ltd which later merged with *Stewart & Menzies Ltd from Glasgow* which became Stewarts and Lloyds which became a major steel producing firm in Corby know as Corby steel works.
now these workings go from as far as Corby to as far as Irchester and even as far as Huntingdon so most of the land is covered in disused quarries and mines.

now i must state these like any mines are very dangerous these even more so as all the air shafts where knocked down and filled in in the late 60's early 70's so very low oxygen and very harmful gases which will kill you also they where dug out over 170 years ago and very unstable and as you can see by my photos they are starting to collapse they are also flooded.

anyway on with my photos




























thanks for taking the time to see my thread... Alex


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## wolfism (Dec 15, 2020)

That's cool, your shots of the railway trackbed with sleepers are quite evocative. If you get your timing right, there are a few interesting surface things in and around Corby, related to the steel industry..


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## HughieD (Dec 15, 2020)

This is fantastic!


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## alex76 (Dec 15, 2020)

wolfism said:


> That's cool, your shots of the railway trackbed with sleepers are quite evocative. If you get your timing right, there are a few interesting surface things in and around Corby, related to the steel industry..


Cheers buddy i will look into that


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## alex76 (Dec 15, 2020)

HughieD said:


> This is fantastic!


Cheers HughieD been studying this are for a few years now


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## Down and beyond (Dec 16, 2020)

Well done on getting out there I no exactly the places you have found , just to let you no the mine you have lent inside and photographed threw the grill never had a air shaft also the collapse you photographed is the main entrance way the smaller passage is a pedestrian walk way , all you over information is correct it worked of fans from the outside , I am glad you have placed warnings in your messages .


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## alex76 (Dec 16, 2020)

Down and beyond said:


> Well done on getting out there I no exactly the places you have found , just to let you no the mine you have lent inside and photographed threw the grill never had a air shaft also the collapse you photographed is the main entrance way the smaller passage is a pedestrian walk way , all you over information is correct it worked of fans from the outside , I am glad you have placed warnings in your messages .


Cheers buddy yeah what you say makes sence with some of my research with the pumps and fans being used i did get in as far as my wellies allowed but also without gas meters and such i did not want to venture to far cheers for your info buddy


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## jamesfuller (Dec 29, 2020)

I've walked the dog there a couple of times as I only live down the road in Raunds. really need to go back and get photos of my own. Very interesting place and nice photos.


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## Hayman (Dec 30, 2020)

On 03 Nov 1966, when working near Grantham, I visited the Stewarts & Lloyds Minerals Ltd opencast ironstone quarry at Harston. Most impressive were a Ruston Bucyrus 54RB dragline and a 5W walking dragline. Steam locomotives hauled the wagons of ironstone along railway tracks laid within the quarry to the transfer sidings that connected with the British Railways network, to take the ore to the blast furnaces. 0-6-0ST Denton built in 1951 by Barclay at their Caledonia works was at work the day I was there, with two other Barclay 0-6-0STs – Belvoir (built 1954) and Salmon (built 1942) dead in the loco shed.

Regarding Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks at Corby, from October 1981 to February 1982 I was working for the central heating company Servowarm at Corby. The housing estate built for the S & L workers brought south from Scotland was having its district heating scheme replaced by individual gas boilers in each house. The district heating scheme consisted of a central boilerhouse from which hot water was pumped via a closed circuit of pipes to each dwelling and back to the boilerhouse, for reheating. The hot water heated each house's radiators and – via a hot water immersion heater in the hot water cylinder – the water for bathroom and kitchen use. From paying a fixed sum each month (apart from one month in the summer when the boilerhouse and pipes were under annual maintenance, and the electric immersion heater in the hot water cylinder was used to heat the domestic hot water), the householders suddenly had a gas meter and were paying for the gas they actually used. This came as a shock to some. One curiosity was that, since most of the workers and their families had come to Corby from the Glasgow area, there were both Celtic and Rangers clubs, and lots of Scottish accents. Now all Corby seems to be known for is Weetabix.


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## alex76 (Feb 18, 2021)

Hayman said:


> On 03 Nov 1966, when working near Grantham, I visited the Stewarts & Lloyds Minerals Ltd opencast ironstone quarry at Harston. Most impressive were a Ruston Bucyrus 54RB dragline and a 5W walking dragline. Steam locomotives hauled the wagons of ironstone along railway tracks laid within the quarry to the transfer sidings that connected with the British Railways network, to take the ore to the blast furnaces. 0-6-0ST Denton built in 1951 by Barclay at their Caledonia works was at work the day I was there, with two other Barclay 0-6-0STs – Belvoir (built 1954) and Salmon (built 1942) dead in the loco shed.
> 
> Regarding Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks at Corby, from October 1981 to February 1982 I was working for the central heating company Servowarm at Corby. The housing estate built for the S & L workers brought south from Scotland was having its district heating scheme replaced by individual gas boilers in each house. The district heating scheme consisted of a central boilerhouse from which hot water was pumped via a closed circuit of pipes to each dwelling and back to the boilerhouse, for reheating. The hot water heated each house's radiators and – via a hot water immersion heater in the hot water cylinder – the water for bathroom and kitchen use. From paying a fixed sum each month (apart from one month in the summer when the boilerhouse and pipes were under annual maintenance, and the electric immersion heater in the hot water cylinder was used to heat the domestic hot water), the householders suddenly had a gas meter and were paying for the gas they actually used. This came as a shock to some. One curiosity was that, since most of the workers and their families had come to Corby from the Glasgow area, there were both Celtic and Rangers clubs, and lots of Scottish accents. Now all Corby seems to be known for is Weetabix.


Cheers for the info buddy i was born and bred in burton latimer the home of weetabix its amusing as i still and always will carry my burton accent but currently work in the london area and often get asked where my accent is from and qrick answer is same place as your weetabix comes from


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