To commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the last load of ironstone to leave Exton Park Quarry, and the last commercial Rutland ironstone production, we are holding a dedicated event featuring the remaining traces of the local industry.
The operating day will see a unique recreation of the last train departing the quarry to round off the day – leaving from the quarry face and traversing the branch – not yet carried out in the new Museum.
Visitors can inspect the cab of SUNDEW, the massive electric dragline which served the Exton Park quarry and which now overlooks our very own Museum Quarry, can walk through the cab of DE5, the only surviving locomotive to have worked at Exton Park in its heyday and ‘footplate’ steam locomotive No.9, a Yorkshire Engine Company 0-6-0 saddle tank of a type which were built specifically for the quarries and is now a Cottesmore resident.
A working model of the quarry will be in operation in our Museum and we hope to show surviving films, photographs and detailed plans relating to the huge operation.
The Museum would welcome anyone with memories of the quarry workings in Rutland, people with family connections or a keen interest in the subject and the local area.
Museum staff will be on hand to help identify or authenticate any item relating to the ironstone industry as we are keen to continue to expand the knowledge of the now extinct industry