GLENDON IRONSTONE QUARRIES REMEMBERED Forty years ago this month the last workers employed at the Glendon Ironstone quarries in Northamptonshire were sent home for the last time. The extraction of ironstone at the quarries ceased in late December 1979 but the staff were kept on for a few months to help with the close…

This year sees the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Though  sparsely populated, the pleasant agricultural countryside of Rutland played host to a number of ironstone quarries which made an important contribution to the war effort in increasing production of ironstone; a vital raw material with which to make iron, steel…

As rising demand for steel continued into the 1950’s Corby quarries faced ever deepening overburden as the ironstone bed deposits dip towards the east. The introduction of the larger stripping shovels (5360 type) increased maximum overburden digging depths to 60 ft but this limit would need to be overcome if future production levels were to…

The ironstone bed in the Corby area ranged from 4ft to 11 ft thick with an average of 7.25 ft. The bed outcropped at the top of the escarpment and then was to be found under increasing cover to the east. Whilst early workings were carried out by hand the exhaustion of the shallow deposits…