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Ironstone quarries in Rutland Had now to imagine that from the 1940s until the early 1970s Rutland made a significant contribution to the British iron and steel industry. And very little evidence survives of massive extraction at Market Overton and Exton Park. Exton Park quarry a year before it closed. Note the deep Lincolnshire limestone overburden. Photograph by N.L. Cadge; reproduced from Tonks 1989. Ironstone extraction had commenced in Leicestershire in the 1870s. It exploited deposits of Marlstone, mostly associated with the ridge running from Six Hills to Belvoir Castle. An assortment of narrow gauge railways took the ironstone from the quarry face to loading hoppers which filled standard gauge wagons. Initially the ore was taken to the newly-constructed smelters at Ashfordby Hill near Melton Mowbray. But by the mid-twentieth century most was being to taken to bigger blast furnaces at Scunthorpe. The Rutland quarries mostly supplied Scunthorpe. Unlike the Leicestershire quarries the Rutland operations exploited the much softer Northamptonshire Sand. Most Rutland quarries laid temporary standard gauge lines to the quarry face and loaded them using mechanised shovels &ndash initially steam-powered then by diesel and finally by electricity. Large draglines did the extraction of the sand. If you've never seen a steam shovel in operation then you've missed a magical experience. This video shows a restored Erie steam shovel operating at Welland Country Fair. The approximate extent of ironstone extraction in Leicestershire, Rutland and south-west Lincolnshire (after Tonks 1989; 1992). Not all the quarries were operating at the same time. The red dot indicates the location of the Holwell Works. The only early quarry in Rutland was a small operation at Cottesmore which commenced in the early 1880s. Activities at Market Overton commenced in 1906 and continued until 1972. Two quarries opened elsewhere in Rutland in 1919, one at Luffenham (which closed before really getting operational) and the other at Pilton. Quarrying at Burley commenced about 1920 and continued until 1962. There was a quarry at Uppingham between 1912 but the school contrived to have it closed down in 1926, presumably because noise from the steam locomotive operating a 1 in 40 gradient was too audible in the classrooms. During the First World War German prisoners of war did most of the hard work (see an article in in Rutland Record No.37). Quarrying at Market Overton started in 1906 but not until the Second World War was there extensive extraction. A new pit was opened in 1956 and operated until 1972. The massive Exton Park extraction did not start until 1948 and continued until 1973. The overburden above the Northamptonshire Sand was a significant depth of Lincolnshire limestone. In 1974 the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe started using higher iron-content ores from Scandinavia and cancelled contracts with the quarries still operating. Eric Tonks researched and wrote a series of nine books about the former ironstone extraction in England. Volume seven is devoted to Rutland and goes into complete detail about the history and operations of most of the quarries in the county. The exception is Uppingham where operations were short-lived and records were not retained. The wonderful Rocks by Rail museum museum near Cottesmore allows a glimpse into this one-time industry. Lots more information and maps about the ironstone quarries of Leicestershire in this YouTube video. Considerably more information about ironstone extraction in Rutland in Rutland Record No.3 and Rutland Record No.9. These articles, written in the 1980s, are based on the author's fieldwork and research in 1930. Main sources: Eric Tonks, 1989, The Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands: History, operation and railways Part VII Rutland, Runpast Publishing. Eric Tonks, 1992, The Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands: History, operation and railways Part IX Leicestershire, Runpast Publishing. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland's royal forests Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society with free PDFs of over forty issues of the Rutland Record Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website