Monument record 8406/1/4 - Mineral Railway Extension To Later Pit

{1} c.1870 the standard gauge line was extended from its early terminus just south of the level crossing on the Grendon road, along the little valley to a point south of the modern Cogenhoe School, where a considerable amount of outcropping stone was quarried, and again conveyed to the standard gauge by narrow gauge tramway. At the foot of the slope the tramway ran onto a wooden platform over the standard gauge line and the ore was tipped into the wagons below.
Beyond the crossing the standard gauge can be made out by a slight depression in the fields at various points, but is best seen when the ground is freshly ploughed as an ochreous streak across the dark soil, the remnants of fallen iron ore. At the western end of the system a public footpath to Brafield leaves the road opposite the school and crosses an open grassy area of ground disturbed by the later quarrying activities and traversed by two well-defined cuttings whose directions converge on the tipping dock site; as the footpath descends to the stream bed the former standard gauge line cutting can be seen, clearly defined to the terminus.

{2} Earthworks of a modern railway: the settlement remains at Cotton have been much damaged by a C19th ironstone tramway which has been cut across the site.

<1> Tonks E., 1989, The Ironstone Quarries of The Midlands (History, Operation and Railways): The Northampton Area, p.128-33 (checked) (Book). SNN47272.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.22 Site 14 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2011 6:27PM