Monument record 8460/1 - C19th Limestone Quarry

{1} Two short-lived ironstone quarries named Cranford West (1883-85) and Cranford East (1882-85), equated with two short quarry tramways respectively west and east of Cranford Midland Railway Station. These appear on the First Edition OS mapping of 1884 but not the Second Edition of 1901. It is now certain that these tramways carried limestone, not ironstone; they were short lines on the surface, where the ironstone lay under a thick layer of limestone. The east site was worked opencast by Cranford Ironstone Co Ltd in the 1960s with the aid of heavy quarry machinery capable of removing the overburden, which here was up to 70ft thick. Part of the Cranford East quarry system.
At the east site the narrow gauge tramway was unusual in that it crossed the MR by the side of the road bridge and then ran down to a tipping dock alongside a siding on the north side of the line, a somewhat inconvenient arrangement dictated by the existence of the MR siding and weighbridge that had been used in the 1870s by carts bringing ironstone from the Cranford Hall estate. There was a stable near where the line came to the roadside, suggesting that horses were used for haulage. The owners may well have been Butlin Bevan & Co. But this is not certain. In 1896 Kettering Iron & Coal Co Ltd leased the site for limestone, and apparently extended the tipping dock. In the 1950s the course of the line was a coppice that clothed traces of early working, but the trees had been cut down by 1963, and a few years later the stables disappeared, the whole area having been redeveloped by extensions to Cranford South Quarry.

<1> Tonks E., 1991, The Ironstone Quarries of The Midlands (History, Operation and Railways): The Kettering Area, p.30-33 (unchecked) (Book). SNN44039.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1884, First Edition OS 6 Inch Mapping Series (32NE), (part checked) (Map). SNN105842.

Record last edited

Jan 26 2010 1:34PM