The Kettering Ironstone Railway was an industrial

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railway that served the ironstone quarries around

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

History

Ironstone was discovered to the north of Kettering in 1858 when the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

mainline was driven through the hills. In 1876 quarrying started just to the west of the railway, with short horse-worked tramways used to haul the ore to a fan of sidings beside the Midland. An ironworks was constructed beside the sidings, opening in 1878. To feed the newly installed blast furnaces, the tramways were extended to new ore fields to the south and west. In 1879 a 3ft gauge steam locomotive arrived from Black, Hawthorn & Co to deal with the greater traffic. As the closer ironstone pits became worked out. the tramways expanded to reach new sources of ore. In 1890 a much larger Manning Wardle locomotive was acquired second-hand to work these longer lines. In all three of these "long boiler special" 0-6-0ST locomotives were acquired for the railway. In 1913 quarrying started on land near the village of Thorpe Malsor, more than two miles from the ironworks. A new branch of the tramway was laid to reach these, requiring a substantial viaduct to cross the valley below the village. In 1926 a unique double

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...

locomotive was purchased for the Thorpe Malsor branch, though it was not a great success. A final new set of ore fields were opened at Bunker Hill in 1933, again served by a new tramway branch. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, there was a general decline in demand for iron. The Thorpe Malsor pits were abandoned and the branch removed in 1949. The ironworks were nationalised in 1951, and the Bunker Hill pits were immediately abandoned. This left only the pits around Rothwell village in operation, served by a long tramway branch. The whole system was purchased by Stewarts & Lloyds in late 1956. The furnaces shut down in 1959, but ore extraction continued to supply the much larger

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

ironworks. Trains continued to run until October 1962. The remaining tramways were lifted by early 1963.

Locomotives

History

Locomotives

References

See also