STEWARTS & LLOYDS MINERALS LTD.

It is extremely difficult to separate the ironstone operations of Stewarts & Lloyds around Corby from the actual steel making as locomotives were held in common and used on an as required basis. S&L also struggled with this problem and so in 1936 a new numbering system was introduced where locos numbered from 1 were Steelworks locos and those numbered from 30 were quarry engines, based at Pen Green Locomotive Depot. With the more isolated quarries and pits, it has of course been much easier (well, not that much!) and they are grouped together by location, although many locomotives moved around the system as required.
I have done my best here to describe each quarry/pit/mine system briefly but I do not guarantee that all of the information is accurate or correct. I have grouped the locomotives accordingly and provided maps wherever possible to help illustrate the text.
BUCKMINSTER IRONSTONE QUARRIES - Market Overton was latterly the main locomotive depot for a whole network of ironstone lines that spread to the east nearly as far as Colsterworth, with a sub-sheds at Gunby and Stainby. The mainline connection for the system was at Pain's Sidings between Edmondthorpe & Wymondham and South Witham on the old M&GN line from Bourne to Saxby, which closed in March 1959, the stub remaining in use well into the 1970's. The pits at Buckminster opened in 1898, almost concurrent with the birth of the M&GN. Pits were opened and closed all over the area in the next 60 yearsSuch was the extent of the system that it would have been possible to travel from the Midland Mainline to the East Coast Mainline without using any BR rails except as far as Pain's Sidings. Stewarts & Lloyds also owned and operated the Harston and Woolsthorpe systems further to the east.
EATON QUARRIES - This system opened just before World War One to the north of the GNR Eaton Branch. Generally only one or two locos were employed here and the system closed in September 1957 following exhaustion of the stone at the quarry face.
MARKET OVERTON QUARRIES - Originally owned by James Pain Ltd., the Market Overton system came to Stewarts & Lloyds in 1950. The quarries opened in 1906 with exchange sidings at Pain's Sidings. Marshalling sidings and a locoshed were three-quarters of a mile south of the exchange sidings, this being the junction point from the quarry lines. Locomotives were frequently exchanged with other quarries as overhauls became due and production rates fluctuated, no less than 15 locos serving at Market Overton at one time or another.
HARLAXTON IRONSTONE MINES - The Harlaxton ironstone quarries were the last to be developed for the extraction of ironstone from the long escarpment which stretches from near Melton Mowbray right through to Scunthorpe. An agreement was reached between the Stanton Ironworks Company and Mr Pearson-Gregory of Harlaxton Manor in 1922, extraction not to commence before 1932, but at that stage nothing happened. The onset of the Second World War brought matters to a head and construction of the line began in 1940. The major problem was the steepness of the escarpment which had to be surmounted to reach the extraction areas. This was achieved by creating a reversing point at Swine Hill, allowing the hill to be climbed in two stages. The average gradient of the climb was around 1 in 40, with the steepest section as much as 1 in 20, close to the adhesion limit for steam locomotive operation. The line started at a junction with the existing LNER Denton branch near Casthorpe Road. It ran roughly south-east past the east of Denton Village before passing under the A 607. It then curved east to the reversing point at Swine Hill. From here it started off roughly south west, curving steeply up the hillside before reaching the centre of operations close to Gorse Lane. Here were located the quarry workshops as well as a locomotive shed and sidings where wagons from the quarry faces could be made up into trains to be taken down to the main railway system. From here lines ran off into the various quarries, the network changing as areas were first opened up and then subsequently closed. Rationalisation of the steel industry reduced demand for home-produced ores, and the end was clear when it was announced that Stanton Ironworks, which had taken output from the beginning, would close their ironmaking plant in March 1974. However, due a coal-miners' strike, production ceased earlier than anticipated and the last loaded train ran in February 1974. The track was removed during the ensuing months, although the only section of trackbed that was restored to agricultural use was that adjacent to the Swine Hill reversing point.
HARSTON TRAMWAY - In 1885, the Belvoir Branch of the GNR was extended from a junction just north of Casthorpe Exchange Sidings another couple of miles towards Woolsthorpe. A 3 foot gauge tramway was then built from a tipping stage here to a number of local quarries. A single track, three loco engine shed was built near the tipping stage. Production was desultory for a number of years but during the Great War the quarries here assumed a much greater importance and several new pits were opened. In 1927 a rotary tippler was installed near to the engine shed. A second surge of activity occurred during World War Two but thereafter the outmoded narrow gauge system was destined to be replaced by standard gauge metals. The locos were placed into storage and the wagons broken up. The standard gauge tracks in many cases followed the line of the narrow gauge and allowed wagons to be loaded directly at the quarry face.
ISLIP IRONSTONE QUARRIES - This was the largest narrow gauge system in the ironstone industry, closing in 1952 after 75 years of continuous production. With the opening of the Midland Railway's Kettering to Huntingdon line in 1866, an ironworks was built close the the MR line and standard gauge tracks were laid between it and the exchange sidings, 3 foot gauge systems coming from the many pits to the ironworks. There were three main narrow gauge branches, one running north west alongside the road to Slipton, one west to Twywell and the last north east to Lowick. The was also a 2foot 4inch system serving mines at Willow Close and Woodfield from about 1900 to 1947 which transshipped their ore to the 3 foot gauge system. Owned by the Islip Iron Co. from 1873, they were taken over by Stewarts & Lloyds in 1932. By 1939, all three systems were working at full capacity but the ironworks were worn out so they closed in 1943. By 1947, the system was in decline, many of the locomotives being transferred elsewhere and in October 1952 the last quarry shut. The remaining engines assisted in dismantling the system which was completed in 1954.
ISHAM IRONSTONE QUARRIES - Isham Ironstone Company opened its ‘Isham’ quarry around 1900, with a standard gauge railway connection to sidings north of Isham and Burton Latimer station. Isham Ironstone Company was a subsidiary of Lloyds Ironstone Company of Corby. The ‘Isham’ quarry worked to around 1910. The ore is known to have been sent to the Wellingborough Iron Company, Round Oak in the Black Country and Renishaw furnaces in North Derbyshire . Horses were used initially to haul the ore wagons with possibly steam locomotive haulage from 1902. Around 1925 the ‘Isham’ quarry off Polwell Lane was re-opened by Thos E Gray for the extraction of siliceous clay, this being blended with sand and other materials to make silacene, used for lining ladles and furnaces. The quarry, again using a standard gauge railway, worked east from the old Isham face and eventually a mill was constructed west of Polwell Lane to handle the output from the quarry. From 1937 a narrow gauge (2’ 0”) rail line was introduced in the pit. Ironstone was still worked here from time to time, in particular during World War II. Work carried on here until May 1982 when a decline in demand for Grays’ products, mainly used in foundries, brought about its closure.
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