This Valentine’s Day in 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the closure of ironstone working at Woolsthorpe Quarry (oops, of course that should read 51st anniversary). On the 14th February 1974, after 91 years of ore extraction across many fields between Harston, Harlaxton and the Grantham Canal by Woolsthorpe, the last trainloads of rock were taken from Denton Park Quarry hauled by a Rolls Royce Sentinel 0-4-0 locomotive named MARY, as shown in the attached picture. The neighbouring Harlaxton quarry, which had been active for 31 years, also ended operations that day. MARY was later scrapped, but her nameplates were saved, as was her sister loco BETTY, which had run at Harlaxton.
The history of the Woolsthorpe quarry and others in the ironstone chain that ran from Six Hills to Harlaxton is recounted in a recent film by Bob Trubshaw, which can be seen on YouTube by clicking this link – Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire
The last day of ironstone quarrying at Woolsthorpe
The Rocks By Rail museum at Cottesmore contains many artefacts from the quarrying industry in our area, including MARY’s nameplates and BETTY, along with several other industrial locomotives. A visit is recommended for anyone curious to know more about why the fields on the top of the escarpment around Harston and Denton lie several feet below the level of the roads that serve those villages. Details can be found here.
Each quarry utilised a network of narrow gauge (2 foot/60 cm) railways to carry the ore to loading docks on a branch line of the Great North Railway, which curved its way from a junction north of Muston, between Stenwith and Casthorpe, round to Denton Manor Farm and ending just shy of Harston. Details of the branch line have been documented by the “Tracks Through Grantham” group of railway enthusiasts. The first part (of three) of their write-up can be found at https://www.tracksthroughgrantham.uk/recording-the-railway/railways-rediscovered/the-woolsthorpe-branch/
Our own Neil Fortey will be giving further information about the Great North Railway in the Vale in his presentation to the History Group’s regular meeting in May 2025 – do come along.
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Since writing the above article, another YouTube video has come to light which maps the layout of the railway lines at Woolsthorpe year by year. It can be found at
https://youtu.be/STBWTw2Uq3Q?si=wj8r1uwA430gKIRv and is by a chap called Matt Davis.
I remember Bill as a child, seeing all the workings around Woolsthorpe and Denton and also the cable way to the Melton Newark rail line at Stathern.
On several occasions my father Police Sgt Arthur Bradshaw had several call outs to report human bones, which would have held up works.
These were mostly found near Denton from memory, possibly due to there being a lot of ancient roads in the area. I think a lot were of really ancient origin according to the Leicester Museum.
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