Ironstone mining in the Lincolnshire wolds began around the Claxby area in the 1860s. The Claxby ironstone mine was actually a series of workings, this covered an overall area. We will be talking about solely the acre house mine . The name of this mine is suspected to of been used due to its location on the Claxby to Nettleton road, where Acre house situated. on the north side of the village the entrances were about 50 meters below the top of the escarpment . It was This escarpment which was the reason for the installation of the winding drum with the mechanical hand break. The winding drum lowered down the full tubs which in return pulled up the empty tubs . The speed was controlled by steel bands around the 2 drums, this was also operated by hand. The only remains of the incline system are the 6 posts which are believed to of been supports for the drum . The land to be underground mined was 150 acres and operations started in 1868 by West Yorkshire iron and coal co . This extracted ore would be sent to Ardsley near Leeds. documents have put employment in 1871 as 34 miners with only 7 being local, in 1873 the mine employed around 250 men and produced 70,000 tonnes in this year alone,This is a very large jump in staff so the pillar and stall mining system must of been working very effectively . It was referred by the local rector as a “gloomy cavern of disaster” because of numerous injuries and deaths associated with the site .Apart from various adits for ventilation, the mine also had a ventilation chimney which was 12ft diameter and 120ft deep. This was brick lined and dug by hand in the 1860s. The local farmers sadly destroyed this peace of history and filled it in with a tractor in 1963. The last remaining feature was a stone powder house, this was pulled down and pushed inside the shaft to fill it, this is a conflicting peace of history as its also been written of by Eric Tonks as a adit ? . The mine closed in 1885 due to the low iron content not making it profitable work ” This was the same time iron ore was found at nettleton mine ” attention soon turned to this as they believed the iron ore content was higher . one would assume that tests must have been done for the iron ore content before moving over such a large workforce.
We hope to obtain full surveys of the workings to remove the confusion of the powder house or adit.
The 1888-1913 os mãp shows the mining site , Shafts are marked and the lines represent the working faces .
Permission for the images below has been obtained from the Author of the book – Ironstone mining in the Lincolnshire wolds, by Stewart Squires, Published by the society for Lincolnshire history and archaeology 2017.
Claxby mine air shaft .
Claxby mine powder store .