*Ironstone Mining In The Lincolnshire Wolds, Stewart Squires, sb, 260mm x
210mm, 135pp, with more than 130 maps, plans and photographs - many in
colour. Cost £15.00 + p&p *

A couple of independent reviews below  - Mike www.moorebooks.co.uk


*Review 1 Brian Longbone in Lincolnshire Past & Present, No.111, Spring
2018  *











*Within these pages Stewart Squires has related the formation of Wolds
ironstone mining and its steady output of later years, dependent upon the
parent company’s iron- and steelworks at Scunthorpe.By the means of maps,
plans and layout drawings, the three mines’ development is detailed along
with appropriate photographic evidence and record; by combining these with
the use of a wide range of available documents, from various sources, the
author has spent considerable time gathering and adding to the story, to
tell as whole a narrative as possible currently. The included map of the
national ironstone deposits highlights the position – geographical and
economical – of these Wolds deposits within a larger context. The
industrial railway associated with the mines is indeed well covered here,
which will delight the locomotive fraternity.Of not the least interest is
the author’s gathering of local community records reflecting work and
social aspects of the Mining Companies and their associated communities,
and the utilisation of census material highlights the predominance of
former Eastern Counties agricultural workers at Claxby – a process seen
later in the Scunthorpe & Frodingham ironstone area, and with echoes in
other trades and industries mopping up surplus and low paid rural
workers.External factors which lead from the 1950s to the demise of local
mining include the declining global shipping rates on commodities such as
ore and coal, instigated by expanding overseas economies. Local mining of
much smaller tonnages, coupled with changing practices of making iron, all
served to eliminate the minor concerns under discussion here.Squires does a
valiant job promoting the positive case on this Wolds ironstone mining. He
concludes with the progress of the community keeping active the memories
and lives of Nettleton Mines. As a document of recent industrial practice
and employment in the assumed green fields of Lincolnshire, this volume is
indispensable to the local and national ironstone mining records. Review 2:
Yusuf Sayed in Lincolnshire Life, April 2018 The foreword to this new book
by Stewart Squires was written by former Lincolnshire Life editor and book
reviewer, David N Robinson OBE, who sadly passed away last year. In it he
confirms that the author’s research interest was in fact spurred by an
article in this magazine in 1971.Focusing in the main on the history of the
ironstone mines at Claxby and Nettleton (with a final chapter on attempts
to mine at Walesby), with textbook clarity Squires pulls together a wealth
of archival material – written, diagrammatic, journalistic and photographic
– to tell the story of how areas suitable for this type of mining were
identified in the county, before being excavated and worked over the years
between 1867 and 1969.With accompanying reproductions of geological
particulars, geographical planning maps and personal archival materials,
Squires explains the development and the processes of mining in the county
in as much detail as the available sources allow him. This covers
specialist techniques, such as calcining; structural problems; economic
considerations that affected the fortunes of the mines; the changes to the
landscape and surrounding communities by the operations; and the influx of
incoming workers – as well as the perils faced by them in their daily
work.Tours in recent years show an ongoing interest in this subject, but
Squires accepts that many of today’s residents will have little idea of the
mining that went on. For those who have connections or wishing to get a
sense of the makeup of the land that made Lincolnshire a viable spot for
such mining, Squires’ book will no doubt take its place as the key text on
our county’s part in this industrial heritage. *

-- 
https://www.moorebooks.co.uk/   tel 01952 405105
Snailbeach and Tankerville Mines see http://shropshiremines.org.uk/

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