Nettleton Top Mine

Also known as	Nettleton Ironstone Mines, Nettleton Mine
Location	Nettleton, between Market Rasen and Caistor, Lincolnshire — 53.4740, -0.3520 (approximate)
Commodity	Ironstone
Type	Ironstone
Worked	1934–1968
Maximum depth	Adit mining into the Wolds escarpment; no shaft was used for winding, and no surface remains of any ventilation shaft survive.
Operators	Mid-Lincolnshire Ironstone Company (1928–?)

Overview

An ironstone mine on the western scarp of the Lincolnshire Wolds at Nettleton, driven from 1928 and opened in 1934 by the Mid-Lincolnshire Ironstone Company to replace its nearly exhausted Greetwell workings. It was possibly the first ironstone mine in the country to use diesel locomotives underground, while horses went on hauling from the faces to the main headings to the very last day. The ore went to the steelworks at Scunthorpe by aerial ropeway and rail. Nettleton Top closed in 1959 and the Nettleton Bottom mine, opened in 1957, worked on until 1968 — stopped not by exhaustion but by foreign ore.

History

The Nettleton mines were driven from 1928, on the western scarp of the Lincolnshire Wolds between Market Rasen and Caistor, and opened in 1934 under the Mid-Lincolnshire Ironstone Company — the successor in the district to the Claxby workings, and looking for stone to replace the company’s nearly exhausted Greetwell mines. The mine was mechanised early. It was possibly the first ironstone mine in the country to use diesel locomotives underground, and its ore left the site by an aerial ropeway carrying 12 cwt a bucket at 130 yards a minute, seventy buckets on the cable and forty minutes for a round trip; the plant was designed for 75 tons an hour, though at first it got only 25. Carbide lighting gave way later to fluorescent. What did not change was the haulage at the face: horses worked the short hauls from the working faces to the main headings, and went on doing so until the last day. By 1955 output from Nettleton Top was slowing, and in 1957 an adit was driven on the other side of Nettleton Beck for what became the Nettleton Bottom mine. The rotary tippler docks and the aerial ropeway were scrapped, a concrete road was laid from Holton le Moor sidings to the mine so that dump trucks could tip straight into railway wagons, and heavier rail was put in underground for battery locomotives and Eimco loaders. Nettleton Top closed in 1959. By 1960 production was 4,000 tons a week. It was not enough to save the mine: all operations ceased in 1968, and — as the record is careful to say — not because the reserves were exhausted but because of competition from foreign ores. British Steel decided to stop underground extraction that year. About 3.5 million tons had come out in forty years.

Geology

The Claxby Ironstone of the Lower Cretaceous, in the Wolds escarpment. A 1949 BGS photograph taken near the mine shows the section: the long irregular slope of the Kimmeridge Clay rising to the rounded bluff of the Spilsby Sandstone, and above it the flat-topped platform of the Tealby Limestone climbing gently eastward to the Chalk. The ore here was thought better than Claxby’s, which is why the industry moved north to it.

Workings

Adits driven into the escarpment. Ore was tipped by rotary tippler, crushed, and taken away by an aerial ropeway of seventy 12 cwt buckets running at 130 yards a minute. Haulage underground was by horses at the faces and by diesel and electric locomotives on narrow-gauge track in the main headings; the roof was hard to support in the early years. From 1957 the tippler and ropeway were abandoned for dump trucks on a concrete road to Holton le Moor sidings, and battery locomotives and Eimco loaders came in on heavier rail, with a charging station in a side passage. Ventilation shafts are recorded but nothing of them survives on the surface.

Closure

Nettleton Top closed in 1959, superseded by the Nettleton Bottom mine driven from 1957. All operations ceased in 1968 when British Steel stopped underground extraction — because of competition from foreign ores rather than exhaustion of the reserves. Some 3.5 million tons had been raised in forty years.

What remains

The site is being reclaimed by nature: the adits are completely sealed, with owls perched inside their mouths, and a marked ground depression behind the middle adit is where locomotive no. 5 lies buried, still attached to its tubs. Photographs from January 2024 show how much has grown over the site since closure.

Sealed adit mouths and the depression behind the middle one where a locomotive and its tubs are buried; the line of the aerial ropeway and the mine site show on 1940s–70s Ordnance Survey aerial coverage.

Related mines

Claxby Ironstone Mine — Claxby closed in 1885 because its ironstone was too poor and the stone found at Nettleton was thought better; the Claxby site was afterwards acquired by the Mid-Lincolnshire Iron Co. as part of the Nettleton Mines, which replaced the company’s nearly exhausted Greetwell workings.

Nearby mines

Claxby Ironstone Mine — 6.5 km S

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

The Nettleton mines were driven in 1928 and the mine was opened in 1934 by the Mid-Lincolnshire Ironstone Company; it was possibly the first ironstone mine in the country to use diesel locomotives underground. ¹
Ore went out by an aerial ropeway holding 12 cwt a bucket and travelling at 130 yards a minute, with seventy buckets on the cable and a forty-minute round trip; the plant was designed for 75 tons an hour but at first received only 25. ²
Horses were used underground for the short hauls from the working faces to the main headings, with diesel and electric locomotives on the narrow-gauge track as the principal motive power; the horses worked until the last day. ^2,1
In 1957 an adit was driven on the other side of Nettleton Beck for the Nettleton Bottom mine; the rotary tippler docks and the aerial ropeway were abandoned, a concrete road was laid to Holton le Moor sidings, and battery locomotives and Eimco loaders were introduced. Nettleton Top closed in 1959. ²
By 1960 production was 4,000 tons a week; all operations ceased in 1968, not because reserves were exhausted but as a consequence of competition from foreign ores, and about 3.5 million tons had been removed in forty years. ^2,1
The adits are completely sealed and the site is being reclaimed by nature; a ground depression behind the middle adit is where locomotive no. 5 lies buried, still attached to its tubs. ²

Photographs & further reading

Nettleton — Nene Valley Mines Study Group (reference)

A detailed account of the mine’s plant and haulage — the ropeway, the tippler, the horses and the locomotives — with archive photographs and what the sealed site looks like now.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Nettleton Top ironstone mines — ruston.avlr.org.uk
(observational) Nettleton — Nene Valley Mines Study Group
(secondary) Claxby Ironstone — Wikipedia

Record created: 7 September 2026 · Last researched: 7 September 2026