Mines in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire's mining is almost entirely a story of one rock: the Northampton Sand Ironstone, a low-grade Jurassic bed running in a belt from Northampton north-east along the Nene valley. Most of it was stripped opencast, at a scale that reshaped whole parishes and fed the Corby steelworks, but where the overburden grew too thick the ironstone was followed underground instead — leaving a county whose largest workings are also its least visible.

Record created: 24 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 August 2026