Graph of Output & Workforce - Equipment - The Irthlingborough Adit - Red Book Notes 1920 - Kilns - Charges to men - Company Farm tenants - 1919 E.V. wages - No.s 1 & 2 pits - Electricity Generating System - 1919 cost to get 1,000 tons - Explosives - Stocks Irthlingborough & Finedon - Costs of Land - Tractor Movements 1920 - Explosives Test - Output from kilns - Wages 1920 - Record of six day's work with Blackett Drill
560 Wagons purchased at outset.
3 foot gauge, (0.91 m.) tare weight 15 cwt (.68 kg.) nominal capacity 2 ton 10 cwt. (2.54 tonnes)
Still in use when the mine closed in 1965
14 British Electric Vehicles – Battery operated ‘tractors’ purchased between March, 1918,
and February, 1922.
They each weighed 2 tons (2.03 tonnes), two were fitted with 4.8 hp motors and the remainder were 2 hp vehicles.
These replaced ponies used in the early years.
2 Trolley locomotives bought from America circa 1916 & refurbished by the General Electric Co. These were the main haulage vehicles used to draw the trains of ore to the surface. They were powered by a 240 volt D.C. supply through overhead trolley wires with the return current through the rail track.
6 ’Blackett‘ drilling rigs purchased circa 1920.
The main mine tunnel was approximately ¾ mile (1.2 km.) long, brick-lined and accommodating twin 3 foot (0.92 m.) gauge tracks with water channel below. Driven to a rising gradient, into the mine, of 1 in 210.
5 foot diameter (1.52 m.) Sirocco ventilation fan driven by a 15 hp motor built over shaft No. 2, capable of extracting air at the rate of 100,000 cu. ft. (2832 cu. m.) per min.
Miner‘s equipment :-
Carbide lamp, pick, shovel, fork, and wooden stemming rod.
Consumables:-
Carbide, chalk, dynamite, detonators and fuse cable.
The materials and equipment were purchased by the miner from the Company by
deduction from wages.
Safety helmets and safety boots were not worn at this time. (1920‘s)
Each miner usually worked with a mate called a helper and they were provided with hand operated Conqueror and Elliot ratchet drilling machines. With this method of drilling a man could be expected to load no more than 8 tons (8.13 tonnes) in an 8 hour shift.
Normally the miner was paid weekly based on the tonnage filled and it was left to him to pass on to his helper the amount due.
In the early days, however, and probably until the mid 1920‘s they were paid on a daily rate along with all other workers.
Surface buildings at outset:-
| Workshops including electrical workshop |
| power house |
| stores |
| carpenter's shop |
| clock house |
| fitting shop |
| Laboratory (single storey) with medical room and pay office |
| Explosives magazine |
| Steam locomotive shed |
| Trolley locomotive shed |
| Water softening building |
| Electrical generating plant consisting of 2 Galloway boilers and 2 Bellis & Morcam High Speed Engines of 150 and 250 K.W. capacity generating 250 volts D.C. |
| Steel brick-lined chimney |
| One weighbridge for mine wagons |
| Two weighbridges for main line railway wagons |
| 16 "Gjers" type calcining kilns, 30 feet (9.1 m.) in height and 23 feet (7 m.) inside diameter. |
| Pine Lodge (existing house on Wellingborough Road) converted for office use |
Employment Numbers and Occupations at the Mine in 1952
| Senior Staff | Sinter Plant Personnel | |||
| General Manager | 1 | Charge Hands | 3 | |
| Mine Manager | 1 | Sinter StrandIgniters | 2 | |
| Under Manager | 1 | Labourers | 20 | |
| Surveyor | 1 | Feed Hands | 4 | |
| Electrical Engineer | 1 | General Operators | 2 | |
| Mechanical Engineer | 1 | TrommelMixerOperators | 2 | |
| Sinter Plant Superintendent | 1 | |||
| Chemist | 1 | Hotel Staff | ||
| Foreman Fitter | 1 | Cook | 1 | |
| Office Manager | 1 | Kitchen Staff etc. | 5 | |
| Hotel Manager | 1 | Cleaners (part time) | 5 | |
| Hotel Manageress | 1 | |||
| Office Personnel | Mine Personnel | |||
| Secretary to General Manager | 1 | Deputies | 7 | |
| Surveyor‘s Assistants | 2 | |||
| Electricians (Charging Station) | ||||
| Shorthand Typist | 1 | Electric Trolley Loco Drivers | 6 | |
| Wages clerk | 1 | Battery Loco Drivers | 21 | |
| Chemist‘s Assistant | 1 | Road Repairers | 9 | |
| General Clerks | 4 | Labourers | 27 | |
| Office Cleaner (part time) | 1 | Miners (hand loading) | 30 | |
| Miners' Helpers | 30 | |||
| Surface Personnel | Miners (special driveages) | 4 | ||
| Weigh Clerks | 2 | Blackett Drillers | 8 | |
| Yard Foreman | 1 | Shot Firers (mechanical) | 4 | |
| Workshop foreman | 1 | Loader Operators | 4 | |
| Electricians | 6 | Hose Boys | 4 | |
| Fitters | 4 | Road Repairers (mechanical) | 4 | |
| Blacksmiths | 6 | |||
| Blacksmith’s Strikers | 6 | |||
| Carpenters | 2 | |||
| Bricklayers (Mine & Estate) | 4 | |||
| Power House Attendants | 2 | |||
| Steam Loco | ||||
| Fireman (Stoker) | 1 | |||
| Estate Maintenance Workers | 3 | |||
| Ropeway Attendants (working on Bank) | 5 | |||
| Plate Layers (Surface) (laying track) | 2 | |||
| Plate Layers' Assistants (Surface) | 2 | |||
| Cook | 1 | |||
| Cook's Assistant | 1 | |||
| Excavator Driver | 1 | |||
| Lorry Driver | 1 |
Total number 282
After 1976 the developers of the Pine Trees area covered over the brick structure of the Mine entrance ’Adit‘, but its position is recorded as follows :-
The National Grid co-ordinates are:-
493,973.940 m E, 269,877.946m N.
The floor level is 192.7 feet (58.73 metres) above ordnance datum.
