On our trip to Claxby in Lincolnshire, we marvelled at how quiet the villages were. However, you don’t need to go back all that far to find a very different history.
All along the steep western slopes of the Lincolnshire Wolds, between Market Rasen and Caistor, there is a large outcrop of ironstone – an iron bearing ore that can be used for smelting. There was a mine at Claxby itself and another nearby at Nettleton. It was this second mine we encountered on our walk on the Saturday.
Our walk took us along a dry valley with fields full of cows and buttercups in full bucolic splendour, then as we turned uphill the path led through a small wooded hollow. First one, then another, then a third sealed mine entrance could be seen, plus the opening to the old tramway tunnel for taking the ore out.
The original Nettleton Mine was a little higher in the valley and opened in 1928. Ore was largely removed by hand and horses were used to bring the ore out of the mine to an aerial ropeway where it was transported to the furnaces. Apparently if you wanted to find your way out of the mine in the dark you simply grabbed hold of the horses tail and told it to go.
By the 1950s ore production was beginning to slow down and in 1968 it stopped completely. In total 3.5 million tonnes was removed in the 40 years the mine was open. Then nature slowly started to reclaim the site. The bits we were walking past were from the 1968 mine, so it was amazing how quickly nature had moved in.
Ali
The Ghosts of Claxby
One of the real rewards of staying at Claxby hostel was the sight every evening of a pair of hunting Barn Owls. The hostel was on the edge of the village, so was bounded by fields and hedgerows. This kind of mixed farmland is fabulous hunting ground for owls looking for the mice and shrews you find in hay meadows and field margins.
On the Sunday night, after our barbecue started to wind down, a few of us walked a short way down the road and a few hundred yards from the road we spotted the gnarled old oak tree that the pair kept returning to. We couldn’t see the nest itself, but usually that would be tucked away in a hollow for protection. Apparently, a female barn owl will typically lay 4 to 7 eggs and sometime two broods a year – it all depends on the food availability. Well, judging by our observations these baby owls were not going to go hungry!
In folk law a screeching Barn Owl is thought to predict a storm or cold weather. Not so at Claxby, where we enjoyed perfect summer sunshine even after we tempted fate by planning a barbecue.
Ali