page_title: Ab Kettleby
section_title: Holwell
hierarchical_section_title: Ab Kettleby / History / Iron ore / Holwell
caption_attribution_description: English: Brown's Hill Quarry Puts me in mind of Clive Kings' "Stig of the Dump" (minus the rubbish of course).
context_page_description: Ab Kettleby is a village and civil parish in the Melton district of Leicestershire, England, located 3 miles north of Melton Mowbray, on the A606 road. It had a population of 501 in 2001; at the 2011 census this had increased to 529.
  It is situated 3 miles southeast of the border with Nottinghamshire. The village is situated 460 feet above sea level. The neighbouring hamlets of Wartnaby and Holwell form part of the civil parish of Ab Kettleby.
context_section_description: Holwell was the most important centre. Iron ore was first quarried to the north of Holwell on the south side of the narrow part of Landyke Lane in 1875 and continued in various places to the north and east of the hamlet until 1930. From 1931 until 1943 iron ore was mined rather than quarried east of Brown's Hill. The mine was a drift mine and the tunnel emerged from the north side of the hill in 1943. Quarrying was resumed at that point and continued until 1962. The last quarrying took place close to the road to Scalford Hall. Quarrying was done by hand with the help of explosives at first. The first quarrying machine was a petrol paraffin digger introduced in 1930. The first diesel digger arrived in 1943. The ore was at first taken away by horse and cart, but the Holwell Iron Company built a standard-gauge mineral railway in 1877 which connected with the Midland Railway's Syston to Peterborough line west of Melton Mowbray. Most of this mineral railway was taken over and improved by the Midland in two stages: first as part of their Nottingham to Melton line and then as their Holwell branch (connecting with that line) in 1887. This was extended the same year northwards to Wycomb Junction on the Great Northern's Waltham branch. This branch transported the ore from Holwell as well as some of that from Eaton. The Holwell company built their own iron works close to the Holwell Branch which operated from 1881. The works was called Holwell Works because it was built by the Holwell Company but was actually at Asfordby Hill. The quarries and the mine fed the standard gauge line by means of narrow-gauge tramways. These were at first worked by gravity or horses, but diesel locomotives were introduced in 1933. The tramways were replaced by lorries in 1948. Part of the quarry area has been landscaped and returned to agriculture; part has been left and retained as a nature reserve. One entrance to the mine tunnel has been blocked; the other entrance only partly blocked to allow bats to roost in the mine. In 1986, the area above the mine carried warning notices that the land is liable to subsidence. The railway has been lifted.
caption: Brown's Hill Quarry - at Holwell showing entrance to drift mine. geograph.org.uk - 1183115
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