established, along which a tramway could transport the ore. The overburden (often of considerable depth) was loaded into wheelbarrows and taken via planks suspended over the trench, to be dumped on the far side, so that the next section of ore could be dug out. In this way the trench would gradually migrate across a field, and the reinstated land would be several feet lower than the surrounding fields. In the 20th century the introduction of ever larger dragline excavators allowed faster working with far fewer people employed. The smaller steel plants had all been merged in 1967 and most were shut down in favour of the Corby Works. This too ceased steel production in 1980, and all Finedon quarrying had ceased by that point. Geological SSSI Towards the southern end of the parish, one of the quarries that had been worked since at least the 1920s is Finedon Top Lodge Quarry. By the mid-1960 it was being worked by Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd (to whom it was known as Wellingborough No. 5 pit), who transported the ironstone to the steel works at Corby. In 1986 it was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest on account of its geological significance. Although the quarry is no longer in use, the surviving rock-face has been given legal protection for its value in showing a representative section through the Middle Jurassic sedimentary beds. At its base, although no longer visible, is the ironstone which is part of the 'Northampton Sand Formation' of rocks. Everything above the ironstone would have been just 'overburden' to the quarrymen, which needed to be excavated and moved to the other side of the gullet, to allow the ironstone to be accessed. However they are now a piece of the evidence in building up an understanding of how the geology of Northamptonshire during the Jurassic period came into being. Almost all the layers of rock in the overburden were laid down during the Bathonian Stage of the Middle Jurassic. The layers accumulated over some 2 million years, beginning 168 million years ago, several million years after the ironstone had stopped being deposited. The cliff face reveals a layer of limestone and other material known as the 'Wellingborough Member' for which this quarry face is the type section. Above that is a further of harder limestone beds known as the 'Blisworth Limestone Formation'. Notable people Arthur Henfrey, football player