to furnaces in the coal fields of Derbyshire or beyond. Stanton Ironworks Areas south and east of the town were quarried by the Stanton Ironworks Company, who began using Northamptonshire ironstone in 1865. By 1869 they were leasing quarries on the Finedon Hall estate and built a narrow-gauge tramway to connect to the Midland Railway, and from there the ore was transported by rail to their furnaces at Stanton by Dale, Derbyshire. Neilson's Quarries Walter Neilson was quarrying in areas close to the town, either side of Ryegate Hill from before 1879. In 1881 he laid Neilson's Tramway a gauge tramway down to sidings on the Midland Railway. These siding were called "Neilson's Sidings" until at least the 1990s. Neilson's original pits were exhausted by 1892 and he leased new land on the east side of Finedon Road, immediately south of the town. This new pit was known as Thingdon Quarry. In 1911 Neilson's operation was taken over by Wellingborough Iron Company (see below). Wellingborough Iron Company To the south and east of the town, several companies operated quarries. Amongst these were the Rixon Iron and Brick company, which began quarrying near Finedon in 1874. Rixon laid the gauge Wellingborough Tramway to connect their ironstone pits to sidings of the Midland Railway. Rixon built their own ironworks alongside the Midland Railway in 1884. In 1887, Rixon's company declared bankruptcy and was taken over by the newly formed Wellingborough Iron Company. They relaid the tramway and opened up several more ironstone pits south of Finedon. In 1911, Stanton took over Neilson's Thingdon Quarry immediately south of the town and started a series underground mines there in 1913. In 1932, the whole operation was merged with the Stanton Ironworks company. Stanton Ironworks Company was acquired by Stewarts & Lloyds in 1939, which was one of the companies that were merged and nationalised to become British Steel in 1967. Ironstone production Quarried ironstone from the area had initially produced pig iron for use in cast-iron production. After 1879, with the development of the Gilchrist–Thomas process the production of steel was made possible using iron ore with a high Phosphate content, such as the Northamptonshire Ironstone. Around Finedon the quarries south of the town near Ryebury Hill and Sidegate Lane had been worked extensively between the 1870s and 1900s, using a labour-intensive method in which a long trench (or gullet) through the overburden was