Our Ironstone Wagon Wheels

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The present position.

In around 2003 a pair of wheels on their axle were recovered from the Stoke Road allotment field.  They were clearly the remains of a wagon used in the mining period for ironstone, 1860 to 1910.

The Canal Partnership has been storing the wheel-set on behalf of the Blisworth Heritage Society in one of their lockups and it has been possible recently to take some photographs.  It has been suggested that the wheel-set should form the basis of a reconstructed wagon which could be placed appropriately to commemorate some of the village's history.

The first picture shows the wheel-set in its present condition.  The wheels are 20" in diameter and the gauge,  ie. separation between rails, is 45".   These proportions match very closely those in the second picture which was taken by Walter Alexander in roughly 1920.  This picture shows a group of wagons in the curved cutting, commonly called "The Tip", that incises the allotment field.

The wheel-set in storage is somewhat "beaten up" but would look fine once it has been sand-blasted.  The wheels seem to be rusted solidly onto the axle.  Note that the picture of the drum, image 17-05, shows a discarded wheel similar to the above.