Hook Norton Ironstone Partnership

[2] Land on both sides of the railway at Hook Norton Station was purchased by the Oxfordshire Ironstone Company on an unknown date but "probably early in 1883".

[3] This land was conveyed to a partnership of Richard Looker (the company secretary of the B&CDR[4]), John Wilson and Henry Lovatt on 19 April 1884.

The line ran south, initially on a gradient of 1 in 17, passing under the bridleway to Paper Mill Cottages and finally reaching the working face next to the Oxford Road.

[10] Problems were experienced with locomotive operation (Tonks suggests the gradient was too steep for Florence[11]) and the incline was changed to cable-haulage powered by a stationary steam engine.

Eric Tonks states that Margaret Dickins is "probably incorrect, operations in the 'Station Field' north of the road being started shortly after the workings southeast of the station".

This was the site of the first commercial ironstone extraction in Hook Norton"[14] Whatever the sequence of opening, the 1900 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map shows that both the Austins Way area and the field north of the road were quarried.

To get the ironstone from the new quarries to the station, the Partnership's standard-gauge line was extended down the hillside where it passed under the north end of the B&CDR's viaduct.

The 1900 Ordnance Survey map shows this branch as a short spur,[24] but in the 1980s Eric Tonks found "clear evidence of a tramway alongside the lane throughout its north-south length".

1337[26] Ex Florence Colliery, Staffordshire[27] To Brymbo Steel Co., 1904 By 1901 the Partnership had run into financial difficulties and the quarries were closed in May 1901, the company being wound up in 1903.

Disused railway line running across field
The formation of the partnership's standard-gauge line (in front of trees and right foreground) descending from Hook Norton Station to the bottom of the viaduct.
Disused railway line and stone pillar of old viaduct.
The standard gauge line passed to the right of the viaduct pillar
Stone wall with protruding iron bars
The tipping dock. Standard gauge wagons ran at the base of the wall. Ore was tipped from the narrow gauge tramway above. Tonks [ 32 ] suggests that the angled rails once supported a wooden platform or chutes.
Bricked-up tunnel entrance
North portal of the tramway tunnel under the Banbury road.
Excavated face of ironstone quarry.
The ironstone face of the partnership's Townsend Quarry. Lines connected to the main tramway ran at the base of the face.
Disused tramway cutting.
The cable-worked incline descending in a cutting to the stream.
Sloping field where tramway once ran.
The course of the loco-worked tramway to Hiatt's Pit cannot now be seen, but it ran in a curve to the right skirting the higher ground.
Face of Hiatt's Pit ironstone quarry.
The ironstone face of Hiatt's Pit.