Special Feature - Dragonby

I remember as a kid being taken to Dragonby by my parents to see the Dragon, and having a vivid recollection that it was treacle which was mined there for some reason. Hence I’ve always thought of the Dragonby Iron Mines as being the Dragonby Treacle Mines.


Having seen a recent photograph of the Dragonby Dragon I decided that I’d take to dog out there and have a bit of a wonder around. As Im also fascinated by Scunthorpe’s industrial history I also figured I’d have a bit of a poke around and see what was left of the mines too.

Dragonby its self is a very small village consisting of just one row of houses. If you are looking for the Dragon then there is a farm access located about half way down the northern side of the street. Take a wonder through there and the dragon is about 100 meters on your right.

Dragonby only became known as Dragonby when it was renamed by the land owners the Elwes family, prior to this date is was named Conesby Cliff. At the turn of the 20th Century the area around it was well kept and it was a reasonably well known local attraction.


Several legends exist surrounding the dragon, one being that it was the body of a dragon turned to stone by a wizard. Another legend has it that it is a church that has sunk in to the ground taking its congregation, leaving only its roof showing. Apparently if you go there late at night then just once a year you will hear the ghostly bells ringing from inside it!

Sadly however its just a funny shaped bit of lime stone which has been attributed to a spring.

Moving on from there a track heads north into woods which have grown up around some of the oldest iron workings in the area. Wondering through the woods you can find a lot of discarded worked stone and fired Iron stone scattered around. This is mixed with the remnants of reasonably modern drill cores, the foundations of destroyed buildings and artefacts from the last 100 years or so.

The encroaching woodland combined with the desolation of a once busy industrial site give the whole wooded area an haunting feeling of abandonment.

Cutting away from the woods and heading directly west, a farm track leads down to the pit head for the deep mine. The Dragonby mine complex is massive, there are several sink holes littered around the area and also working pumping and monitoring stations maintained by Corus which keep the water levels in the mines safe to avoid collapse and also to provide water for industrial purposes to the existing steel works.

Ordinance survey maps of the area show there to be 4 large buildings on the main site, of which only two remain.

The electrical switch room is still operational and will doubtless be used to maintain power in the mines. Rumour had it that the mines formed part of Scunthorpe’s strategic nuclear plan in the cold war, and that they were to be used in the instance of a nuclear strike as a civilian shelter. How much truth there is to that is impossible to say, but it is known that they are inspected once a year by the mines inspectorate, and that there is power currently being fed to the switch room on this site. However, as Iron ore oxidises it removes all the oxygen from the air so the workings them selves would require either breathing apparatus, or the fans to be on so I’d have doubts if this would work as a nuclear shelter in any case.

To the south of the switch room lay the foundations of two other buildings, these have been demolished and the site cleared, but it would appear from the existence of a shower tray still in the floor of one of the buildings that it probably housed some form of staff welfare facilities for the miners.

The purpose of the smaller of these two foundations is unclear.

Directly to the west of these foundations lies a very long tall workshop built out of engineering bricks. This structure remains in a stable state, despite vandalism, and is opened up and accessible.

The workshop consists of three bays, South, Middle and North. The Southern bay has two very large iron sliding doors facing the south, with secondary entry points on both east the western façade. Inside the building is empty but in good repair, and contains some excellent urban art featuring a dragon tag and a very well drawn face. A set of narrow gage rails are embedded in the floor.

The middle workshop is the smaller of the three, and is split in to 3 parts. It seems to have been some kind of services building with evidence of what may have been boilers or furnaces for heating and the remains of a very large electrical distribution point. Again urban artist have left their mark, but despite the size of their canvas, only really small tags and vulgarities have been sprayed, turning a potential urban art installation into unsightly vandalism.

The northern bay is by far the largest, and faces towards the mine entrance. Its easy to imagine repairs for equipment hauled out of the mines being made in here. It also contains some of the earliest urban art on the pillars on the west wall.

Moving out from there the entrance to the mine can be seen at the bottom of a very steep slope which when it was opened probably required some form of windlass to get vehicles or pallets in and out of the mines to extract the ore.

A series of steeply angled shallow steps also descend down each site of the ramp. I’d be really interested to hear more from any one who has worked or visited the mines, especially any photographs or videos taken inside.

All in all a very interesting walk, where for a moment or two if you let your imagination loose you can almost hear Scunthorpe’s industrial past sweating away digging out the iron stone which made the town what it is today.

Readers Photos The following images have been kindly submitted by Hamst, who having read it decided to go and have an explore himself. If any one has any further photographs either present day or historical I'd be more than happy to add them here, just mail them to thoades@hotmail.com.

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