Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Department of the Environment: Ironstone...

HLG 132

1942-1985

This series contains files and plans of the Ironstone Restoration Fund of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, and later of the Department of the Environment. They relate to applications for payments from the Fund which was created by the Mineral Workings Act 1951 to deal with problems caused by the opencast extraction of ironstone in the Midlands.

The files originate from several series, and relate to the topics listed below:

PREFIX TOPIC

DL Applications for payments from the Fund "Decision Letters" to applicants conveying the Ministry's determinations

GEN NM GEN General papers about the ironstone industry

IA Papers of the Ironstone Advisory Committee

M/A S Applications for ironstone workings

M/C M/E Payment of grant to operators

NM O Restoration, planning, landscaping of, and applications for

ironstone workings

OK Annual Review Meetings of the Ironstone Restoration Fund

The series also includes maps of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning Survey of the Ironstone Industry and the Midlands Ironstone Field Applications Areas.

Public Record(s)

English

• Department of the Environment, Ironstone Restoration Fund, 1970-1985
• Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Ironstone Restoration Fund, 1951-1970

397 files and flat sheets

Topics

Maps and plans

Iron, steel and metals

Planning (Land and Property)

Mining and quarrying

The Fund was created by the Minerals Working Act 1951 to deal with the serious problems caused by open-cast extraction of ironstone in the Midlands by providing funds for the restoration of land after working, and was financed by contributions from ironstone operators, land owners and Exchequer. Payments were made from it in three categories: to operators for the restoration of worked land; to local authorities and land owners for the restoration of worked land; to land owners and occupiers for agricultural and forestry operations on worked land.

The Mineral Workings Act 1951 established an Advisory Committee on Ironstone Restoration, whose chairman was also Ironstone Adviser to the Minister of Housing and Local Government on questions relating to the determination of payments to be made to operators, and questions relating to the fixing of the standard rate- a fixed sum per acre which was a baseline of expenditure on restoration above which operators were entitled to contributions from the Fund.

The Advisory Committee was abolished by the Mineral Workings Act 1971. The fund was abolished under the Mineral Workings Act 1985, as a result of the sharp decline in ironstone working from the mid 1970s. After 1985 restoration work following ironstone extraction was administered by the British Steel Corporation and the appropriate local authorities.