East Hunsbury

→East Hunsbury is a large housing estate in the south of the town of Northampton, England, 3mi from the town centre and 1mi from the M1 motorway, junction 15. For administrative purposes it is part of the Borough of Northampton. It is part of the Hunsbury residential area, which also includes West Hunsbury on the west side of Towcester Road. Shelfleys is the original name for the area of Northampton currently referred to as West Hunsbury. The name of West Hunsbury still appears on maps for the district as Shelfleys. Merefield is the corresponding name for East Hunsbury, together with the name "Blackymore" for the eastern part of East Hunsbury. All three names are still on local direction signs in Northampton, although older references are no longer in use by the local people living there. The areas developed in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the expansion of Northampton. The Northampton loop of the West Coast Main Line railway running between Northampton and London Euston runs under East and West Hunsbury in a tunnel emerging near Hill Farm Rise which follows the original course of Towcester Road prior to the 1980s. Ventilation shafts are visible in the housing estate in Yeoman Meadow.Industry before Housing DevelopmentUntil the 1890s the East Hunsbury was agricultural land. From 1897 an iron ore quarry to the west expanded into the area south and east of Hunsbury and from 1912 to the area on each side of the cutting at the south end of the railway tunnel.and on the east side of the original course of Towcester Road. The ore was taken to the Hunsbury Ironworks which was by the River Nene south of Duston for smelting. The ore was taken by a 3 ft 8 inch gauge tramway which was horse worked until 1912 when steam locomotives were introduced. Quarrying ceased in 1921. Little was done to landscape the area and the quarries were clearly visible in 1966. There were proposals to begin quarrying again in the 1920s, in 1937 and again in 1952 but nothing came of these. Much of the quarried area has been bulit on,