The Whitehaven Colliery Through Time

by Alan Routledge

  Dockside Locomotive

  Steam engines, locally built at the Lowca Engineering Works of Tulk & Ley, were often used to pull and shunt the coal wagons around the docks either to the main line or to load ships up for Dublin. The older image shows a typical small workhorse on the harbour rail track on the Embankment. This system for transporting coals from the Brake continued until the final coal stocks were moved from Haig Pit in 1986. Afterwards the engines used became sought after by various museums, with the Haig Mining Museum having a couple, one of which was a Hunslet diesel. There was a plan to use the old engines to run converted wagons on the rail line between the Brake Top and the old Ladysmith washery. Unfortunately, for one reason or another it never came to fruition. As a result, Haig’s locomotives have been loaned out to other preservation societies.

  Ironworks at Whitehaven and Millom

  While coal was being mined in and around Whitehaven, so too was iron ore. It was not too long before the Lonsdale Haematite ironworks went into business on the North Shore, just beyond the William and Henry pits, which provided the coking coal for the smelting process. Later, coke was produced on the site and the by-product town gas was distributed by the Whitehaven Gas Company Ltd. The iron was used to make the iron plate used to build the hulls of the larger sailing vessels being built in the Whitehaven yards. When shipbuilding ceased in 1889, the demand for iron plate also fell away and the ironworks soon followed, closing in 1902. Two important local industries lost in next to no time! Whitehaven stands at the north end of the Borough of Copeland, and Millom 30 miles away at the south end. The Millom Ironworks sat on a massive iron ore field at Hodbarrow and was worked by up to 15 shafts at any one time, all raising high quality ore. The ironworks fared somewhat better than at Whitehaven. They were pioneers in steel production and became part of British Steel. However, they too were closed for good in the 1980s with a considerable loss of jobs.

  Earthenware Pots and a Bronze Plaque

  The various Whitehaven potteries survived for a long time with the manufacture of stoneware lasting, perhaps, the longest of all. Around 1901 a group of F. Pateman’s workers, including a couple of apprentices, posed for a photograph with their stone jars at the pottery in the Ginns. Over the years the town’s potteries had produced some fine, attractive semi-china, clay smoking pipes and a variety of stoneware including animal feed troughs used by local farmers. There are good displays of Whitehaven pottery at the Beacon Museum, and a bronze plaque celebrating the town’s connections with that industry can be found on the harbourside, a suitable place for such a memorial as a good deal of Whitehaven pottery found its way to Maryland, Virginia and the West Indies on local trading vessels.

  Engineering, the Phoenix Foundry and an Office Block

  The mining industry and those other industries which had followed in its wake, including pottery, glass making, chemicals and shipbuilding, relied on smaller local enterprises for their requirements of materials, engineering services and ironwares. There were a good number of foundries and engineering works in the town including the Ramsey Brothers’, Phoenix Foundry in Albion Street, who produced a wide spectrum of products and services, even manufacturing large boilers etc. Today there are a few similar enterprises who now rely on the nuclear industry at Sellafield for their work. Ironically, the old Phoenix site has been cleared and these rather ugly offices are being erected for use by Sellafield office workers. The public were told that the new offices would greatly enhance the south entrance to the town. How these buildings will improve a largely Georgian town is a mystery. There is not even a lick of Georgian-coloured paint to be seen!

  The New Houses

  Competition for miners to work in the Whitehaven pits was fierce even though working conditions were poor at best and often positively dangerous. Apart from the Lowther family in Whitehaven, the Curwen family at Workington were also in the market for good workers and the battle was won by the owners who offered the best terms and conditions. Lowther decided to build 500 new houses to attract miners and their families to Whitehaven to work in his pits. In the event, only 250 very small dwellings were erected in three long rows at the foot of the brows between the Newtown and the Ginns. The national ‘Tory’ press hailed these new houses as ‘of the highest standard of community welfare project donated by a kindly and caring gentleman for his workers’. At best two up and two down, the old image gives an idea of what the houses were like. The papers neglected to say that there was no running water available for the houses and only one dry outside toilet for every seven houses. Haig Colliery Museum made a scale model of a section of the New Houses as part of its display. It proved a great success with the older miners and their families, many of whom had lived in those houses in the 1930s.

  Screen Lasses

  Work was difficult in the early days of commercial mining, with dangerous and dirty working conditions. One of the toughest jobs at any mine was that of screening the coal for stone and other rubbish, which had to be removed prior to sale. The waste had to be removed by hand, work mainly done by women, from screens where the material was spread out, making it easier to see the stone and colliery refuse. The old image dates from around 1890 and shows the screens and workers of Wellington Pit. This method of cleaning the coal continued in use until the screens at Haig Colliery were closed following the introduction of the coal preparation plant in 1975. The process ran continuously, was totally mechanical and used the principle of floatation to separate the lighter coal from the heavier waste. The screen lasses’ jobs came to an end. The Haig ladies were photographed in 1962.

  Miners Waiting to Descend into William Pit

  A group of William Pit miners from around 1900 waiting for their turn to ride down in the cage and make their way to the coal face. Note their dress – no safety helmets, just ordinary clothes and flat caps. There are some safety lamps and the occasional bait (sandwich) box to be seen. The men’s cage was entered at first-floor level at William and so the men started their downward journey with a climb up the outside staircase. We can tell the men are waiting to go down because they have clean hands and faces. There were no pit head baths in those days. The new image shows roughly the same area today. Virtually all of the workings have gone but there is a small memorial to the men who lost their lives in William Pit over the years standing virtually on top of the old shaft.

  Sea Brows, Lock Outs, Strikes and Digging for Coal

  Industrial relations were often not of the best in Cumberland in general and the Whitehaven Colliery in particular. Men walked out over all sorts of things, many seeming trivial today. Usually they touched on working conditions, rates of pay, bonuses and changes in the way the coal face would be worked. Pay was often paid out in a local pub, where much of it got spent on ale or lost gambling before the men found their way home. As a result wives were left short of money, making housekeeping very difficult. Some strikes or lockouts were over in a day, others took months. Strike pay from the unions was limited and soon ran out. Social services, as we know them, did not exist. Miners and their families would be forced to take to the coal outcrops on the sea brows to gather a bag or two to keep warm or to sell to help make ends meet. The old image dates back to the 1920s and the newer image shows the same scene today.

  Railways at Whitehaven

  Other users of coal, on an industrial scale, were the railway companies. They came to Whitehaven in the 1840s and 1850s with the first, built by George Stevenson, coming down from Carlisle via Maryport and terminating at Bransty. A few years later it was joined by the Furness Railway, coming from the south, to form the Whitehaven & Furness Junction Railway. The two lines were joined by a mile-long tunnel under the town and further connected to the harbour railway system at Bransty, providing an alternative means of moving coal from Whitehaven to other markets in England. The older image is of a passenger train standing at Platform 1, destination Carlisle, and the newer image shows a fine steam train pulling into Platform 3, heading for Barrow-in-Furness and all po
ints south. The postcard gives a good view of William Pit in the background. Today the station platforms remain, train destinations are the same but the fine old station building, with its waiting rooms, book shop, refreshment room and toilets is gone.

  The Embankment

  The Embankment is that bit of the harbour which connects the North Harbour to the South and permits the rail connection from the Brake to the Queens Dock via the Swing Bridge. With the connection to the main line then in place, coal could be moved anywhere in the country. The older image shows grown men appearing to have taken over the boys’ game of marbles. They don’t seem to be dressed for work and may be on strike or locked out, or maybe just waiting for the pubs to open. The two lads look on, somewhat bemused. The same piece of the embankment looking south, when there is a continental market in town, presents a different picture of life around the Embankment today. Still standing on Mount Pleasant, the restored remains of the Duke Pit catch the eye, as does High Road, running across the skyline. It leads to the Haig Pit Mining Museum and, a mile further on, to the old Croft, Ladysmith and Marchon site.

  Croft Pit, Railway Sidings and Sandwith

  The photograph from 1880s shows a new railway siding under construction. The siding was being dug out by hand; picks and shovels were the order of the day and no bulldozers or other heavy earth-moving gear can be seen. Whether the siding was part of the Croft Pit Incline to Corkickle or just for use internally is not known. The waste being dug out by the men was neatly loaded onto chaldrons for disposal later in the day. Normally each chaldron held two ‘Whitehaven Tons’ of coal, a measure in use from the earliest days of mining in the district. Today we can see the sidings are gone, Croft and Ladysmith pits and their associated production units are also gone, as is the Marchon Chemicals Works. The site is being relandscaped, with little to show for earlier industries, except for the broken concrete. The loss of the old buildings has opened up the view to the lovely old village of Sandwith.

  Haig Pit Brake, the Harbourside and John Paul Jones

  The steep Brake running from Haig Pit to the harbourside was operated by an endless steel rope, to which a couple of full wagons were hitched at the top and a couple of empty ones fastened on at the bottom. The rope took several turns over a large steel drum at the top of the incline, used like a brake to keep the speed of the wagons in check. When released, the full wagons would run downhill under gravity and pull the empty ones up to the top. The wagons were unhooked from the rope top and bottom and the whole process was repeated with more wagons. Note the steam engine waiting to couple up and move the full wagons round to the Queens Dock. A similar set-up at the top took the empties to the pit for refilling. With the closure of Haig Pit the Brake became redundant and as part of the Whitehaven Coast Scheme it has been converted into a footpath by the National Trust. On the harbour, the start of the path is just behind the cannons and sculptures, part of the memorial to John Paul Jones’ raid on Whitehaven in 1778. The site of this artwork is where Jones had his only success, setting a small grounded coal boat, the Thompson, on fire.

  Coal Facilities, Flats, Offices and Shops at the Queens Dock

  Trainloads of coal wagons were brought round the harbour to the Queens Dock or onto the main railway line at Bransty by a number of small locomotives. The engines usually had a bit of a battered look and were invariably painted black. Loading a collier was a simple enough procedure. The wagon was hauled over a metal grid connected to a large metal slide into the ship’s hold. When the bottom of the wagon was opened, coal was dropped into the hold with a crash. The whole area was a mass of railway lines bringing coals from Ladysmith, Haig and William pits to the dock or onto the main line. The image of today, taken from the same spot, offers a much cleaner and less frenetic scene. Harbourside flats, offices and shops, and the red sandstone building originally erected for the Inland Revenue, present a much more cheerful outlook, helped further by the two restored cannons, guarding the entrance to the North Harbour facilities.

  West Strand Coal Sidings

  Coal came down the Brake, on the right of the picture, by gravity and the loaded wagons were run up the inclined sidings to await movement to the Queens Dock. When coal was first mined, it was loaded onto smallish boats (brigs) for shipment to Dublin, making use of the hurries or chutes that dropped the coal directly into the ship’s hold. The wagons were taken overhead across the West Strand to reach the hurries. The building (top centre) marked the point where the steep Howgill incline did a right-angled turn to join the sidings. The notice near the harbourside instructed the engine drivers to keep a sharp eye out for pedestrians and to sound their whistles frequently. The whole of the wharf was covered with railway lines, which made walking to the West Pier very difficult and not too safe. The area is now occupied by the Beacon Museum, which has just undergone a major refit and also taken on the job of telling the Sellafield nuclear story.

  The Wellington Pit Disaster

  The postcard almost tells its own story about the disaster of 11 May 1910, in which 136 men and boys lost their lives. After careful thought and much discussion as to whether any of the men were still alive, following the explosion and fire it was decided to wall up the whole area to cut off the air supply and thereby extinguish the fires. The men’s bodies lay trapped behind the brick walls as late as August that year before it was considered safe to re-open the seals and recover the bodies – a harrowing experience for everybody involved. All that is left of Wellington Pit are some walls, the gatehouse (painted white and now the headquarters of Whitehaven Coastguard), and the ornate ventilation chimney. The foreground is dominated by the old slag bank covering the South Beach, now being reclaimed by the sea.

  The Rescue Men

  The explosion at Wellington Pit brought in rescue workers from all over the north of England, particularly Durham and Northumberland. The rescue equipment at the time was somewhat rudimentary and the work required much more than technical know-how on the part of the rescue men whose own lives were on the line all the time. Known as the ‘Miners’ VC’, there were fifty-six Edward Medals awarded for bravery and for acts of selflessness during the rescue attempts at Wellington Pit. One result of this disaster was the foundation of a number of mines rescue teams at each individual pit in the Whitehaven Colliery and a more centrally placed fulltime team based near Workington. With all coal mining now finished, the teams have been disbanded and about the closest reminder of their work and importance is that seen on the Colin Telfer statue ‘The End of an Era’ near to the Wellington Pit.

  Despair, Total and Absolute

  This photograph used in the local newspaper sums up, better than any words of mine can, the complete and utter despair such a disaster brings to members of a grieving family. Not knowing whether they had ‘officially’ lost their husband or son must have been very hard to bear. The words on the simple memorial, set in place when the old pit was relandscaped some thirty-five years ago, say all that needs to be said. As part of the Whitehaven Coast Scheme, the area has again been tidied up and has a wonderful mosaic telling the story of mining and other industries in and around Whitehaven. The Candlestick Chimney has also been repointed and floodlit; it makes an impressive sight at night.

  Queen’s Letter of Sympathy

  On Saturday 14 May 1910, despite losing her own husband, King Edward VII, just a few weeks prior to the Wellington Pit disaster, Queen Alexandra, the Queen Mother, wrote this letter of sympathy to the Mayor of the Borough of Whitehaven. In her own deep sorrow her heart bled for the people of Whitehaven. She said precisely what needed to be said at the time – just one day after the explosion. A century later a new memorial was dedicated to those men who lost their lives and also to the brave rescue workers who worked so hard and long to save what lives they could that fateful day. The memorial was erected on what is now called the Wellington Terrace, which is part of the old brake coming down from Haig Pit.

  The Miners Chapel and a Military Funeral

  Following
the opening up of the seals at Wellington, the bodies of the miners were found and carefully recovered. After identification of the remains and a harrowing inquest, which often proved to be a very difficult task, the bodies were released to their families for burial. As the recovery process took so many months to complete, there was no mass funeral but a series of smaller ones, including some military funerals, especially when the deceased were members of the Territorial Army or Reserves. There were many churches and chapels in the town at which the mine workers and their families worshipped. The Roman Catholic church on Coach Road created a very fine Miners’ Chapel within the body of the church, which is still a wonderful haven of peace and remembrance.