A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



COAL MINING 



The supreme importance of the West 

 Cumberland coalfield, exposed to view along 

 the sea -board from Barrowmouth near 

 Whitehavcn to Maryport, and thence inland 

 to Bolton Low Houses, is apt to cause other 

 and minor tracts of coal in Cumberland to 

 be overlooked. There are, however, in the 

 eastern part of the county, the true Coal 

 Measures, forming the western extremity of 

 the Newcastle coalfield, at Midgeholme ; the 

 seams of coal found in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone, along its escarpment at the great 

 Pennine fault, and also in the Alston district ; 

 and the seams of coal occurring in the tract 

 of Carboniferous Limestone lying between the 

 eastern extremity of the West Cumberland 

 coalfield and the Permian sandstone near 

 Penrith. 



WEST CUMBERLAND COALFIELD 



Area. According to the Geological Survey 

 of England and Wales, the West Cumberland 

 coalfield apparently terminates to the north 

 at the Aspatria fault which puts in the Per- 

 mian sandstone ; but, as a matter of fact, 

 workings have been driven a considerable 

 distance beyond it in the Yard Band from 

 Brayton No. 4 Pit. Similarly to the south, 

 judging from the same Survey, it might seem 

 that the coalfield ends at the Permian sand- 

 stone of St. Bees Head, whereas the Croft 

 Pit workings, Whitehaven Colliery, extend, 

 in the Main Band, a long way under the 

 Permian sandstone ; and the Gutterfoot bore- 

 hole conclusively proved the continuity of the 

 principal coal seams as far south as the village 

 of St. Bees. 



The eastern boundary, formed by the Car- 

 boniferous Limestone, is the only one that 

 can at present be defined with any precision. 



Westward the Coal Measures dip to the 

 sea, but their extent in that direction can only 

 be surmised. 



The exposed coalfield may be described 

 generally as a belt of Coal Measures, reposing 

 either on the Millstone Grit or on the Yore- 

 dale rocks of the Carboniferous Limestone 

 series, along the north-west base of the Cum- 

 berland hills. 



From Barrowmouth, the exposed coalfield 

 measures about 16 miles to Crosby Colliery. 

 Throughout that distance it has an average 

 width of about 4^ miles. Near Crosby Col- 

 liery the coalfield trends to the east, and is 

 there only three-quarters of a mile wide. The 

 eastern extremity of the uncovered coalfield 

 is about 12 miles from Crosby Colliery, and 



has an average width of about \\ miles. 

 Thus the total area of the coalfield, as shown 

 by the Geological Survey, is about 90 square 

 miles. To this must be added the area of 

 coalfield already proved under the Permians, 

 say 6 square miles, and the known area under 

 the sea, say 1 2 square miles, making the total 

 extent of coalfield known up to the present 

 time to be about 108 square miles. 



Thickness. The Coal Measures of West 

 Cumberland consist of two unconformable 

 divisions, viz. : 



1. The Upper or Whitehaven Sandstone 



series. 



2. The Lower or Productive Measures. 



The upper beds of the Whitehaven Sand- 

 stone series were first recognized by Mr. W. 

 Brockbank 1 in 1891, in the section of the 

 borehole put down at Frizington Hall, a few 

 miles east of Whitehaven, where they were 

 found, 418 feet thick, immediately under- 

 neath the Permian breccia, to contain two thin 

 beds of Spirorbis limestone, and three thin coal 

 seams. 



The sandstone forming the cliffs at White- 

 haven, where it is about 170 feet thick, and 

 covering the Lower Coal Measures there 

 and at Cleator Moor, Ellenborough, Crosby, 

 Oughterside and Bolton, belongs to the lower 

 part of the Upper Coal Measures. 



Mr. Newell Arber 2 considers the White- 

 haven sandstone series to be at least 600 feet 

 thick ; but probably its maximum thickness 

 is 778 feet in the Bolton district. 



Mr. J. D. Kendall has estimated 3 that the 

 Lower Coal Measures are the thickest at 

 Workington, viz. 1 300 feet, but ' there is some 

 doubt as to the vertical extent of the series 

 since the base has not so far been definitely 

 determined.' 



The aggregate thickness of the West 

 Cumberland Coal Measures may therefore be 

 taken to be 2,078 feet. 



T/>4 Whitehaven Sandstone Series. This 

 series consists chiefly of purple sandstones and 

 shales ; but the lower part also comprises light 

 and dark coloured shales resembling those of 

 the Lower Coal Measures, and several work- 

 able seams of coal. At the Bolton, Crum- 

 mock and Weary Hall collieries two of these 

 seams, viz. the Crow Coal and Master Band, 



1 Mem. y Pro. Lit. fc? Phil. Soc. Man. sec. 4, 

 iv. 418. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. lix. 2. 



3 Tram. North of Eng. Init. Mining Engineers, 

 xxxii. 347. 



348 



