INDUSTRIES 



Although the Main Band in other parts of 

 the coalfield may be said to be divided into 

 three seams, it is generally known in those 

 localities by the names of two of its members, 

 viz. the ' Cannel and Metal Band,' the highest 

 being little worked. 



An illustration of this triple division may 

 be taken from the shaft at Watergate Pit, 

 Flimby Colliery, where the section is : 



ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. 



..29. 

 . . .26 



08 



Crow coal 

 Coal . 

 Metal . 

 Coal 



3 5 



1 1 

 1 1 



3 4 



i o 



Metal . . . 

 Cannel Band 

 Top coal . 

 Metal . . . 

 Coal . . . 

 'Tom' . . 

 Spar coal . 

 Cannel 

 Stone . 

 Bottom coal . 

 'Scram' . . 

 Dirt 



4 4 



.08 



3 

 i 6 . 



03 

 - o 31 



The Main or Cannel and Metal Band 

 has of all the seams been worked to the 

 greatest extent, both under land and sea ; and 

 next to the Main Band the Bannock Band of 

 Whitehaven and the Ten Quarters Seam of 

 other districts have received the most atten- 

 tion. 



Since the introduction of the long-wall 

 system of mining within recent times into the 

 West Cumberland coalfield, the thin seams 

 below the Main Band the Yard, Little Main, 

 and Lick Bank have been worked at St. 

 Helens, Clifton, Flimby, Broughton Moor, 

 and Dearham Collieries to a considerable but 

 much less extent than the superior and thicker 

 seams throughout the coalfield. 



Generally the produce of the West Cum- 

 berland coal seams may be described as house, 

 gas and coking coals. The cannel found in 

 the Cannel Band is of a stony nature, and 

 most of it is left underground. About the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, when the 

 smelting of iron in blast furnaces with coke 



had become an assured success, furnaces 

 of that kind were built within the West 

 Cumberland coalfield at Little Clifton, Mary- 

 port, Seaton and Frizington. 



'About 1750, or possibly a little earlier, 

 Messrs. Cookson & Co., who worked coal 

 mines at Clifton and Greysouthen, erected a 

 blast furnace at Little Clifton, on the banks 

 of the Marron.' * 



In 1765 M. Jars visited the Clifton furnace 

 and described the primitive mode in which 

 coal was then converted into coke. 2 Large 

 coals were stacked so as to allow circulation 

 of air amongst them, in conical heaps, from 

 10 to 12 feet in diameter at the base, and 

 about 5 feet high. These heaps were lighted 

 from the top, after which they were covered 

 all over with a thin layer of clay and coal- 

 dust, and care was taken to stop up any open- 

 ings that might be formed in this covering, on 

 the windward side, in order to prevent the 

 destruction of the coke when formed. 



Except at Seaton little success seems to have 

 attended the iron furnaces built circa 1750 in 

 West Cumberland ; and with their abandon- 

 ment, after a brief career, any particular 

 demand for coke would cease. Little appears 

 to have been done in the district in the manu- 

 facture of coke from those early days, until 

 the introduction of railways and the establish- 

 ment of the iron and steel works along the 

 west coast led to a demand for a local supply 

 of coke to supplement that derived from the 

 east coast, although, in the interim, ' cinders ' 

 (as coke was often styled) were made on a 

 limited scale at several collieries. 



A great drawback to the use of West 

 Cumberland coke was at one time due to the 

 impurities contained in the coal from which 

 it was made ; but that difficulty has in a great 

 measure been overcome by the adoption of 

 the improved pulverising and coal-washing 

 machinery now in use. 



All the ovens, until 1894, were of the 

 beehive pattern, about 1 1 feet diameter by 9 

 feet in height ; and at most of the existing 

 ovens the gases, formerly wasted, are utilized 

 for raising steam, thus effecting a great saving 

 in colliery consumption. But nowhere in the 

 district are the bye-products recovered. 



In 1894 a great innovation was made in 

 coke-making, in West Cumberland, by the 

 erection of 24 Copp^e coke ovens at No. 3, 

 St. Helens Colliery. Each of these ovens 

 is 30 ft. long, 6 ft. 6 in. high, and 2 ft. 

 wide, and produces about 4 tons of coke 



1 Archeology of West Cumberland Inn Trade, by 

 Mr. H. A. Fletcher. 



3 Voyages Metallurgiques, tome i. 236. 



351 



