A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



was pumped at the George Pit up to a level 

 which discharged into Bransty Beck, near to 

 Lonsdale Place. The James Pit Main Band 

 was drained to the Saltom Pit through the 

 single stone drift, driven in 1796 underneath 

 Whitehaven, which, until a connection was 

 made many years afterwards seawards, was the 

 only communication underground between the 

 Howgill and Whingill Collieries. 



The success that had attended the intro- 

 duction of the steam engine for pumping, at 

 Ginns Pit, the water from the workings bor- 

 dering upon the outcrops of the seams in the 

 St. Bees valley undoubtedly led Mr. Carlisle 

 Spedding to propose to Mr. Lowther the bold 

 project of sinking a pit close to the seashore, 

 as near to the dip as possible, for the purpose 

 of winning and working not only the land 

 coal which lay between the coast line and the 

 workings to the rise, but also the coal under 

 the sea. 



The site selected for this great undertaking 

 was close to high water mark, and a com- 

 mencement was made there in 1729 with the 

 sinking of the pit which was afterwards named 

 Saltom. It was completed to Main Band in 



I73 1 - 



The coals at Saltom Pit were drawn to 



bank at the shore level by gins, conveyed 

 by a short drift to the bottom of the Raven- 

 hill Pit and there drawn to the top of the 

 cliffs, a height of 27 fathoms, again by gins. 

 Thence the coals were taken by waggons to 

 the staith at the south side of the harbour. It 

 is generally believed that the first waggon-way 

 was made to Parker Pit ; but it is not unlikely 

 that the first railway of that kind was made 

 either to Ravenhill Pit or to Saltom Pit. The 

 Parker Pit waggon-way is shown in the ' Bird's- 

 eye view of Whitehaven,' engraved by Richard 

 Parr from a painting by Mr. Matthias Read, 

 executed in 1738 (vide illustration). The 

 waggons, carrying 44 cwt. of coals, were 

 mounted on cast iron wheels and ran on wooden 

 rails. At Howgill, these railways were laid 

 from the pits to a large staith, capable of holding 

 3,000 waggons of coals, that was constructed 

 close to the quay at the south harbour. The 

 coals could either be shipped from the five spouts 

 which were erected there, or stored in the 

 staith, which was for the greater part covered 

 in. 1 All the waggon-ways had a descent to 

 the harbour. The full waggons were braked 

 down by means of a ' convoy ' fixed to the 

 side of the waggon, and the empties were 

 taken back to the pits by horses. The coals 



1 Dr. Joshua Dixon, in his Life of Bnwnrigg, 

 p. Hz, states that the covered part of the staith 

 held 5,244 waggons of coals and the uncovered 

 part 2,352 waggons, in the year 1801. 



from the Whingill pits were conveyed at this 

 time in a similar manner to a large staith situate 

 on the site of the present cab stables, and 

 thence they were carted to the shipping. To 

 dispense with this dilatory and costly mode of 

 shipment it was decided to carry the waggon- 

 way direct to the shipping berths on the north 

 wall across Tangier Street. Bransty Arch 

 was built with this object, and the incline 

 over it was opened with great hlat on 9 August, 

 1803. 



In 1737 a violent explosion occurred at 

 Corporal Pit, Arrowthwaite, by which twenty- 

 one men, one woman and three horses were 

 killed ; and in 1740 an explosion at Hinde 

 Pit killed two persons, did a lot of damage, 

 and stopped the pit for several weeks. 



In addition to Saltom Pit, Mr. Carlisle 

 Spedding sank Thwaite, King, Duke, Kells, 

 Fish, Newtown, Country, Moss and Hinde 

 Pits, on the Howgill side; and sank Carr, 

 Pearson, Pedlar, Taylor, Fox, Daniel, Jackson, 

 Hunter, Watson, Harras, Green and other 

 pits on the Whingill side. 



In 1740 the output of Howgill Colliery 

 was 88,801 tons, derived from the Prior 

 and Bannock Bands at Watson, Banks, Hinde, 

 Fish, Saltom, Thwaite, Parker, Gameriggs 

 and Howgill Heads Pits. The output at the 

 Whingill Colliery was only 8,4 1 9 tons, raised 

 from the Prior Band at Hunter, Furnace, 

 Tate, and Gibson Pits. During the same year 

 the Parton and Scalegill Collieries, producing 

 small outputs, were being worked in connec- 

 tion with the Whitehaven pits. 



In 1742 the Governors of St. Bees Gram- 

 mar School leased to Sir James Lowther all 

 their coal mines in the manor of St. Bees, at 

 the yearly rent of 3 los. No coal seems to 

 have been worked under the school lands from 

 1680 until that year. In 1819 this lease 

 formed the subject of an inquiry by the Charity 

 Commissioners; and in 1821 the Attorney- 

 General, in accordance with their Report in- 

 stituted proceedings in Chancery with a view 

 of setting aside the lease, on the plea that Sir 

 James Lowther and his steward, Mr. John 

 Spedding, being governors of the school when 

 the lease was granted, the same was therefore 

 void. In 1827 Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst 

 gave judgment. The lease was annulled, and 

 the Earl of Lonsdale, the successor of the 

 original lessee, was ordered to pay the gover- 

 nors 13,280, out of which the expenses of 

 the suit had to be defrayed. 



In 1765 M. Jars visited the Whitehaven 

 pits and described them in Les Voyages Mhal- 

 lurgiques, from which it appears that the Saltom 

 Pit workings were then two-thirds of a mile 

 under the sea. 



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