INDUSTRIES 



In 1765 the output of coal at Whitehaven 

 during the week ending 6 November was : 



Howgitf Colliery, 2,253 tons > derived from the Prior 



Band at Duke, Kells, 

 King, Fox, Wilson, 

 Hinde and Saltom 

 Pits ; from the Ban- 

 nock Band at Kells, 

 King, and Fish Pits ; 

 and from the Yard 

 Band at Thwaite Pit. 



WhingiU Colliery, 1,094 derived from the Prior 



Band at Jackson, 

 Pearson, Fox, Hunter, 

 Pedlar and Scott Pits. 

 Total . . 3,347 tons 



The shipping price was then y. 4-d. a ton. 



The chief winning during Mr. James 

 Spedding's stewardship was the sinking of 

 Croft Pit. It was drawing coals from the 

 Prior Band in 1774, and has worked continu- 

 ously ever since until the present day. 



On the Whingill side, Wolfe, Davy, Lady, 

 Bateman, George, North, and Howe Pits were 

 sunk to the Main Band, and Scott Pit to the 

 Six Quarters Seam, during the agency of Mr. 

 James Spedding, who retired in 1781, and 

 was succeeded by Mr. John Bateman. 



In 1781 Lady, George, Davy, North, Jack- 

 son, Pearson, Bateman were working at 

 Whingill Colliery, and turning out 1,732 tons 

 of coal per week. 



At Howgill Colliery in 1781 the following 

 pits were at work, and capable of producing 

 weekly : 



Tons 



Duke Pit, Prior Band 216 



King Pit 360 



Bannock Band .... 1 80 



Kells Pit, Prior Band 1 80 



Bannock Band .... 180 



Croft Pit, Prior Band 648 



Bannock Band .... 360 



Total 2,124 



In January, 1791, the Main Band was 

 being worked underneath the town of White- 

 haven, and the workings had reached the 

 neighbourhood of Duke Street, where, on 

 31 January, a holing was made into an old 

 waste, and liberated a large quantity of 

 water, drowning two men, one woman, and 

 five horses in the workings. The ground 

 suddenly shrank in the garden behind Somer- 

 set House (then the residence of Mr. H. 

 Littledale), which, together with a number of 

 other houses in Scotch Street and George 

 Street, were cracked and otherwise damaged. 



At Carlisle Assizes in the following August 

 Mr. Littledale brought an action against the 

 Earl of Lonsdale for the damage caused to 



his house. The case was tried before Justice 

 Thompson and a special jury, who found for 

 the plaintiff. In great wrath the earl shut 

 up all his collieries and works at Whitehaven 

 rather than run the risk of having other actions 

 brought against him. This closing of the 

 pits thoroughly alarmed the town, and a 

 petition, signed by 2,500 people, was forwarded 

 to the earl, praying him to continue the work- 

 ing of the mines, and promising in that case 

 to indemnify him against all actions in die 

 future. A reply acceding to the prayer of the 

 petition was sent from Lowther on 21 Sep- 

 tember ; and great was the joy of the populace. 



After the subsidence of the houses in 

 Whitehaven in 1791 Mr. Bateman left the 

 service of the Earl of Lonsdale, and was suc- 

 ceeded by Mr. Thomas Wyley and others, 

 under whose management the Whitehaven 

 Collieries so suffered that Mr. Bateman was 

 reinstated in 1802. 



In 1792 a great subsidence of the surface 

 took place at Scalegill Colliery where Stanley 

 Pond now is. 



An excellent description of the Whitehaven 

 Collieries in 1793 was contributed at the 

 time to the Transactions of the Royal Irish 

 Academy by Dr. Fisher, M.D., 1 who asserted 

 that in Great Britain the Howgill Colliery, 

 which covered an area of 2,400 acres, was 

 then the most extensive colliery, and that 

 King Pit, in that colliery, which had been 

 sunk 1 60 fathoms to the Six Quarters Seam, 

 was the deepest pit. He also said the White- 

 haven Colliery had produced for a few years 

 last past from 100,000 to 120,000 tons of 

 coal, Dublin measure, yearly. The White- 

 haven waggon contained 2 Dublin tons, 

 weighing 21 or 22 cwt. each. 



In 1797 Sir Wilfred Lawson was the owner 

 of the Low Hall Colliery near Ingwell, Hen- 

 singham, where the Six Quarters Seam was 

 worked. 2 



In 1 800 James Pit, Whingill Colliery, was 

 sunk. 



Mr. Bateman's greatest undertaking was the 

 sinking of the William Pit on the shore near 

 Bransty. It was begun in 1804, and com- 

 pleted in 1 8 1 2. The first coal shipped there- 

 from was on 10 March, 1806. 



In 1810 William Pit fired when a 

 party consisting of Messrs. John Peile and 

 Caleb Hetherington, viewers, and four work- 

 men were making some change in the venti- 

 lation. Two of the workmen were killed. 

 The others were severely burned, particularly 



1 Annual Register, 1794, xxxvi. 326. 

 1 Cumb. and West. Antlj. and Arch. Soc. Trans. 

 xv. 402. 



363 



