A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Cleator Moor. The first collieries at Clea- 

 tor Moor were Lilt's Pit at Bowthorn, and 

 Mr. Dean's at Keekle Grove ; at work in 

 1 802 in the Five Feet Seam. 



In 1839 Messrs. Barker and Harrison sank 

 the Whinny Hill Pit 114 fathoms to the 

 Main Band, from which, and from the Five 

 Feet Seam, coals were raised in 1843 ; and 

 in 1847 this Whinny Hill or Wyndham 

 Colliery was taken over by the Whitehaven 

 Haematite Iron Company, who afterwards 

 sank No. 2 Pit to the south-east. 



In 1848 a terrible explosion took place in 

 the Five Feet Seam workings in Whinny Hill 

 Pit, causing the death of 30 perjons. 



In 1849 tne Threapthwaite Coal Company 

 put down at Threapthwaite two shafts, whence 

 the Bannock and Main Bands were worked 

 until 1872. 



In 1 86 1 the Whitehaven Haematite Iron 

 Company completed Hope Pit to the Main 

 Band, a depth of 120 fathoms, and con- 

 tinued No. 2 Pit to the Low Bottom or Six 

 Quarters Seam. 



In 1863 three men and a boy lost their 

 lives in No. 2 Pit. They had walked into 

 a body of gas that had accumulated in con- 

 sequence of a fall of roof. 



Wyndham Colliery (No. 2 and Hope Pits) 

 was closed in 1871. The Five Feet, Ban- 

 nock, Main, Yard and Low Bottom Seams 

 had been worked there. 



In 1869 the Whitehaven Haematite Iron 

 Company sank the Lindow Pits and worked 

 the Main, Five Feet, Bannock and Yard 

 Bands there between Wyndham and Threap- 

 thwaite Collieries. In 1891 the Lindow Pits 

 were put down to the Six Quarters Seam, 

 and in 1897 the colliery was laid in. 



Mr. Stirling's Montreal Colliery, Moor 

 Row, is the only one now working in the 

 Cleator Moor coalfield. It was sunk in 

 1867 to the Main Band, a depth of 81 

 fathoms, and there the Five Feet, Bannock 

 and Main Bands have been worked. At this 

 colliery may be witnessed the unique sight 

 of coal and iron ore being drawn at the same 

 shaft, a rich deposit of haematite having been 

 won from the Main Band, through the large 

 upthrow fault that throws up the Carbonifer- 

 ous Limestone. 



Workington, Harrington, Distington, Mores- 

 by, Arlecdon and Dean. The Curwens are 

 said to have worked and exported coal at 

 Workington before 1650;* but in an 

 account of the mines in the manor of Work- 

 ington in 1673 no mention of any colliery 



is made, and Sandford, whose MS. is in the 

 library of the dean and chapter at Carlisle, 

 describing Workington in 1676, says: 'The 

 haven was not then frequented with ships 

 and the colliery was decayed.' 



Denton in his MS. ' Perambulation of 

 Cumberland and Westmorland, 1 687-8,' 2 

 observes that the colliery within Mr. Curwen's 

 demesne at Workington was worth 200 a 

 year. 



Coal mining appears to have been con- 

 ducted on a small scale until the invention of 

 the steam engine enabled the Curwens, about 

 1730 or 1740, to sink Union, Moorbanks, 

 Hunday 3 and Schoolhouse Pits, which were 

 at work in 1750. 



M. Jars visited the Workington coal mines 

 in 1765, and described them in his Voyages 

 Metallurgiques. According to his account six 

 workable seams of coal had been proved, the 

 lowest bed, 4 feet thick, occurring at the 

 depth of 60 fathoms at the Engine Pit. 

 Firedamp abounded in the mines, and ex- 

 plosions, notwithstanding the use of steel 

 mills, were frequent. Indeed, during M. Jar's 

 visit two men were killed and many burned. 



In 1771 the output of coal raised at the 

 Workington Colliery was 1,701 tons, and in 

 1772, 10,742 tons. In 1774 the quantity 

 had increased to 23,600 tons, and in 1780 to 

 33,350 tons. 



Up to 1 794 all the coal had been obtained 

 from pits in the Banklands or eastern division 

 of the Workington Colliery. In that year 

 Mr. John Christian Curwen had, under the 

 advice of Mr. John Grieve, engineer, Edin- 

 burgh, completed the sinking of Lady Pit 

 on the shore to the Main Band, which was 

 found to be in great perfection at a depth of 

 84 fathoms. This was the commencement 

 of the Chapel Bank or western division of 

 Workington Colliery. 



At that date Mr. Curwen's colliery com- 

 prised 9 pits ; but there was another colliery, 

 comprising 5 pits, worked by Mr. Walker for 

 the trustees of Anthony Bacon, Esq., M.P., 

 London. The daily shipment of coals from 

 Mr. Curwen's pits was 100 waggons, and 

 from the other pits 50 waggons* of three 

 English tons each. 



The sinking of Union Pit, Chapel Bank 

 Colliery, was begun in 1795, and finished 

 to the Main Band, 58 fathoms, in 1798. 



An action was brought in 1800 by the 

 Earl of Lonsdale against Mr. Curwen for a 

 trespass alleged to have been made from John 

 Pit, Banklands Colliery, into his lordship's 



1 Archeology of West Cumberland Coal Trade, by 

 Isaac Fletcher, M.P. 



a f. 33. * Winscales. 



* Hutchinson, History of Cumberland, ii. 140. 



366 



