INDUSTRIES 



West of No. 6 Pit, No. 8 Pit was sunk on 

 the foreshore, to win the Main Band which 

 outcrops near low water mark. The pit, 

 which was 1 1 fathoms to the Main Band, 

 continued at work till 1874, when an influx 

 of water stopped operations. The Bannock 

 and Main Bands on the west side of Micklam 

 fault was principally worked from No. 7 Pit 

 from 187410 1901. The workings in the 

 Main Band extended to the north, underneath 

 the sea, to a distance of about a mile from low 

 water mark, beyond which limit it was deemed 

 imprudent to go by reason of the thinness of 

 the cover. 



The output from Harrington Colliery is 

 now altogether from No. 9 Pit, which was 

 sunk near No. 7 Pit in 1880, to the Six 

 Quarters Seam, which has been worked along- 

 side the Micklam fault both under the land 

 and the sea. 



The earliest recorded coal mining at Clifton 

 was on the Curwen property about 1673. 

 The Lowthers and the Cooksons of New- 

 castle were amongst the first to work coal in 

 Clifton. Reelfit Colliery was at work in 1735. 

 The Lowthers began to work coal in Clifton 

 on an extensive scale before 1750, Sir James 

 Lowther having constructed a wooden railway 

 from Workington to a staith at Great Clifton, 

 to which the coal was carted. Some of these 

 pits were drained by adits into the Marron 

 and Lostrigg, others by a water-wheel at 

 Bridgefoot, and the rest by two atmospheric 

 pumping engines. 



In 1771 Sir James Lowther closed all his 

 collieries at Clifton, Flimby, and Seaton, at 

 short notice, on becoming aware of the exis- 

 tence of a clause in the lease of the Beerpot 

 Ironworks, Workington, which he had granted 

 in 1763 to Messrs. Hicks, Spedding & Co., 

 whereby he was bound, so long as he worked 

 any pits within a distance of four miles, to 

 supply the ironworks with coals from those 

 pits at the shipping price. 



In 1781 the Clifton coals were sold to the 

 country at 2s. 3<f. and to the shipping at 

 Workington at 3;. $d. a ton. 



When Sir James Lowther stopped his 

 Clifton pits, Mr. Cookson's pits in Grey- 

 southen and Clifton became flooded out. 



From 1781 there was no coal-mining of 

 any consequence at Clifton until 1803, when 

 the Earl of Lonsdale began opening out a 

 colliery on Clifton Moor near Quarry Hill, 

 on the west side of Lostrigg Beck, in two 

 little seams lying above the Main Band, the 

 lower one being 10 fathoms deep at John 

 Pit. The workings were drained by a level 

 into Lostrigg Beck. This colliery was worked 

 by the Earl of Lonsdale up to 1815. 



From 1815 to 1822 Mr. John Johnson 

 leased the Clifton Moor pits ; and Mr. John 

 Fletcher had them from 1815 until 1829, 

 when they were abandoned. 



In 1827 Mr. Thomas Westray sank the 

 Westray or Clifton Pit to the Cannel and 

 Metal Band (a depth of 55 fathoms) in Mr. 

 Isaac Cookson's royalty at Great Clifton. 



In 1842 the Earl of Lonsdale, having 

 acquired Mr. Cookson's royalty and Mr. 

 Westray's interest therein, proceeded to work 

 the colliery, and continued to do so until 

 1856. 



In 1852 Messrs. Isaac and William Fletcher 

 became lessees of Mr. Curwen's royalty in 

 Little Clifton, and sank a pit (40 fathoms to 

 the Main Band) near Crossbarrow. In 1854 

 the same firm sank Harry Gill Pit on Mr. John 

 Cookson's royalty to the same seam. The suc- 

 cess of their efforts induced Lord Lonsdale to 

 sink Lowther Pit, half a mile to the westward, 

 which reached the Main Band in 1855 at a 

 depth of only 30 fathoms. About this time 

 disputes arose as to the Earl of Lonsdale's 

 title to the royalty under certain lands in 

 Great and Little Clifton, but those differences 

 were settled by his lordship purchasing the 

 estates, and thus becoming the owner of 

 nearly all the land in both townships. In 

 1856 Lord Lonsdale granted a lease of all his 

 royalty in Great and Little Clifton to Messrs. 

 Fletcher, who completed the Lowther Pit. 



In 1860 Lowther Pit was sunk 30 fathoms 

 deeper, and from that depth a short drift 

 won the Cannel and Metal Band to the 

 west over a downthrow fault of 30 fathoms. 

 Besides the Ten Quarters Seam and the Can- 

 nel and Metal Band, the Little Main Seam, 

 won in 1873, and Lickbank Seam, won 

 in 1878, were also worked to a large extent 

 by Messrs. I. and W. Fletcher on the east 

 side of the same fault. In 1861 William 

 Pit, Great Clifton (still at work), was sunk by 

 the same firm, and from it has been worked 

 the Main Band on the west side of the large 

 downthrow west fault, which bounds the 

 workings in Lowther, Clifton and the old pits 

 to the south as far as the outcrop of the Main 

 Band near the Marron. The William Pit 

 Main Band workings to the south are now 

 beyond Lostrigg Beck and eastward have 

 reached the outcrop in Stainburn. 



In 1873 the West Cumberland Iron and 

 Steel Co., Ltd., became the sub-lessees of 

 the Clifton Collieries, and continued to work 

 them until 1887, when the Allerdale Coal 

 Co., Ltd., took them over. 



In 1875 Westray Pit was laid in. 



In 1885 Lowther Pit was abandoned. 



The Cooksons of Newcastle were working 



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