INDUSTRIES 



did not take the same route exactly, nor was 

 it so long as the existing railway which begins 

 at Brampton and terminates at the Alston 

 branch of the North Eastern Railway. 



In 1808 wrought-iron rails were introduced 

 on the Tindale Fell railway. 



In 1818 Mr. R. Stevenson, Edinburgh, 

 first called attention to Lord Carlisle's Colliery 

 waggon way of malleable iron rails. 



In 1824 Tindale Fell Colliery railway 

 improvements came to be better known when 

 the relative merits of a canal and a railway 

 from Newcastle to Carlisle were under dis- 

 cussion, and doubts were cast on the perma- 

 nency of the malleable iron rails. The 

 Newcastle Courant, 7 December, 1824, quoted 

 a letter by Mr. James Thompson, Kirkhouse, 

 in which he stated that rails of this descrip- 

 tion, laid sixteen years previously, were then 

 in use at Tindale Fell and presented no ap- 

 pearance of lamination. 



In 1801 Tarnhouse, or Tindale Fell, and 

 Talkin Collieries comprised Shop, Venture, 

 Fox, Caroline and Chance drifts, and pro- 

 duced 197,015 loads of coal. The output 

 rose to 278,615 loads in 1810, and the drifts 

 then at work were William, Morpeth, Fox, 

 George and Henry. 



In 1819 the output had fallen to 198,859 

 loads of coal. 1 In that year the Earl of Car- 

 lisle appointed Mr. James Thompson to be 

 his colliery agent. Mr. Thompson began 

 the sinking of Blacksike Pit, Talkin, in 1819, 

 and King Pit, Midgeholme, in 1821. 



In the early part of Mr. Thompson's 

 management Tarnhouse and Talkin Collieries 

 consisted of Henry, Morpeth, West, George, 

 Blacksike, Moss and Catch Pits or drifts. 



In 1825 the Earl of Carlisle became the 

 lessee of Croglin Colliery, belonging to the 

 Earl of Egremont. 



In 1829 Tarnhouse, Talkin and Midge- 

 holme Collieries produced 34,795 chaldrons 

 of coal, and Croglin Colliery 3,772 chaldrons. 

 The pits drawing coals at the former were 

 Henry, Blacksike and George. 



In 1835, under Mr. Thompson's manage- 

 ment, the output of Lord Carlisle's collieries, 

 which comprised Howgill, Blacksike, King 

 and George Pits, had risen to 76,002 chal- 

 drons. 



Mr. Thompson was a man of progressive 

 ideas, as may be judged by the many improve- 

 ments he effected on the Tindale Fell rail- 

 way. But the greatest innovation which he 

 introduced there was the adoption of the 

 locomotive steam engine. 



1 A load was 3, and a chaldron, 36 imperial 

 bushels. 



In 1837 he purchased from the Liverpool 

 and Manchester Railway Co. Stephenson's 

 famous locomotive engine the ' Rocket,' and 

 placed it upon the Earl of Carlisle's railway. 



The ' Rocket ' worked on the railway to 

 Midgeholme from 1837 to 1844, and in 1862 

 Messrs. James Thompson & Sons presented 

 it to the South Kensington Museum, where it 

 may still be seen. 



On 8 August, 1837, on the occasion of 

 the polling for a member of Parliament in 

 East Cumberland, the Alston returns were 

 brought by conveyance to Midgeholme, where 

 the ' Rocket ' was in waiting and conveyed 

 them to Kirkhouse, accomplishing the dis- 

 tance of four miles, it is said, in four and a 

 half minutes. 



In 1839 the Earl of Carlisle leased his 

 collieries to Mr. James Thompson, who con- 

 tinued to develop the collieries with the 

 same energy and ability that had characterized 

 his administration of them for his lordship. 

 Furthermore, he took practical steps to ame- 

 liorate the social condition of his workpeople 

 by building improved dwellings, by carrying 

 on a farm to supply their wants, and by 

 initiating an allotment system by which each 

 workman was allowed an acre of land upon 

 which to graze a cow. 



At the beginning of Mr. Thompson's lease 

 coal was drawn from seams in the Coal 

 Measures at King Pit, Midgeholme Colliery, 

 and from the Limestone Seam at Howgill 

 Pit, Tindale Fell, Blacksike Pit, Talkin and 

 at Guide Pit, Croglin. 



Midgeholme Colliery was just sunk within 

 Cumberland, east of Tindale Fell. 



Howgill ' Pit ' was an adit near Howgill 

 Burn, from which the coal under Tindale 

 Fell was worked. The Limestone Seam had 

 also been wrought at Morpeth, Henry, Stagg, 

 Fox, Hazard and Colliery Thorn drifts, which, 

 with Howgill drift, constituted Tarn House, 

 or Tindale Fell Colliery, carried on with 

 Clowsgill Lime Works. 



Talkin Colliery, or Blacksike Pit, lay a mile 

 to the west of Tindale Fell Colliery. It was 

 a shaft 30^ fathoms deep to the Limestone 

 Coal, 3 ft. 2 in. thick, which had also been 

 worked from Caroline, Duke, Dove, Wyatt, 

 Venture, Shop, West and William day-levels. 



Geltsdale Colliery, situated about two miles 

 south of Talkin Colliery, comprised Moss and 

 George drifts where the Limestone Coal, 4 ft. 

 thick, was worked. 



Guide Pit, Croglin Colliery, was about 

 three miles south-west of Geltsdale Colliery, 

 on Croglin Fell. A seam i ft. 4 in. thick, 

 in the Limestone Series, was worked there for 

 lime burning. 



