A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



No account of Mr. James Thompson, the 

 first lessee of the Naworth Collieries, would 

 be complete without reference to the ' dan- 

 dies ' or carriages which he put on to the 

 colliery railway for the convenience of his 

 workpeople who lived at Midgeholme, How- 

 gill and Forest Head, going to Brampton on 

 market days. The first ' dandies ' were drawn 

 by horses. Mr. James Thompson died in 1851, 

 having ' laid the foundation of that large, pros- 

 perous, and self-supporting colony of miners 

 that now exists along the sides of Tindale, 

 Haltonlea and other neighbouring Fells.' * 



He was succeeded by his son, Mr. Thomas 

 Charles Thompson, who continued the good 

 work initiated by his father, and on his death 

 the Blenkinsop and Naworth collieries, which 

 in 1820 only gave occupation to 180 men, 

 afforded work for nearly 1,000 hands. Mr. 

 T. C. Thompson died in 1888 and was fol- 

 lowed in the control of the collieries by his 

 sons, Mr. Charles Lacy Thompson and Mr. 

 James Thompson. 



Howard Pit was sunk in 1875 near old 

 Coalfell Colliery and abandoned in 1896. 



At the present day the Roachburn Colliery, 

 situated between Brampton Junction and 

 Lambley, and Bishop Hill drift near Tindal 

 Tarn, from both of which the Limestone 

 Coal is worked, are the only places where 

 coal is being raised, in Cumberland, at Na- 

 worth Collieries. 



In addition, Messrs. Thompson & Sons are 

 working, from Blenkinsopp Colliery, Green- 

 head, Northumberland, coal from the Little 

 Limestone Seam within the parish of Midge- 

 holme in Cumberland. At Blenkinsopp the 

 Little Limestone Seam is reached from the 

 hillside by a stone drift about one mile long, 

 and thence there is a haulage road in that 

 seam into the Midgeholme coal for a further 

 distance of three miles. 



The quantity of Little Limestone Coal 

 wrought in Cumberland, but brought to bank 

 at Blenkinsopp, about 40,000 tons a year, is 

 included in the Government returns for 

 Northumberland. 



Coal has been worked from early times at 

 other places from the Carboniferous Limestone 

 Series along the Pennine range, mainly for 

 lime-burning. 



The most important of such mining was 

 at Croglin. 



The manor of Croglin was purchased in 

 1738 by Charles, Duke of Somerset, from the 

 trustees of the Duke of Wharton, and in- 

 cluded a colliery which was worked continu- 

 ously from that date until 1864, when all 



operations ceased. From 1759 it was held 

 under the Earl of Egremont by various lessees, 

 the most important of whom were the Earl 

 of Carlisle, who worked the colliery from 

 1825 to 1839, and Messrs. James Thompson 

 & Sons, who had it from 1839 to 1852. It 

 remained unlet till 1854, when Mr. Joseph 

 Watson took it and carried it on up to its 

 finish in 1864. 



The coal workings at Hartside and Ren- 

 wick were as early as any in the Crossfell 

 range. 



Singleton's ' Account of Melmerby,' a MS. 

 in the library of the Dean and Chapter at 

 Carlisle, dated 1677, refers to coal mining at 

 Hartside and Renwick. 



The Rector of Ousby, in 1709, also re- 

 ferred to the collieries on Hartside and Ren- 

 wick Fells, where a seam of coal 18 in. 

 thick was worked. 



In 1777, according to Nicolson and Burn, 

 and in 1794, according to Hutchinson, Ren- 

 wick Colliery was let at 33 a year. 



In 1888 boreholes, put down at Rayson 

 Hall, Ousby, in the Upper Limestone Series, 

 proved several seams of coal, varying in thick- 

 ness from a few inches to 4 feet ; and in 

 1892 Mr. T. Kirkbride, Arlecdon, was re- 

 ported to have struck a promising seam of 

 coal on the same property. 



M. Jars, in 1765, described the Crow Coal, 

 in the mountains of Alston Moor, as being 

 unfit for the forge, but excellent for burning 

 lime. 



At the present time Messrs. Benson & Co. 

 at Alston drift ; the Veille Montagne Zinc 

 Co. at Dowgang and Guttergill, Nenthead ; 

 and the Alston and Nentforce Quarry Co., 

 are the only producers ot coal at Alston, and, 

 in the aggregate, do not employ more than 

 40 persons underground. The three firms 

 are all working the ' Little Limestone Coal,' 

 which, in the Alston district, is found in two 

 distinct seams, lying 20 feet apart, the upper 

 being about 20 in. and the lower 12 in. 

 thick. 



Several thin seams of coal have been 

 worked in the Carboniferous Limestone 

 Series, in the parish of Bewcastle, and at 

 Penton, near the Liddle. At the latter place 

 a shaft was sunk in 1836, 19 fathoms, and 

 proved several seams of coal. 



In Bewcastle the last coal mining was at 

 Oakshaw, on Black Line river, where a 

 small quantity of coal was worked from a seam 

 1 8 in. thick, from 1898 to 1900. 



STATISTICS 



Carlisle Journal, 13 March, 1888. 



382 



Output. Prior to 1854, no reliable record of 



