INDUSTRIES 



TABLE No. VIII 



Showing percentage which the output of haematite from the Hodbarrow mines bears 

 to that of all other haematite raised in Cumberland during the last four decades. 



The great interest these celebrated mines 

 have excited in the mining world is a suffi- 

 cient reason for quoting largely from a paper 

 by Mr. Cedric Vaughan, managing director 

 of the Hodbarrow mines, and also from a 

 joint paper by Mr. Vaughan and Mr. H. 

 Shelford Bidwell, the resident engineer of 

 Messrs. Coode, Son & Matthews, which 

 firm is constructing the ' Outer Barrier ' 

 works now in progress. The former of these 

 articles gives a succinct account of the dis- 

 covery and working of this wonderful deposit 

 of haematite, and the latter a description of 

 the sea wall and embankment works, which 

 were designed and are now being carried out 

 by the above firm of engineers. 



These papers appeared in the Transactions of 

 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for 1902 

 at their meeting held in Barrow, and the 

 Council of the Institute as well as the writers 

 of the articles and engineers have kindly 

 granted their consent to the following 

 accounts being given : 



HODBARROW IRON ORE MINES, MILLOM 

 These mines were first discovered about 1845 

 through the occurrence of veins of ore in the 

 carboniferous limestone which forms the rocks on 

 the shore at Hodbarrow Point. The late William 

 Earl of Lonsdale worked one of these veins by 

 means of an adit level from the shore ; but, meet- 

 ing with little success, he gave up the venture, and 

 granted a ' take note ' to the founders of the Hod- 

 barrow Mining Co. in 1855. A shaft was sunk 

 on the same vein, and the shaft and engine house 

 are still visible on the top of the hill at flodbarrow 

 Point. As the vein was followed it began to nip 

 out, and boring was resorted to. The late Mr. 

 William Barratt observed that the veins converged 

 towards the west, and, putting down a bore-hole 

 at the probable point of intersection, proved 100 

 feet of solid ha;matite ore, and so discovered the 

 first deposit in 1856. This deposit yielded ex- 

 cellent ore, and while the company were working 

 it they built workmen's houses on the adjoining 

 mains without knowing what was beneath them. 

 While sinking a well to supply these houses with 



water, another large deposit was found by means of 

 a bore-hole put down at the bottom of the well 

 with the view of increasing the water supply. 

 This led to other borings in the vicinity, when it 

 was found that a very large deposit of ore existed 

 under the Hodbarrow mains. 



The first discovered deposit was comparatively 

 shallow, with not more than 60 feet of cover over 

 it at any part, and in one place it came almost to 

 the surface. Between this deposit and the larger 

 one was an intermediate deposit of smaller area, 

 which overlapped the large or main deposit, this 

 last named lying much deeper and having a cover 

 about 200 feet thick. The first and second de- 

 posits are practically worked out, and it is the 

 larger or main deposit which is now being worked. 

 The company's first lease of the minerals only 

 extended to ordinary high-water mark on the 

 south, and ore was proved to exist right up to this 

 boundary. But inasmuch as the surface caved in 

 when the ore was extracted it was necessary to 

 leave a barrier of ore 360 feet wide to protect the 

 mains from the sea, which otherwise would have 

 filled the hollows on the surface, and eventually 

 have flooded the mine as well. This barrier was 

 ultimately found to contain over five million tons 

 of ore, and to enable the company to win this a 

 sea wall (figs. I and 2) was erected in 1 890 to ex- 

 clude the sea from the foreshore immediately in 

 front of the mine. Sir John Coode was the en- 

 gineer, and it was the last work he finished just 

 before his death. It was a novel piece of engineer- 

 ing, being a combination of a sea wall and a 

 water-tight dam. 



The Earl of Lonsdale then gave the company 

 rights to search for ore under the foreshore sea- 

 wards ; and, after boring for some years under 

 considerable difficulty, owing to the heavy seas 

 which frequently washed away the stagings and 

 gear, it was satisfactorily proved that the main 

 deposit of ore extended, not only under the old 

 high-water mark, but also under the sea wall, and 

 to a distance of some 500 yards beyond it. The 

 full extent of this ore ground has not however even 

 yet been fully proved. 



The second sea wall, or ' Outer Barrier ' as it is 

 officially termed, will enclose an area of 1 70 acres, 

 and when completed it will enable the company 

 to win the ore under the foreshore, which could 



1 The output given here is from the year 1864, when Government returns were first recorded. 



397 



