The Story of Iron Ore Mining in West Cumbria

Mervyn Dodd
�7.50

In the late 19th century Cumbria was Britain's major source of high quality iron ore central to the booming industrial economy of Victorian England.
Many of the once extensive iron ore mines have disappeared altogether or are just a confusing jumble of earth mounds, hollows and mysterious trackways. This book pieces together the fascinating story of the iron ore mines and miners of West Cumbria.
It draws on the extensive local archives, the personal reminiscences of a number of former miners and the author's experience of living in West Cumbria for almost 50 years.
A highly accessible description of the mines and mining communities, it will appeal to anyone interested in this neglected corner of Cumbria.

Published by :	Cumberland Geological Society
Published Date :	April 2010
Pages :	82
Format :	146mm x 210mm paperback
Illustrations :	Colour, black & white photographs & maps
ISBN :	9780955845314

The Story of Iron Ore Mining in West Cumbria

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Review

A hundred years ago the River Ehen and other rivers in West Cumberland would run blood red twice a day. Waters from the hematite mines were being released into the channels.
That blood red colour was the visible sign of West Cumberland�s prosperity. The invention of the Bessemer steel process in 1856 and the building of a converter in Workington created a demand for the high quality red ore that was to be found fortuitously on the edge of and under the West Cumberland coalfield.
Two hundred and fifty million years ago the molten ore poured through permeable rocks such as limestone and left the rich hematite deposits on the edge of the fault line. The ore was at or near the surface in an area some fifteen by three kilometers between Lamplugh and Big Rigg that is shaped like a boomerang.
Further south near Egremont and Beckermet, the ore was buried beneath layers of St Bees sandstone.
For the wealthy mine owners the ore was a source of great wealth. For the miners it provided back-breaking work, numerous fatalities and often a slow withering death from pneumoconiosis. For the people of the area it caused the rapid, often jerry-built, growth of communities like Cleator Moor, Frizington and Arlecdon.
For Mervyn Dodd the hematite provides a sensuous pleasure: The ore richest in iron is �dense, very hard, brittle and a rather dull blue to black in colour. The greasy, much softer, less dense, earthy red ore is the least pure form worked. Intermediate in iron content are the more spectacular, dark red kidney ores which occasionally formed long pencil shaped pieces.�
Miners would use attractive blocks of ore as door stops and even display fine crystals of the ore in specially constructed glass cabinets.
Despite the pride in their material. one in ten miners might expect to die as a result of their work. Roof falls in the poorly maintained mines, where the maximum of ore was being dangerously extracted, were common. Miners, like John Twigg in Salter Mine in 1879, fell from cages in the narrow shafts. Thirty year old Lewis Haile was killed in a dynamite explosion at Eskett. Others were drowned when the mine flooded or crushed against the rock face by the heavily laden tubs.
Little now remains of this hectic and vital economic activity. The headgear is preserved at Florence Mine and spoil tips are to be seen at Haile and Kelton. Throughout the area the underground workings still leave their traces on the surface where there is subsidence. Collapsed shafts are causing problems near Egremont, but at Longlands after shallow workings were abandoned there is now �a much-used recreation area and wild fowl wintering site.�
In 1134 Alicia des Meschines made a grant for hematite mining near Clints Brow above Egremont. The rich ore was smelted, often poorly, at inadequate temperatures, in charcoal bloomeries. One iron producer, William Woods of Bleak House, Frizington, had to flee irate customers in 1734. However, with the Gilchrist-Thomas process and the coming of the railways, production ran at a million tons a year for fifty years from 1878. It peaked at 1.7 million tons in 1882. The Coal Strike in 1921 closed the mines north of Egremont and output continued on a slow decline until the last deep mine closed in 1980. Finally, just three years ago, the last ore was extracted from the Florence Mine when the nuclear industry stopped payments for pumping out the mine. It marked the end of an era.
Mervyn Dodd�s book provides a concise summary of this important industry, ranging from a lucid account of the geology to sensitive insights, some supplied by Maureen Fisher, on the human aspects of the industry. There is also an account of each of the individual mines.
This is a very useful, well illustrated � there are some excellent maps and diagrams as well as photographs - and well produced book on a vital part of West Cumberland�s industrial history.

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