WHINGILL
The next major development in the local coalfield was the exploitation of the Whingill side of the colliery.This was the area to the east of the town. It was under Sir James Lowther's tenureship that this was started but it would not have been possible had he not employed one the town's , and arguably one of the country's ,best mining engineers . This was of course Carlisle Spedding.
Records indicate that between 1708 and 09 , 35,304 tons of coal were exported from the harbour which in itself indicates the increased exploitation under Spedding's management .By then pits such as Gameriggs,Murray,,Mawson,Fox,Ribton Darby and Swinburn were being mined on the Howgill side and new pits like Carr, Pearson, Pedlar, Taylor, Fox, Daniel, Jackson,Hunter ,Watson, Harras & Green were sunk on the Whingill side. No wonder that Defoe , writing in 1725, described the town as :
"grown up from a small place to be very considerable by the coal trade, which increased so considerably of late, that it is now the most eminent port of England for the shipping of coals,. except Newcastle & Sunderland."
Not surprisingly most of the evidence of all these pits has disappeared over the years and all that remains are caps which mark the old shafts. Until a few years ago the best visible remnants of what I believe to have been Davy Pit, were to be seen here in a field off the road to Hope Hall .
To the left of the shaft was an area where the horse gin would have operated. Today all that remains is this cap .
Several similar caps are to be seen in the area of Whitehaven's
new golf course.
Not too far away the slag heaps and yet another cap( just visible to the right of the bench) remain to remind us of Wreah Pit.
It was here that one of Adam Heslop's beam engines, made at the Lowca Engineering Works in 1790 was installed in 1837 to draw coal. It had first been installed at Kells Pit ( near Marchon) and was later used at Castlerigg Pit before moving on to Wreah Pit.
Unfortunately , this first photo was taken from the opposite side to where the beam engine was positioned but in the second one the beam engine is clearly visible
This important example of local mining engineering continued to work at Wreah Pit until 1878. After that it found a new home ......sadly not in Whitehaven where it belongs!!!!....but in the Kensington Science Museum in London. However, the press of the day did acknowledge it's importance for when it went on display it made the front page of the Graphic . When I saw it there some years ago I glowed with pride but we had nowhere to site it at that time. Nowadays it would look grand in the Haig Pit Museum.
The steam engine was vital to the continued development of the coal industry in both removing the danger of water and raising the coals so when Mr Newcomen invented his improved engine was only a matter of time before it appeared in the local coalfield, especially when Carlisle Spedding wrote to his master in 1712 as follows:
If you do not light on something of that kind(Savery's steam engine) that will drain ye coals below level at an easy charge I am sure this (coal) price will never bear the charge."
In other words he was saying that the survival of the local coal field depended upon acquiring an affective and reasonably priced method of drainage. Although Sir James showed a keen interest in the new engine it was another three years before he came to an agreement with Newcomen. Records indicate that the latter was signed on November 10.1715 and that Newcomen ..
"covenanted with Mr Lowther to set up a fire engine with a steam barrel of at least 16inches diameter within, and 8 feet in length, at the Stone Pit between Whitehaven and Howgill." The engine was hired for £182.p.a.
I discovered this sign by accident when tucking into my meal at the Brewers Fayre.
Carlisle Spedding was very much involved in the installation of the engine and it was he who helped to overcome the attendant problems . However, that all their efforts were worthwhile is verified by Spedding's own words:
" There is nothing that will do our business so well and be less liable to accidents then the engine,and 'tis the cheapest, safest and best way of keeping the colliery dry."
Stone Pit was situated at the foot of Monkwray brow.
