Whitehaven

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For the neighbourhood in Memphis, Tennessee see Whitehaven, Memphis.

Coordinates: 54°32′53″N 3°35′08″W / 54.5480°N 3.5855°W / 54.5480; -3.5855

Whitehaven
Whitehaven shown within Cumbria
Population	25,500
OS grid reference	NX974181
District	Copeland
Shire county	Cumbria
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WHITEHAVEN
Postcode district	CA28
Dialling code	01946
Police	Cumbria
Fire	Cumbria
Ambulance	North West
European Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Copeland
List of places: UK • England • Cumbria

Whitehaven is a town and port on the coast of Cumbria, historically and traditionally located in the ancient county of Cumberland England. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Copeland.

Located on the west coast of the county, outside the Lake District National Park, Whitehaven includes a number of former villages, estates and suburbs, such as Kells, Mirehouse and Hensingham.

The major industry is the nearby Sellafield nuclear complex, with which a large proportion of the population has links.

Contents 1 History 2 Harbour 3 Railways 4 Mines and pits 5 Marchon 6 Sport 7 Maritime festival 8 Digital switchover trial 9 Neighbouring towns 10 Notable people 11 Notes and references 12 External links

[edit] History

...grown up from a small place to be very considerable by the coal trade, that it is now the most eminent port in England for shipping off of coals, except Newcastle and Sunderland and even beyond the last. They have of late fallen into some merchandising also, occasioned by the strange great number of their shipping, and there are now some considerable merchants; but the town is yet but young in trade.^[1]

Traditionally part of Cumberland

Although there had been a Roman fort at Parton, about 2km to the north, Whitehaven was largely the creation of the Lowther family in the 17th century. It grew into a major coal mining town during the 18th and 19th centuries and also became a substantial commercial port on the back of this trade.

John Paul Jones led a naval raid upon the town in 1778 during the American War of Independence; it was the last invasion of England by some definitions.

The town has links to many notable people: Jonathan Swift, who claimed that an over-fond nurse kidnapped him and brought him to Whitehaven for three years in his infancy; Mildred Gale, grandmother of George Washington; and William Wordsworth, who often came into town to visit his family.

Whitehaven is the most complete example of planned Georgian architecture in Europe and recently has been pursuing growth through tourism. Due to Whitehaven's planned layout with streets in a right-angled grid, many historians believe that Whitehaven was the blueprint for the New York City street grid system.^[2]

[edit] Harbour

The town's fortunes as a port waned rapidly when ports with much larger shipping capacity, such as Bristol and Liverpool, began to take over its main trade. Its peak of prosperity was in the 19th century when West Cumbria experienced a brief boom because haematite found locally was one of the few iron ores that could be used to produce steel by the original Bessemer process. Improvements to the Bessemer process and the development of the open hearth process removed this advantage. As with most mining communities the inter-war depression was severe; this was exacerbated for West Cumbria by Irish independence which suddenly placed tariff barriers on the principal export market.

[edit] Railways

Whitehaven has a rich railway history. It used to be a terminus of the Furness Railway, and still has two railway stations, Whitehaven and Corkickle), on the Cumbrian Coast Line, which runs from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness.

The harbour was once riddled with railway lines, when steam engines would shunt trucks full of coal, iron, gypsum and many other cargoes onto the quays for ships to take elsewhere in the world.

The railway reached Whitehaven in 1847 - steam powered engines finally reached the town following an agreement between the Earl of Lonsdale and George Stephenson. Stephenson was the engineer placed in charge of the construction of the new railway line. The railway became known as the Whitehaven Junction Railway. Even before this line was built, the nearby Lowca engineering works began to produce locomotives. Over the life of the works, some 260 were produced - mainly for industrial lines.

[edit] Mines and pits

The Whitehaven coal mines were dug c1553 by the monks of St. Bees Priory. The pits of the time were simply dug into a outcrop. In 1670, the manor of St. bees was bought by Sir John Lowther - he then began to develop the coal trade due to the ever increasing demand from the Irish. Lowther invested in the best available technology to help monopolise the coal trade. By the 1730s Whitehaven had the deepest mines due to the necessity to drive ever deeper shafts to reach new seams of coal.

An example of the Lowthers interest in technology could be seen at Stone Pit when one of the worlds earliest steam engines, built by Thomas Newcomen, was installed, to help in drainage and haulage. William Brownrigg, Whitehaven's most eminent scientist, was the first to investigate the explosive mine gas fire damp.

The Lowthers technological advances continued when their chief steward, Carlisle Spedding sunk Saltom Pit in 1729. Saltom Pit was the first pit to be sunk beneath the sea. At Saltom pit, Carlisle Spedding pioneered the use of explosives in sinking shafts. He also invented the first form of 'Safety Lamp', it was called the Spedding Wheel or Steel Mill. On occasions the Spedding Wheel caused explosions or fires but it was a major improvement over the naked flame.

Saltom Pit was constructed around 6m above sea level, on land below the cliffs near to Haig Colliery. The pit workings went down to a depth of 456ft (138m). Saltom Pit ceased working coal in 1848, but today it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SM 27801)^[3] and is the best known surviving example of a 18th century colliery layout. Evidence of the shaft, horse gin, stable, winding engine house, boiler house and chimney, cottages, cartroads and retaining walls, all survives in situ.

Coal excavated from Saltom Pit was raised by horse gin to surface, then transported by tram through a tunnel to Ravenhill pit for lifting to the cliff top. Saltom Pit was used as a central pumping station, draining many of the other local mines via a drift driven in the 1790's, and continued in use long after it had ceased to work coal.

During 2007, Copeland Council declared that it could no longer afford to maintain the remaining Saltom Pit buildings, and decided to allow the pit to fall to the mercy of the Irish Sea. Following an online campaign by myWhitehaven.net , Copeland Council had a change of heart and decided to reverse this decision. They teamed up with the National Trust in an endeavour to save Saltom Pit, and obtained the necessary funding from various sources, including a 50% grant from the European Union.

On Monday 8th December 2007, Saltom Pit was reopened following the online campaign by myWhitehaven.net. The pit buildings have been repeaired, and are now part of the 'Whitehaven Coast' project - a scheme to regenerate the coastal area of Whitehaven.

In 300 years over 70 pits were sunk in the Whitehaven and district area. During this period some 500+ people were killed in pit disasters and Mining accidents. The largest local disaster was in 1910, at Wellington pit where 136 miners lost their lives. In 1947, at William pit there was another disaster of similar proportions where 104 men were killed. Today there is no mining carried out in Whitehaven. The last pit to operate in Whitehaven was, Haig.

In 1983, a major fault was encountered at Haig - with this, the future of the pit was in doubt. This, combined with the political situation, and the UK miners' strike (1984-1985), contributed to problems at the colliery. The workforce attempted to open a new face, but a decision had been taken to close, and after two years of recovery work, Haig finally ceased mining in Whitehaven on March 31st 1986.

[edit] Marchon

In 1941, Fred Marzillier and Frank Schon moved their Marchon Chemical Company to Whitehaven to avoid German bombing. Marchon started producing some of the first detergents in the world. The new detergents were a big success as soap was in short supply due to the war. The company continued producing their own detergents as well as bulk detergent ingredients for other companies after the war. It was taken over by Albright and Wilson, often referred to as 'all bright and shiny', in 1955. The Marchon works became the town's largest employer when the mines closed down. However, it too was closed in 2005.

[edit] Sport

Whitehaven is a rugby league stronghold, its team Whitehaven RLFC play in National League one. Their mascot is a lion called "Pride". There are also several Whitehaven-based teams playing in the amateur Cumberland League. Whitehaven's female amateur R.U.F.C is named the "Wildcats".

West Brom and England goalkeeper Scott Carson was also born in Whitehaven. He played for Cleator Moor Celtic.

[edit] Maritime festival

Whitehaven also plays host to a maritime festival which started in 1999 and is held every two years^[4] (although building development in the harbour area is making it difficult to find space to hold the festival, and its future is in doubt).

The festival includes tall ships, air displays which include the Red Arrows, and various modern and old planes, street entertainment, and firework displays.

At the 2003, 2005 and 2007 Festivals the local Sea Cadets were very much in evidence, conducting the traditional Evening Colours ceremony each evening aboard one of the visiting tall ships, and also taking part in the Festival's official closing ceremony during the late Sunday afternoon each year.

The 2005 festival also marked the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War in which Whitehaven had been designated Cumbria’s Official commemoration celebration.

Up to 1,000 veterans and ex-service personnel took part in the parade from the towns Castle Park to the harbour side, led by members of three military bands. Services were held on the harbour side and aircraft from the Royal Airforce provided a tribute display above the harbour.

[edit] Digital switchover trial

On 20 July 2006, Broadcasting Minister Shaun Woodward and Industry Minister Margaret Hodge announced that Whitehaven would be the pilot site for the switchover to Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom.^[5] The selection of a pilot site followed on from trial switchovers held in Ferryside and Bolton.^[5]

The switchover began when BBC Two was switched off at 0200 on 17 October 2007. This was followed by the remaining analogue channels at 0200, on 14 November 2007.

As a result of the switchover, all televisions in the Whitehaven area must be connected to Freeview or the digital satellite alternative, Sky Digital.^[6]

The switchover in the Whitehaven area wasn't entirely successful. In nearby Eskdale, poor signal quality left viewers with blank television screens.

[edit] Neighbouring towns

The main towns neighbouring Whitehaven are Workington to the north, Cleator Moor to the East and Egremont to the south. Villages close by which are not suburbs include St Bees and Beckermet to the south and Distington to the north.

[edit] Notable people

• John Benson (clockmaker)
• Scott Carson
• Stephen Conroy, Australian politician and government minister^[7]
• Brian Higgins (producer)
• Adam Summerfield Professional Ice Hockey Player for Manchester Phoenix

[edit] Notes and references

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006)

[edit] External links

• Whitehaven at the Open Directory Project

v • d • e Ceremonial county of Cumbria Cumbria Portal Boroughs or districts City of Carlisle • Borough of Allerdale • Borough of Barrow-in-Furness • Borough of Copeland • District of Eden • District of South Lakeland Cities and towns Alston • Ambleside • Appleby-in-Westmorland • Aspatria • Barrow-in-Furness • Bowness-on-Windermere • Brampton • Broughton-in-Furness • Carlisle • Cleator Moor • Cockermouth • Dalton-in-Furness • Egremont • Grange-over-Sands • Harrington • Heversham • Kendal • Keswick • Kirkby Lonsdale • Kirkby Stephen • Longtown • Maryport • Millom • Milnthorpe • Penrith • Sedbergh • Silloth • Ulverston • Whitehaven • Wigton • Windermere • Workington • See also: List of civil parishes in Cumbria