Whitehaven house damage resulting from coal mining

WHITEHAVEN HOMES WERE WRECKED, IN PIT COLLAPSE

 Mr Thompson Reed, J.P., a former chairman of the Library and Museum Committee and Mayor of Whitehaven, 1957-58, has just presented to the Whitehaven Museum a copy of The Diary, or Woodfall’s Register for Monday, February 21, 1791, which had been sent to his father, the late Alderman Thompson Reed, J.P., in 1930. It is of interest primarily because of an item on p.2 which is headed: Extract of a letter from Whitehaven, Feb. 11. which reads:

“With a concern hitherto unfelt on any public occasion which it may have been our province to notice we resume the account of a very singular calamity which hath befallen, this town; a subject which, we hoped, might have been closed with the report given of it in our paper of last week: but unfortunately for many individuals, the alarming accidents, which have since taken place, demand even a greater share of observation than the former.

WALLS CRACKED

“Before we enter upon ‘this irksome relation, it ought to be observed that the destruction to be spoken of is confined to the same part of the town already mentioned in the two former papers; and that the plot of ground, where the shrinking has been, measures about 100 yards from North to South, and about 140 from East to West, making an area of about 15,000 square yards.

“On Tuesday’ evening, about six o’clock, the inhabitants of the house at the North-east corner’ of Michael Street and George Street, were alarmed with a loud crack; on examining, a great rent was dis-covered In one of the walls. The alarm was scarce given in the neighborhood, before the motion was perceived to be general. A scene of much terror and confusion ensued: the Inhabitants began to take the furniture out of the houses, two of which however appeared to be In such imminent danger of falling as to prevent any attempt of that kind.

“The farthest house in George Street, on the upper side, with the stable adjoining, is rent In a dreadful manner, the two garden walls are cracked in several places. The house next to it has settled about a foot. The corner house of Michael Street arid George Street hangs into the latter, it is supposed, by a projection of at least two feet from the eves to the base; the roof of the adjoining house, lower down, has fallen in, one of the end walls having drawn consid-erably from the timbers. The others are in a situation little less ruinous, the window and door frame broken, and the walls burst In many places.

NO INJURIES
“The pavement, particularly in George-street, is rent in many places, and appears set-tled in several parts where no actual chasms are made. This morning about nine o’clock, the brick wall of, Mr. Littledale’s garden, for about 20 yards in length and ten feet In height (on the South side of Michael street), fell down with a dreadful crash: providentially, though numbers of people were near at the time, no person was hurt; nor has any individual, as far as we have learned, received the least personal injury in all this train of disastrous events. Another wall, on the opposite side, fell  this afternoon.

“Many additional chasms are seen In Mr Littledale’s premises; the end of the dwelling-house is more sunk, and the top of the building is farther separated within these two days. The stables are much shaken; the whole of the garden has settled considerably, and there are several large cracks in it.

GREAT DAMAGE

‘‘The damage In houses only is very great; and the accident has (it is feared) re-duced several poor and industrious people to great extremity; common prudence having obliged many such to quit their tenements, without knowing where to find shelter for themselves and their little property; their misfortunes aggravated by the suspension of that labour so necessary to the support of their families. Now where is he ‘That hath a hand open as day to melting charity?’

The world is ever pregnant with objects on which he may employ it: here is a field that will afford it ample exercise.

“During the distressful scene which presented itself on Tuesday night, a poor woman, who had been delivered the day before, was taken out of a house in George-street, and removed to a place of security; and another, during the pains of labour, was obliged to be taken out of a house in Scotch-street; she was conveyed in a sedan-chair to Mt R. Fletcher’s in Duke-street, where, in about ten minutes, she was safely delivered of a fine boy.”

PIT DEATHS

The story behind this old newspaper, account is fascinating. The eighteenth century workings of the Main Band were often carried on at a very shallow depth. It is obvious that in 1791 a small mine was being worked In the George Street - Michael Street area, and that on January 31 the miners had unwittingly penetrated an older and for-gotten working, and liberated a large quantity of water. Two men, one woman and five horses, in the working were drowned.

The ground subsided in the garden behind Somerset House, which, with some houses in Scotch Street, George Street and Church Street, was cracked and otherwise damaged. Not unnaturally the inhabitants of the property affected deserted their homes and camped with their property in the streets until they were assured by competent viewers that the danger, was over.

One of the victims, Mr Henry Littledale, of Somerset House, a mercer, brought a suc-cessful suit against the Earl of Lonsdale. In a fit of pique the Earl closed his collieries at Whitehaven, regardless of the colliers and others dependent, directly or in-directly, upon the continuance of coal mining.
Not until he received a petition signed by 2,560 people begging him to continue working the mines, and promising to indemnify him against all such actions in future, was work resumed.

The savagery of the Earl’s treatment of those dependent upon him, and whose toil contributed so much to his wealth, drew down on his head the bitter denunciation of John Wolcot, the satirist, who wrote under the pseudonym ‘‘Peter Pindar”, but Wolcot’s attack was nothing to the bitterness with which Lonsdaie was scourged by a local writer who hid behind the pen-name of Petrus Pindarus Secundus. In “An Irregular Poetical Epistle” he lashed Lonsdale with an invective that is quite unequalled in a century that was used to strong language.

The better to secure his anonymity the pamphlet was printed on the Isle of Man.

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The following detail is based upon reports appearing in the Cumberland Pacquet newspaper following on after the disaster

Of course the very early mining operations in West Cumberland were not planned at all, and certainly plans were not kept. Today open cast operations are uncovering miles of old workings in shallow seams which have long been forgotten.
It appears that at a very early stage in the history of mining at Whitehaven the rich Main Band seam had been worked at a very shallow depth under a part of the town.

The existence of these workings was either unknown, or had been forgotten, which was prob-ably why one of the more populous parts of the town had been built above them.

For the time being, however, there was no need for worry, even if the people living above these old workings knew about them because they were filled, with water which itself gave support to the roof and kept it unbroken for many years.

FLOODED WORKINGS

However, at two o’clock in the morning of January 31, 1791, a workman in one of the new pits broke into the old workings and released the great mass of water flooding them.
The water roared down the new drift drowning two men, a woman and five horses.
The outrush of the water also removed the support from the roof of the old workings and the pillars of coal left by earlier miners as roof supports were unable to hold up the strata above and were crushed.
The ground above began to sink, and what was technically called a “creep” set in, with results described in the “Cum-berland Pacquet” as follows:

SUBSIDENCE

“About two o’clock on Monday, the 31st January, 1791, in the afternoon, the ground suddenly shrunk in the garden of H. Littledale, Esq., behind his home in Duke Street, and the noise of subterranean waters was heard by a servant there at work.
“Near the same time the ground sank in a garden behind the house once occu-pied by a Dispensary in Scotch Street, and in the burial ground behind the Anabaptist Meeting House in Charles Street, all on the North side of the town.

“The event caused much alarm, as it was evident it proceeded from the falling in of some old coal works, and it afterwards appeared that a great discharge of water had flowed in upon the working pits, and two men and a woman, with five horses, were drowned in the works.
“On Monday evening an-other plot of ground sank within a few yards of the former, settling in Mr Little-dale’s garden, and other sinkings, although much more trivial, were observed in different places.

“The accident was attributed to a workman in a new drift unfortunately striking into a drowned waste or old working.”
The toll of life would have been greater if other men in the workings had panicked, but although they found themselves trapped by rising water these colliers took their horses to higher ground where they remained until the water had run off into lower workings. This took two hours, then the trapped men walked out.

HOUSES DEMOLISHED

On the surface 18 houses were demolished by the subsidence, including Mr Littledale’s “elegant mansion.” Other people, fearing more subsidence, took avoiding action. They removed their furniture from between 60 and 80 houses and camped out in the streets of other parts of the town.

The “Pacquet” report goes on: “Skilful coal viewers were immediately employed to inspect all the old workings which were accessible, and their report that no further damage was to be apprehended quieted the minds of the inhabitants and brought them back to their deserted dwellings which were not shook by the alarming accident.”

Since the agent, John Bateman, is not mentioned in the “Pacquet” report, and since his engagement terminated in 1791, it is safe to assume that he was dismissed by Lowther. The fact that “skilful coal viewers” were employed implies that Lowther had lost confidence in his agent.

In view of what was to happen later, James Lowther, first Earl of Lonsdale, could possibly be excused for wishing that he could reassume seigraeurial rights held by his ancestors and have the unfortunate agent hung, drawn and quartered, for apart from the costly damage to a profitable pit, the disaster was to hit the Earl of Lonsdale, newly-created, even harder in the two places which hurt that gentleman hardest —his pocket and in his pride.