Haig Colliery Mining Museum
Haig Colliery Mining Museum is a rapidly growing visitor attraction situated in Kells, high on the cliffs above Whitehaven in Cumbria, England, with magnificent views across the Solway Firth to Scotland and the Isle of Man.
It is an independent, volunteer-led project to provide a permanent archive of the local mining history and community resource within the remaining winding engine house, which is now a scheduled ancient monument. One of the two massive steam winding engines has been returned to working order, and many artifacts are on permanent display to help describe the life of the local miners and the social history of the area.
Coal mining in Whitehaven dates back to the thirteenth century when the monks from St Bees Abbey supervised the opening of coal mines at Arrowthwaite. This long history ended abruptly in March 1986, when Haig Pit, Cumbria's last deep coal mine, finally closed.
During this time, the gassy nature of the mines caused many violent explosions. Over 1200 men, women, and children were killed in the Whitehaven pits while mining coal in workings up to four miles out beneath the Solway Firth. Haig itself had a terrible record of methane explosions in the 1920s. Fourteen miners are still entombed in the workings to this day.[citation needed]
History
Building
The history of the building of the mining museum is vast, in fact it didn't even look the same as what is today. It was a huge building that dominated the kells industrial estate will tall chimneys, working lifts and conveyor belts to transport the coal from A to B.[1]
Transportation of Coal
The footpath behind the building is called 'The Wagon Road' because in the 1800s when the coal industry was at its peak in the North West of England, the coal wagons used to go down the wagon road to get to the train track to then transport the coal into the town centre where it would be distributed to the train track or the Whitehaven harbour, one of Britain's main ports at the time [2]
References
External links
- Haig Pit Mining and Colliery Museum
- The Cumbria Directory - Haig Colliery Mining Museum
- myWhitehaven.net
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