Dalzell's Moor Row Mine

Overview

A West Cumberland haematite mine at Moor Row, south-east of Whitehaven, worked by the Maryport Hematite Iron Company and its successor as a captive ore supply for their own furnaces. It came back briefly in the 1920s under the Dalzell (Moor Row) Mining Company, employing forty-one people in 1925, and was abandoned on 31 March 1926.

History

Moor Row sits in the middle of the West Cumberland haematite field, between Frizington, Cleator Moor and Egremont, and the mine took its name from the Dalzell family whose name the village's main street still carries. The 1888 List of Mines gives it as 'Dalzell, Moor Row, Iron ore, Maryport Hematite Iron and Steel Co., Moor Row, Carnforth' — an ironworks working its own ore rather than buying it. The Durham Mining Museum records the Maryport Hematite Iron Co. and then the Maryport Hematite Iron & Steel Co. as owners through the 1880s, with iron ore returned from 1882 to 1890. The mine then drops out of the returns until the 1920s, when the Dalzell (Moor Row) Mining Co. took it up again: three people in 1924, forty-one in 1925 with thirty-three of them below ground, and the return for that year already marked abandoned. The abandonment plan, no. 8,423, covers the parishes of Egremont and Hensingham and is dated 31 March 1926.

Geology

The mine worked the haematite of west Cumbria, which the British Geological Survey describes as occurring in the Carboniferous limestones in three forms: flats, which follow the bedding of the limestone; veins, steeply inclined and often following faults; and irregular masses. The ore includes the mammillated variety known as kidney ore. The returns for 1924 and 1925 specify red haematite, and the abandonment plan is catalogued under 'IRON ORE, HAEMATITE'. This is the ore that fed the ironworks of the west Cumberland coast and, through them, the Bessemer steel trade, which needed a phosphorus-free ore of exactly this kind.

Geological setting: Iron Replacement Deposits (well documented example)

Workings

Little of the layout is recorded. The mine was worked underground — thirty-three of the forty-one employed in 1925 were below ground — and lay within the parishes of Egremont and Hensingham. The Durham Mining Museum gives no shaft details and no opening or closing dates beyond the 1926 abandonment.

Closure

Abandoned on 31 March 1926, the plan lodged as no. 8,423 under Dalzell's Moor Row, parishes of Egremont and Hensingham, for iron ore, haematite. The 1925 return, with forty-one employed, is already marked abandoned.

What remains

No description of what survives on the mine site has been found. Moor Row remains as a village south-east of Whitehaven, and Dalzell Street still carries the family name.

None identified in the sources consulted.

Redevelopment

None recorded in the sources consulted.

Nearby mines

• Bigrigg Mine — 0.7 km SE
• Crowgarth Mine — 1.3 km NE
• Gillfoot Park Mine — 2.8 km S
• Mowbray Mine — 3.8 km NE
• Woodhouse Colliery — 4.2 km W

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The 1888 List of Mines gives the owner as the Maryport Hematite Iron and Steel Co. of Moor Row, and the Durham Mining Museum records the Dalzell (Moor Row) Mining Co. taking the mine up again in the 1920s. ^1,2
• Three people were employed in 1924 and forty-one in 1925, thirty-three of them below ground, the return for that year already marked abandoned. ¹
• The mine was abandoned on 31 March 1926, its plan lodged as no. 8,423 under the parishes of Egremont and Hensingham for iron ore, haematite. ³
• West Cumbrian haematite occurs in the Carboniferous limestones as flats following the bedding, as steeply inclined veins often following faults, and as irregular masses, and includes the mammillated kidney ore. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dalzell's Moor Row (Iron Ore) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) 1888 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act: Iron Ore Mines in Cumberland — Mines Department, via the Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines for Dalzell's Moor Row (Iron Ore) — Coal Authority catalogue, via the Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Haematite deposits of Cumbria — BGS Earthwise

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026