Eskett Pit

Overview

A West Cumberland haematite mine at Eskett, five miles east-south-east of Whitehaven, in the returns from 1882 and worked in fits and starts to 1910: sixty-four people in 1900, stopped in October 1902, twenty-five in 1908, not worked at all in 1905 or 1910. Two miners were killed by one fall of roof in September 1873. Its abandonment plan was lodged in 1913.

History

Eskett lies in the middle of the West Cumberland haematite field between Frizington and Cleator Moor. The Durham Mining Museum's record of the pit runs from 1882, when iron ore was being returned under the Eskett Iron Ore Co. of Whitehaven — the owner the 1888 List of Mines gives as well — and passes to the Cleator Iron Ore Co. by the 1900s, the returns from then on specifying red haematite. It was never a large or a steady mine. Sixty-four people were employed in 1900, fifty-two of them below ground; forty-four in 1902, when the return notes the pit stopped in October; nothing at all in 1905; twenty-five in 1908, but only five of them underground, which suggests salvage or surface work rather than winning ore; and nothing again in 1910. The abandonment plan was lodged in 1913 under the parish of Eskett for iron ore, red haematite. The museum's list of men killed at the pit runs to twenty-one names, and the inspectors' notes on them are unusually full. Thomas Bowles, fifty-five, was one of four men working the low bottom of No. 3 pit in 1876, reached by ladders because the cage only ran that far for two hours a day; his mates thought him the worse for drink and he went to lie down, and he was missed at six and found at the bottom of the shaft, his bait bottle left at the eye. Michael Brown, thirty, was trapped by a run of shale the same year and was dead of suffocation when they got him out seven hours later. Lewis Hale, a banksman of thirty, was killed in 1875 by dynamite left under a bench in the eye where he was working alone; several witnesses at the inquest swore there had been no detonators with it, and no cause for the explosion was ever established.

Geology

The pit worked the haematite of west Cumbria, which the British Geological Survey describes as sitting in the Carboniferous limestones in three forms: flats following the bedding, steeply inclined veins often following faults, and irregular masses. The ore includes the mammillated variety known as kidney ore, and the returns from 1900 onwards specify red haematite. It is the phosphorus-free ore that the Bessemer steel trade depended on, which is why so many small pits were sunk across this ground in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Geological setting: Iron Replacement Deposits (well documented example)

Workings

At least three shafts — the 1876 inspector's account of a death describes 'the low bottom of No. 3 pit', reached by ladders from the eye above because the cage only ran down that far for two hours a day to draw metal. Ore was taken from the sides of the workings, with timber sets holding back the shale: one death came when ore was taken off a side, brought a set of wood away with it, and let down a run of shale. Falls of roof and of ore account for most of the recorded deaths.

Closure

The pit stopped in October 1902 and was not worked in 1905, came back briefly with twenty-five people in 1908 — only five of them underground — and was not worked in 1910. Its abandonment plan was lodged in 1913, catalogued under the parish of Eskett for iron ore, red haematite, and sourced to the 1913 Mines Inspectors Report.

What remains

No description of what survives of the pit has been found. The name persists at Eskett in the modern working limestone quarries just north of the old pit's grid reference, which are a separate concern.

None identified in the sources consulted.

Redevelopment

None recorded in the sources consulted.

Nearby mines

• Frizington Iron Mines — 0.6 km N
• Mowbray Mine — 1.2 km W
• Crossgill Mine — 2.5 km NW
• Crowgarth Mine — 3.8 km W
• Bigrigg Mine — 4.8 km SW

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Eskett Pit Fall of Roof, 1873
  16 September 1873 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  Two miners, Thomas Cameron and Peter Hughes, were killed by a single fall of roof at the Eskett iron ore workings on 16 September 1873. The Durham Mining Museum files the accident under Salter & Eskett, with the company given as Fisher and Co., and the local papers reported it as two men killed at Frizington.

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 Eskett Iron Ore Co. of Whitehaven as owner; the Durham Mining Museum records the Cleator Iron Ore Co. holding the pit in the 1900s. ^1,2
• Sixty-four people were employed in 1900, fifty-two below ground; forty-four in 1902, when the pit stopped in October; none in 1905; twenty-five in 1908, only five of them underground; and none in 1910. ²
• The abandonment plan was lodged in 1913 under the parish of Eskett for iron ore, red haematite. ³
• The 1888 List treats Eskett and Eskett Park as separate workings — the first at Eskett under the Eskett Iron Ore Co., the second at Yeathouse under Cammel and Co., both of Whitehaven. ¹
• West Cumbrian haematite occurs in the Carboniferous limestones as flats along the bedding, as steeply inclined veins often following faults, and as irregular masses. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) 1888 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act: Iron Ore Mines in Cumberland — Mines Department, via the Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Eskett Pit (Iron Ore) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines for Eskett Pit (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