Pallaflat Iron Mine

Overview

A haematite mine on the south side of Bigrigg in the West Cumberland iron field, begun by the Pallaflat Mining Company in 1874, with its No. 1 shaft working by 1884, three pits in all, 83,000 tons of ore in 1888 and up to 147 people, and abandoned in 1914. Collectors know it for the clear calcite crystals and green baryte that came off its dumps in the 1980s.

History

Pallaflat lies in the exposed haematite orefield north of Egremont, where iron ore bodies sit as veins on fault planes and as flats in the Carboniferous limestones and where mining is recorded from the Middle Ages. The Pallaflat Mining Company was formed in 1874 and its No. 1 shaft was working ten years later; the Durham Mining Museum lists the Maryport Hematite Iron and Steel Company as owner in the 1880s and the Pallaflat Iron Ore Company Ltd in the 1890s, and returns red haematite from 1888 to 1910. Output reached 83,412 tons in 1888. Two further pits followed: the Lists show 31 people sinking in 1894, then 100 in 1896, 105 in 1900, 75 in 1902, 147 in 1905 and 111 in 1910, with the ore worked in the 1st, 2nd and 4th Limestones and a little manganese ore found. The mine was abandoned in 1914. Four deaths are named: a labourer who fell from a ladder while tarring the pithead shed in 1885; James Menhenet, a miner of 54, buried in 1886 when eight feet of crumbling ore in the roof made a rush and reeled all the timber out as he sliced a pillar; a wagon picker in 1905 and a miner in 1907. The mine's fame today is mineralogical: exceptional groups of clear nail-head and scalenohedral calcite, some butterfly-twinned and some selectively coated red or brown with haematite, and pastel green baryte with calcite, many of them recovered when local collectors worked the dumps in the 1980s; specimens are in the Natural History Museum.

Geology

West Cumberland haematite: vein-like bodies on fault planes and flats in the 1st, 2nd and 4th Carboniferous Limestones of the exposed orefield north of Egremont, with calcite, baryte, a little manganese ore and, on the dumps, fluorspar.

Geological setting: Iron Replacement Deposits (well documented example)

Workings

Three shafts, No. 1 by 1884 and two more sunk by the mid-1890s; pillar-and-slice working in the ore, with crumbling ore in the roof timbered up.

Closure

Abandoned in 1914, with 111 employed at the last return in 1910; no account of the closure has been found.

What remains

The dumps survived to be worked over by mineral collectors in the 1980s, and mine explorers still sell specimens from Pallaflat according to the Cumberland Geological Society; the ground is private. No photograph of the surface was found.

Spoil dumps, picked over for minerals since the 1980s.

Nearby mines

• Gillfoot Park Mine — 1.5 km SE
• Bigrigg Mine — 1.6 km NE
• Dalzell's Moor Row Mine — 1.8 km NE
• Crossfield Mine — 2.9 km NE
• Crowgarth Mine — 3.1 km NE

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 Pallaflat Mining Co. was formed in 1874, No. 1 shaft working ten years later, two more pits developed, and the mine closed in 1914; the museum lists the Maryport Hematite Iron and Steel Co. in the 1880s and the Pallaflat Iron Ore Co. Ltd in the 1890s, abandoned 1914. ^1,2,3
• 83,412 tons of iron ore in 1888; 31 sinking in 1894, 100 in 1896, 105 in 1900, 75 in 1902, 147 in 1905 and 111 in 1910. ^1,2
• Ore as vein-like bodies on fault planes and flats in the 1st, 2nd and 4th Limestones with a little manganese; the west Cumbrian orefield's haematite lies in Carboniferous limestones north of Egremont. ^4,2
• Exceptional clear nail-head and scalenohedral calcite, some butterfly-twinned and haematite-coated, and pastel green baryte, many recovered from the dumps by collectors in the 1980s. ^5,2
• Four named deaths 1885–1907, including James Menhenet buried by a rush of crumbling ore in 1886. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Pallaflat (Iron Ore) — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Pallaflat Mine, Bigrigg — Mindat — Mindat
3. (secondary) Pallaflat, Pit No.3 — Buddlepit Mine Database — Buddlepit / Mining History Trust
4. (primary) Haematite deposits of Cumbria — BGS Earthwise
5. (primary) Iron Ore Mines near Bigrigg (NY 002 130) and Moor Row (NY 006 145) — Cumberland Geological Society
6. (secondary) Egremont Miscellanea 3 — Rum Butter — Rum Butter

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026