Whinney Hill Colliery, Cleator Moor

Overview

A coal pit on Cleator Moor in west Cumberland, leased by the Haematite Mining Company, where an explosion on 28 October 1848 killed thirty men and boys.

History

Whinney Hill Pit, also written Whinny Hill, lay on Cleator Moor about three miles from Whitehaven, within the Lordship of Egremont. In 1848 it was leased by the Haematite Mining Company. Robert Foster, head overman of the collieries on Cleator Moor, had taken the post only three weeks before October that year, after his brother, part-owner of a Lancashire pit, had been through the workings.

The men worked the Bannock band and the Five Foot from a single shaft divided by a partition from top to bottom for ventilation, with two internal shafts joining one band to the other. A ventilating furnace about halfway down the shaft had been put on three or four months before; one of the men said the pit could not have been worked without it. Some workings lay 300 yards from the shaft. There were no horses below, so the men hauled the coal themselves, and Davy lamps were the only lights allowed.

On the morning of 28 October 1848 an explosion of firedamp killed thirty men and boys, nearly everyone underground (see Disasters, below).

The Ordnance Survey's County Series maps mark Whinnyhill Collieries on the moor, and a later abandonment plan records Whinney Hill together with the Wyndham and Henry pits of Cleator Moor.

Geology

West Cumberland coalfield. The Bannock band and the Five Foot were worked in 1848; the combined abandonment plan covering Whinney Hill records the Main, Little, Bannock and Five Feet seams.

Workings

A single shaft partitioned for upcast and downcast, with a ventilating furnace about halfway down and two internal shafts between the bands; workings reached at least 300 yards from the shaft.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

A memorial plaque to the thirty killed in 1848 was unveiled on Whinney Hill Lane, Cleator Moor, in 2023.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Whinney Hill Colliery explosion, Cleator Moor, 1848
  28 October 1848 · Explosion · 30 fatalities
  An explosion of firedamp at the Haematite Mining Company's Whinney Hill Pit, Cleator Moor, on 28 October 1848 killed thirty men and boys, nearly everyone underground.

Recorded claims

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

• Leased in 1848 by the Haematite Mining Company. ^1,2,3
• About three miles from Whitehaven, in the parish of Cleator and within the Lordship of Egremont. ²
• Worked the Bannock band in 1848, from a shaft partitioned top to bottom for ventilation. ²
• A ventilating furnace about halfway down the shaft was installed three or four months before October 1848. ²
• Marked as Whinnyhill Collieries on the Ordnance Survey County Series maps, at about NY 0075 1560. ⁴
• An abandonment plan covers Whinney Hill with the Wyndham and Henry pits of Cleator Moor, in the Main, Little, Bannock and Five Feet seams. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Whinney Hill Colliery Explosion - Cleator Moor - 1848 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Dreadful Explosion - Thirty Persons Killed (The Times, 2 November 1848) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Colliery Disaster 1848: Cleator Moor, Whinny Hill — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Whinnyhill Collieries, Cleator Moor (Old Cumbria Gazetteer) — Lakes Guides
5. (primary) BGS mine plans: Cleaton Moor (Whyndham) / Whinney Hill / Henry (New) / Whyndham, NW1298 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
6. (secondary) Plaque unveiled to mark 175th anniversary of Whinney Hill Pit disaster — Whitehaven News

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 7 October 2026