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Roy Mason

The articles on this page were written by Roy Mason, a resident of Lindal-in-Furness, for publication in the village newsletter Aspects of Lindal and Marton, between 2003 and 2006.

 

Aspects is sponsored by Lindal and Marton Parish Council and St Peter's Church PCC, and is delivered to households in the villages free of charge.

Roy's articles are reproduced online with his permission, to be read by a wider audience.

Lindal Church

Village Life

Aspects May 2003

 

Earlier this year I was asked to address the Lent Meeting in St. Peter’s Church on the history of the village. That was when I discovered that very little had been recorded about the village and its people. There are some facts to be found in various publications but precious few are devoted solely to the village. Lindal Moor rightfully features in books on the mining of iron ore in Furness, the Cricket Club centenary publication devotes a few pages to non-cricket matters about the village, and various pictorial publications illustrate aspects of village life, but none cover the full story.

How many shops have there been in the village? Where has the post office been located? Some of the farmhouses have date stones above the front doors but not all. What does BQ stand for on some of the date stones? (Certainly not for the DIY store in Barrow!) Once there was a Tythe Barn that served the village, what has happened to it? What about those other buildings that have been converted into houses? Look around and use your eyes. What do we know about the Anchor Inn? The style of the building is contemporary with that of the red sandstone farmhouses; but is that the full story? Where was the Gas Works in Lindal? That, along with many other industries, has long disappeared; so what other buildings have been lost to the landscape? Now the A590 is the dominant road through the village, but was it always so?

Villages are not just about buildings, they merely provided shelter for people. What do we know about the people who lived here? Some of their names are recorded on plaques in St. Peter’s Church; others on the War Memorial on the Green. Still more are to be found in the cemeteries of Ulverston, Pennington and Dalton, miners who have lost their lives in accidents. But there must be more to tell, if only we knew where to look or who to ask? Maybe in a hundred years time or more somebody will be asking this very same question. As a community we need to be recording what we know about Lindal and the various aspects of life in it. Every current resident, and those who have lived here in the past can contribute to this project. So lets start putting it on paper now!

Lindal Cricket Club

The Turnpike

Aspects June 2003

 

Have you ever wondered why the country road from the Green round past St. Peter’s Church, Henning Cottage, Primrose Cottage, the Black Dog and on to Ireleth should be so broad? Well it was the original Dalton by-pass. Eighteenth century travellers from Whitehaven to Kendal complained so much about the state of repair of the road through Furness that in 1763 the road was turnpiked by act of Parliament for 21 years, to be renewed every 21 years thereafter and administered by trustees rather than the parishes. That worthy body of trustees, who included local landowners, continued in office till 1872. That meant tolls could be levied on travellers at gates erected at Lowfield House and Holmes Green (Black Dog). You would have to spend a penny to take your horse through the gate, whether the horse be laden or unladen. The original tolls were 2d for a cart, 10d per score of cattle and 5d per score of calves, hogs, sheep or lambs. In 1823 the income for the year from these two tollgates alone amounted to £100 1s 0d. Interestingly iron ore carts were exempt from this toll, presumably because they only used the turnpike road for a short distance before turning down Green Lane, also travellers on foot passed through free.

 

William Fell in his account of a journey from Ulverstone to Dalton in 1777 notes that there was a stone signpost (if you know where this post is today please advise location) indicating the road to Whitehaven through the town of Lindale. (Note the spelling with the additional ‘e’). From this one may gather that Lindal was by that date a place of some significance.

Liberal Hall

Building Redevelopments

Aspects July/August 2003

Lindal Cross Roads before widening of the A590 (click to enlarge)In recent years Marton and more especially Lindal have seen residential developments as a dormitory settlement for Barrow-in-Furness. Few examples of the buildings associated with the extraction of iron ore still stand, the notable exceptions being at the eastern end of the village. We have not only lost industrial buildings but socially important structures have disappeared also, the voracious appetite of the A590 has gobbled up the Liberal Working Men’s Club, the Police Station, Seth Barker’s shop together with the gardens in front of the houses of 23 to 45 Ulverston Road (now 11 dwellings but built as 14), as well as taking a slice of land from Empland Cottages (a Council blunder added the ‘H’ to the sign), 1-5 Ulverston Road, and 4 and 5 Church Close. If subsidence had not rendered Lowfield House uninhabitable the road builders would have devoured that as well. There was a whole terrace of twenty cottages in Marton reduced to rubble at the turn of the twentieth century, the grassed over remains can be still seen today in the field below Wagg Reservoir.

Redevelopment has taken place of all but one of our places of worship, so have the shops disappeared where once the womenfolk of the villages would have been able to meet and exchange news (no doubt I dare not suggest that they gossiped). Only the name of the ‘Reading Room’ on the house at the southern end of The Green reminds us that once we had a library where the daily newspaper could be read and books borrowed. The continuing erosion of these traditional meeting places is slowly but insidiously destroying the community spirit. We now are left with three public houses, one village hall and St. Peter’s Church. Without the church there would be no place in our village for children to be baptised, weddings to be blessed, or deaths to be mourned. There would be no annual gala organised by the Parochial Church Council. Surely we cannot afford to lose our Church as well; not only generous financial support is required but the influx of young people to keep this icon of village life alive.

Buccleuch Hall

More Redevelopments

Aspects October 2003

An issue that has preoccupied the minds of the worthies on the Council, both Barrow and South Lakeland, in recent times has been the cost of maintaining public conveniences. Indeed the threatened closure of the facility at Bardsea resulted in a furore of indignation. However no dissent was voiced when Lindal’s one and only WC was auctioned off to a private developer. Perhaps this was because it was a male only urinal, though I am reliably informed that some members of the fairer sex found it convenient to use it as well. The old smelly cast iron structure was attached to the rear of the Reading Room, as our public library was called. Also behind the Reading Room was the store for the road sweeper’s equipment. The last of the road sweepers to keep our village tidy were Walter Marshall, Alec Rigg, George Hall and Fred Watterson (who lived in Swarthmoor); once a week the road sweeper would visit Marton and tidy the verges there. Even though they did their job diligently there was always a problem at autumn time when the road drain by the eastern corner of the church became blocked with falling leaves. A property developer demolished the Reading Room together with its attached facility and extended an existing barn over the site to form the present dwelling house, the red sandstone block engraved with the name was retained and set into the front wall where it may be viewed today.

There were no mourners to be found when the air raid shelters were demolished either. These utilitarian buildings were approximately twelve foot by thirty foot. One was on the Green in front of the cenotaph, another opposite the gap between 13 and 14 London Road and the other on the bank at the Ulverston Road end of Railway Terrace. Another refuge from the bombers used by some of the residents of Lindal was the caves opposite Henning Wood for those who lived at the northern end of the village. Redevelopment of Lindal’s second abattoir has recently taken place, it is now two dwellings and has been renamed Drovers Court. The first abattoir was to the back of the Buccleuch Hall.

Lindal School

School Regulations

Aspects November 2003

Browsing through the archives in Barrow Library I came across a document circa 1850 dealing with Lindal and Marton School Regulations. Conditions were very much different than they are today. The hours of attendance in winter were 9 to 4 with a 1½ hour lunch break and in summer 9 to 5 with a 2 hour lunch break. No irregularity of attendance was permitted except for:

  • Sickness of the child itself

  • Sickness of some member of the family

  • Or really bad weather for those living some distance away from school.

 

There was a set scale of fees, which were means tested and also dependent on the level of education to be received. Children of Farmers & Master Tradesmen paid a higher rate than those of Miners, Labourers and Journeyman Tradesman (a tradesman who had completed an apprenticeship but was an employee).

  • Accounts, book keeping, & general education – 8d/quarter or 6d/quarter

  • Whilst for reading only the fees were 3d and 2d respectively.

  • Young children (3 to 5 years) paid 1½d

  • If parents sent 3 children to school the fourth one could attend free.

 

Parents had to give a fortnight's notice before removing children from school. All books, slates, etc. will be provided at cost price and must be paid for when received. Any child or young person who swears or uses corrupt or indelicate language will on a repetition of the offence be immediately dismissed from the school. It is earnestly requested that parents send their children to Sunday School. Hours of attendance:

  • Morning   9 to 10½ o’clock

  • Evening   2 to 4 o’clock

 

It is expected that parents will send their children properly washed and clean. The services of a well-qualified master & mistress have been secured for conducting the schools, it is hoped parents will second their efforts by ensuring the punctual and regular attendance of the children.

Advice has been received that the Reading Room, the Library, served as an emergency ARP Centre during World War II (Air Raid Protection).

The Green

Marton Puddlers

Aspects December 2003

Some of the alternative spellings of Marton include Martin, or Merton as the village was known in the 13th century. Meretun was mentioned in the Domesday Book and might even go back to Roman times when Agricola made his epic trek around the coast of Cumbria to outflank the Brigante who blocked the way north from Lancaster. A straight line from Conishead to Ireleth/Askham virtually passes through Marton, maybe one day someone will find the evidence that the Roman army had passed that way. The area known as Tarn Flatt suggests at sometime a pond existed, probably drained by mining work, hence Meretun or lakeside settlement.

Its strange how one thing leads onto another, browsing around a book fair I came across a stall selling copies of the 1851 Census that had been transcribed by the Cumbria Family History Society. The residents of Martin in 1851 included 8 tradesmen whose occupation was described as iron puddler, as well as one living at Poakabeck and another at Stewner Park. Where was the puddling furnace? (This was the process invented by Henry Cort in the 1780’s which was used to make wrought iron.) Poakabeck has an unusually straight stretch in the meadow below Poaka Beck House. Looking at a contemporary map an iron works is clearly shown on that site in 1850 though it was not there in 1840. Further research established that James Davis, of Tytup Hall, had owned the Poaka Ironworks. Returning to the 1851 Census James Davis Esq. was described as an Ironmaster employing 96 men, so Poaka Beck was only part of his fiefdom.

There were other ironworkers living in the village, a master iron roller and 3 tradesmen, as well as 4 forgemen. It would have been hot dirty work stirring the molten iron in the puddling furnace with a rabble-bar to first burn off the carbon then gather globular masses of semi-molten iron together into puddle-balls before hooking them out to be hammered in a forge, powered by an undershot waterwheel, before rolling flat into wrought iron bars. It is easy to imagine these iron-workers, in 1851, quenching their thirst in William Brockelbank’s beerhouse, at the junction of Tarn Flatt and Moor Road. (n.b. the 1851 spelling of names was often quaint).

We also learn that Isaac Hazlehurst, of Powkerbeck who describes his occupation as a steel refiner, had been born in 1806 at Wellington, Shropshire; and his wife came from Madeley, which is near Coalbrookdale. No doubt that was where Isaac learned his trade of converting wrought iron into hard tough steel using the process developed by Benjamin Huntsman a century earlier.

So why did this hive of industry disappear leaving very little evidence behind? The puddling process was labour intensive and slow; steel making was even slower until the advent of the Bessemer converters in 1858. That and the damming of Poakabeck to provide a reservoir of clean water for the burgeoning town of Barrow ensured the demise of this industry. In any case James Davis had moved his interests to a site by Ulverston Canal where he had developed a foundry. So the Poaka Ironworks probably had a very short productive life.

Marton brewhouse

Wagg Reservoir and Marton

Aspects February 2004

If you walk up the lane past the cottages at Snipe Ghyll you will come to Wagg Reservoir. Back in the winter of 1927/8 the weather was so cold that the surface of the reservoir froze over. Despite being warned local children were seen playing on the ice-covered surface. On the 3rd January 1928 the inevitable happened, a young girl called Margaret Scott broke through the ice. Gallantly Charles Hornby, who was only 9 years old, went to her aid only to fall through the ice himself. It was a double tragedy since both children drowned that day. A plaque in memory of Charles's gallantry is fixed to the wall of Lindal & Marton Primary School.

Just below the reservoir can be seen a line of stone rubble, this is all that remains of a row of twenty cottages. There is a tale about the residents of Wagg Row that they were so poor they only had one frying pan between the lot of them. (N.B. further research suggests the correct name for these cottages was Ropers Row). Why the cottages were demolished is not clear. It is possible that when the reservoir was built it was considered too dangerous for people to live so close. In the event of the earth dam collapsing the wall of water would wash away all before it, a not uncommon occurrence in the nineteenth century. In the late 1800's disease was rife particularly in crowded sub-standard accommodation like Wagg Row and the only way the worthies on Dalton Town Council could deal with such a problem was to evict the families and demolish the cottages. The records show these draconian measures were adopted elsewhere in Dalton. Marton had seen a population explosion from 50 residents in 1806 to 244 by 1851. Even the adjacent hamlet of Powkerbeck numbered 36 residents according to the 1851 census, the remains of a few of the dwellings are barely visible today.

Marton is said to have had a reputation for violence in the late 1800s, no doubt fuelled by the liquor dispensed from the 3 public houses, the White Horse, the Miner's Arms and the New Inn, as well as the abundance of beerhouses.

The spiritual needs of the community were catered for by a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on Tarn Flatt, built in 1856, and a Presbyterian Chapel, the foundation stone being laid in 1892. Both buildings have been converted into dwellings and Marton residents have to make the pilgrimage to Lindal Church or further afield to worship.

Lindal's Big Hole

Aspects March 2004

At the latter part of the nineteenth century Lindal was important not only to the mining industry but also to the Furness Railway with its extensive marshalling yard. One begot the other but not always did they work together in harmony. Sometimes the miners following the ore body would work under the railway causing minor subsidence. The activities of Lowfield Pit were the most notorious despite some directors being on both mining and railway companies’ boards. The original Lowfield House was a victim to subsidence as was the railway viaduct that serviced the Diamond Pit (by the cricket pitch cross roads) with a standard gauge branch-line. All that remains of either structure are a few dressed limestone blocks in the fields bordering the A590, the viaduct to the north and the House to the south.

Subsidence was very much taken for granted at that time and part of the daily duties of George Ransome Clark, the 46 year old Furness Railway Head Ganger at Lindal, was to walk the line looking for any tell-tale signs of impending trouble. On previous occasions great timber bulks had been used to tie sections of sleepers together when instability had been recognised. The morning of Thursday 22 September 1892 was no different for he had made his way down the steps at the end of Railway Terrace where he lived; dressed in his white coat he walked on to the line for the ritual inspection. Satisfied that nothing was amiss he then joined his five Gangers doing routine maintenance. He was soon to be called to 31 ton locomotive No. 115 that had become derailed in the sidings 440 feet west of Lowfield Bridge. Thomas Postlethwaite, the driver, wanted to try reversing back onto the line but the experience of George Clark was that it would cause further damage to the tracks and advocated waiting for heavy lifting tackle to come from Barrow.

Whilst they were waiting a large hole appeared under the tracks and the engine started to tilt forward dangerously. The driver and the guard, who had only got on the engine for a warm and a brew, hastily jumped clear. Unfortunately 61-year-old Thomas Postlethwaite injured his shoulder and then could only look on in horror as his 30 foot long engine started to sink funnel first into the ground together with his jacket and long service gold watch.

The initial steep sided hole spanned two tracks of the siding, the cavity was 30 feet wide and 30 feet deep. A further collapse took place later that day, about 2.15, extending the hole 75 feet wide that then effectively cut all the other lines. Rail traffic between Dalton and Ulverston remained disrupted until the spring of the following year and even then speed restrictions were imposed for many years afterwards. Barely a year later on the 11th November 1893 another cavity appeared on the eastern edge of the ‘Hole’ cutting across the ‘Up Passenger and the Up Goods’ lines.

The flat field between the present railway line and Bank Terrace on the A590 was the setting for this high drama.

I am indebted to John Sewell, of Barrow, for this information; a more in detailed study by him can be found in specialist Furness Railway publications.

Ulverston Road

Population

Aspects April 2004

At a recent public meeting in the Buccleuch Hall the charge was levelled that ‘off-comers’ were running village affairs. So I turned to my dictionary for the definition, Off-comer a person living in a rural area, in which he or she was not born, an incomer. On that basis most people living in Lindal and Marton, including myself a resident of only 33 years standing, will qualify for such an accolade; even children born recently will have arrived on this earth in the Maternity Unit of Furness General Hospital rather than at home. We must remember that if it was not for immigrants to the area, Lindal and Marton would still be only a few farms around a muddy duck pond and the Anchor Inn, a haven for travellers on their way to Dalton or Whitehaven.

Only a few people can trace their links to Lindal or Marton back beyond a century and a half. Most of the older migrant families arrived during the period of expansion of the mining industry after 1840. Practically every household had a miner, or someone associated with the industry, living there. When the economic downturn for that industry came there was a migration away from the villages. There are still people living here today who can proudly trace their family trees back to origins in Cornwall or Devon, Cumberland or Westmorland. Not all the migrants came from traditional mining areas, the prospects of work attracted people from Liverpool, Staffordshire, Scotland and Ireland, Walsall and Wolverhampton. However there were no parish councils in those days. It was not the off-comers, the new inhabitants who had set up their humble homes here who oversaw village life, but the worthy ‘Four and Twenty’ on Dalton Town Council who exercised control.

Those town councillors made unpopular decisions in their day too. I mentioned in a previous article that the cottages below Wagg Reservoir were razed to the ground. This was Ropers Row (not Wagg Row as I had been informed), a line of twenty tiny houses in which 105 people lived. (The name Roper was probably in recognition of the General Manager of the mining company Harrison Ainsley, Thomas Roper, who was well known for his local investments).

However to bring this overcrowding (by today’s standards) into even sharper focus the cottages at Melton Terrace were home to no fewer than 15 adults and 22 children in 1861 living in six separate households. The situation was hardly better twenty years later when 16 adults shared 5 cottages with 8 children. By 1891 the number of dwellings had been reduced to 4 with 23 residents including 10 of sixteen years or older. Children in the poorer families were expected to get a job at thirteen.

Lindal Cricket Club

Cricket

Aspects May 2004

It was a warm day in August, the year was 1927, and Lindal Cricket Club were hosts to Furness Cricket Club for a key match in the season. However only ten men turned out for the village side so the game could not start. Mr Keen, the headmaster at the primary school, sent a runner round to No.6 The Green where the Postlethwaites lived.

            “Send young Ken round to the field with his bat and pads; we’re a man short.”

This was the sort of opportunity that you read about in ‘Boy’s Own’ fiction. Ken was only a fourteen-year-old schoolboy then but he had gained a reputation for his ability as a batsman on the school playing field. He answered the call with alacrity, racing around to the pavilion. Furness was first in to bat and they scored a magnificent 117 runs. Then it was Lindal’s turn at the wicket, Ken was allocated the number ten position in the team, which meant he would probably not be called upon that day to display his skills. However he sat patiently in the pavilion just in case. At 42 for 8 Mr Keen’s partner was dismissed, then it was young Ken’s turn to take the long walk out to the crease.

            “Leave the scoring to me, lad,” advised Mr. Keen, “you just stonewall.”

At 110 however Mr. Keen was bowled out. Now it was all up to Ken and the last man in Jim Simpson. Ken showed off his natural talent and sent his first ball over the boundary for four precious runs. Then just to show that was no fluke he hit another one. Lindal had triumphed!

This was the start of Ken Postlethwaite’s career with local cricket, he recalls that it was always better to get the bowling over before breaking for tea than afterwards. The catering was supplied by Hetty Clark, of Ulverston Road, and her portions were always very generous, she was particularly renowned for her baked apple square. Ken continued playing for the village eleven until he was 21 when he was persuaded to join the Vickers Sports Club team.

The first record of a cricket club being formed in the village was 1884 when the Messrs Harrison Ainslie and Company’s Employees Cricket Club played in the Diamond Pit field, opposite the present ground. They changed their name to the Lindal Moor Cricket Club the following year. In 1923 Jack Hutton, the farmer, agreed to lease the present cricket field to the club on condition that the ground was improved and the land turfed. A year later the pavilion was built, it was refurbished and extended in 1971 and eleven years later it was rebuilt. The field has suffered from subsidence over the years and in 1968 an 8ft deep hole appeared.

The club has had its successes, in 1960 it won the Higson Cup and again in 1971. Six years later the final of the Haig Championship saw our village team playing on the hallowed pitch at Lords.

Licensed Premises (1)

Aspects June 2004

At the end of the nineteenth century the village of Marton was particularly well endowed with refreshment houses, some had a full licence whilst others were restricted to selling beer. A miner could choose to slake his thirst by a visit to the New Inn on Silver Street. If he did not care for the company there it was a short stagger to the White Horse Inn (now the White Horse House) or totter up the hill behind it to the Royal Oak (21 Silver Street). If still not welcome there, just wander around the corner to Tarn Flatt. The first house of the terrace used to be the Miners Arms (the building has been demolished, but it would have been located in the front garden of the bungalow Green View). The 1851 Census reveals that William Brockelbank was selling beer on those premises when it was the only public house in Marton. Beerhouses, as opposed to Inns, were exempted by the 1830 Act from requiring a Magistrate’s Licence. The Act of Parliament of 1869 brought the chaotic system under the magistrate’s control again, thus records before then tend to be rather sketchy.

If none of these hostelries suited you it was but a short walk up Moor Road to the Farmers Arms, just a room in High Farm. The Farmers had gathered a reputation for light measure and the uncompromising attitude of the publican; the locals had a nickname for it Peevish Nook. With so many pubs in such a small community it is hardly surprising that Marton got a reputation for violence, particularly on the day the mine workers were paid.

At the Farmers Arms the barrels of beer were kept in an outhouse. The beer was dispensed from large jugs, covered with towels or cloths to keep the vinegar flies out and stop the beer going sour. There was a cellar in the Royal Oak, like the New Inn, so the beer was probably drawn straight from the barrel by a pump.

It was rare for the licensee to be the owner of the premises, as often as not the owner did not live in Marton. The owner of the Miners Arms, in 1874, was John Benson, a miller of Sun Street, Ulverston. The ownership then passed, in1895, to Thomas Benson, a coal dealer who in turn sold the premises to Robert and Peter Hartley, the Ulverston brewers. The Farmers Arms was owned by John Bell described as a gentleman from Stavely, it then passed to Joseph Bell of Oak Bank, Broughton Beck who leased it in 1915 to Case & Co., the brewers. There were exceptions Thomas Silver at the Black Dog, Holmes Green, was both owner and licensee; when he retired George Thexton became the tenant then eventually the owner. Thomas Lawrence, the owner of the White Horse Inn, was a farmer who lived at Scale Lodge; however when he retired and went to live in Flookburgh his occupation was recorded as Gentleman!

Being a tenant was a precarious occupation, transgress the law and retribution could be swift, the owners taking the view that it was their investment that was in peril. The succession of tenants at the White Horse Inn in the two years from April 1880 demonstrates this point. Charles Wilson was fined ten shillings (50p) and costs for opening during prohibited hours. He was followed by Matthew Askew who was caught adulterating gin and paid up £2 and costs plus his job for two months later Margaret Craghill became the incumbent.

Steam engine

Technical Visits

Aspects February 2005

Is it not strange how when looking for one thing you come across something different but very relevant to another subject you are interested in? The other day I was doing my homework prior to the visit of the President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers to South Cumbria, and was reading up about previous presidential visitations when out popped two references to Lindal.

On Tuesday 3rd August 1880, the Mayor of Barrow, Edward Wadham Esq. (well known in this area as the Duke of Buccleuch’s land agent) received the President, Mr. Edward A. Cowper, and members of the Institution at a reception in the Town Hall to mark the start of their Summer Meeting and then entertained them to luncheon in the Market Hall. On the following Thursday one of the excursions was a visit to the blast furnaces of the North Lonsdale Iron and Steel Company’s works at Ulverston. There the party was entertained to lunch by the directors including Mr. Wadham, Mr. Aymer Ainslie and Mr. E. G. Tosh. On the return journey the party stopped at Lindal Station and visited the Lindal Moor Iron Mines of Harrison, Ainslie, & Co. Mr. Edmund Ray, the Mine Manager, advised that these mines had been worked for many generations and their present output rate was 250,000 tons of ore per annum. The party then went by train to Foxfield junction where they met up with the other two excursions. A special train took the members to Coniston where they dined in the grounds of the Waterhead Hotel before taking a trip down the lake in the steam yacht Gondola. It was remarkable that even after 21 years service the steamer had retained its original boiler.

The Institution must have been impressed with the hospitality they received in 1880, for 21 years later they were back again for their Summer Meeting, this time during William H. Maw’s term as President. Again there was a civic reception followed by the reading of a number of technical papers in the town hall before an audience of 249 members and 63 visitors. As previously, excursions were arranged to places of interest for the engineers. Amongst those site visits was one to Lindal to inspect the then recently erected pumping engines at the Lowfield and Becune pits. Mr. Frank S. Ainslie, Mr. Edmund Ray and Mr. Fell showed the party the very substantial steam engines built by Hathorn, Davey & Co. of Leeds. The Lowfield engine was the larger of the two and had a high-pressure cylinder of 45 inches diameter with an 80-inch low-pressure cylinder. The engine was connected to the pump with a 22-inch square steel spear rod 1150 feet long, carried on cast iron rollers down the inclined shaft. The pump had a 30½ inch diameter plunger with a stroke of 10 feet, it was capable of delivering 2000 gallons/min of water against a head of 735 feet. The balancing feature, which equalised the work done on the power and return strokes, was of particular interest to the Victorian engineers and noted in the transactions of the Institution. It was reported that after refreshment the visitors were driven back to the Furness Abbey Hotel.

St Peter's Church Reredos

Aspects May 2005

Flanking the reredos, or altar screen, in St. Peter’s Church are two carvings of saints from a bygone age, a reminder of the days before the formation of the Anglican Communion in 1533. The carvings appear to be of a different wood to that used for the rest of the reredos, which also suggests they are not contemporary with the screen. This could indicate that they had been salvaged from another church and recycled to be incorporated in the Lindal screen; or were they a gift? Unfortunately no records seem to have survived to resolve the mystery.

The reredos itself was probably commissioned in 1916 when the proceeds of the Easter Offering were set aside in a special fund which by the end of the financial year had risen to £10 10s 10d, the following fiscal year accounts show that a further £1 1s 8d was added. It may well have been the idea of the Rev. L H Marner-Smythe, who was the vicar of St. Peters from 1916 to 1927, to incorporate two stalwarts of the Celtic Church in the altar screen, although both became acolytes of the Church of Rome. Certainly in 1916 Marner-Smythe broke with the tradition of accepting the Easter Offering as a welcome addition to the vicar’s stipend.

Both these saints were missionaries in their day converting people to Christianity and both have miracles ascribed to them. So who were these saints? On the left hand side of the screen we have St. Cuthbert and on the right St. Kertigern. Cuthbert was born near Melrose, on the border with Scotland, in 635 and at the age of 16 whilst out looking after his sheep he had an amazing vision. This vision coincided with the death of St. Aidan, the prior of Lindisfarne and was the inspiration for Cuthbert to train as a monk in Melrose Abbey. Some fifty years later the aspiring monk became the Bishop of Lindisfarne.

St. Kertigern was born a century before Cuthbert and of much more aristocratic parents, his father was King Owein of North Rheged and his mother Princess Thaney of Gododdin. He was brought up in Culross under the guidance of St. Serf and it was natural that he should follow his mentor into holy orders. After being ordained Kertigern, who was nicknamed Mungo, preached in the Glasgow area and lived a somewhat eccentric lifestyle. When persecuted by King Morken he sought asylum in Wales settling firstly in St. David’s before moving to St. Asaph, in what is now Denbighshire. Kertigern made seven pilgrimages to Rome and when Morken died and his successor converted to Christianity Kertigern returned to Glasgow to become Bishop of Strathclyde. He died in 614 and was buried in the foundations of Glasgow Cathedral.

Diamond Pit Lindal

Mines

Aspects June 2005

Around Lindal and Marton the spoil heaps of the iron ore mines have still not been completely recovered by nature, although it is many years since the last ore was dug out. They serve as a reminder of the hardships and dangers endured underground at the end of the nineteenth century. What was it really like mining in those days? To answer this question we are fortunate that a technical paper was written for the 1880 Summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers by Mr. J L Shaw of Dalton. In that paper he describes how the early mines recovered ore in shallow workings by the Gin Pit method. A shaft would be sunk through the top layer of ‘pinnel’ directly into the ore body where a ‘level’ could be driven out horizontally, timber shoring seeking to support the ‘driftway’. The vertical shaft, no more than 4½ feet square, would continue to be sunk a further six feet to provide a sump for collecting water that seeped into the workings. At the end of the levels ‘rises’ would be cut upwards through the ore until the sand, clay and gravel pinnel was encountered. Then the miners would work back towards the vertical shaft. As they won the ore from the ground it would be trailed back to the rises and hence fall into hoppers that would be drawn manually along the level to the vertical shaft. A horse gin was often used to power the winch that raised the hopper to the surface. It was inevitable that at some stage instability would occur in the head works of the shaft with the ground collapsing. Hopefully the signs would occur early enough to allow the men to vacate the mine and surrounding area before it subsided, though the inscriptions on the gravestones in the local cemeteries are mute testimony to the accidents that did occur in these mines.

The Gin Pit method was inefficient and left much of the ore body untouched, so a method of sinking the vertical shaft through the adjacent limestone bedrock ensured that investment in surface equipment would not be compromised by the underground workings. Thus boilers and steam driven winding engines and water pumps were installed well clear of any likely subsidence. From the shaft a heavily timbered Main Road or Driftway would be cut through the limestone and on through to the limit of the ore body. Then crosscuts would be worked to leave pillars of ore 24 to 30 feet square. As with the Gin Pits, rises were used to access the ore above the Driftway level. The theory was that as outer limits of the ore were worked out so the ore left in the pillars could be recovered. As the ore pillars were removed so the weight of the burden above the Driftway crushed the timbers and collapse of the ground above followed.

At Crossgates and in Marton open workings were employed on some shallow deposits once the superficial cover had been removed.

The miners usually worked on a two shift, eight-hour system though when demand for ore was at its peak three shift 24 hour working was employed. One man was expected to dig at least one and perhaps up to three tons of ore per day and the total mine output could vary from 100 tons to 1000 tons per day.

Lindal Church

St Peter's Church Altarpiece

Aspects July/August 2005

When you come into St. Peter’s Church, it is now open on Wednesdays from 9am to 4pm as well as for the Sunday service commencing at 9.30, your eye is attracted to the wonderful stained glass east window. Below and in contrast to this beautiful and colourful window, which during daytime can only be appreciated from inside the church, a simple carved wooden reredos provides a backdrop behind the high altar. In the centre of the reredos is a small wooden altarpiece ornately painted with an impression of Christ and his disciples. The artist has only furnished his initials, A M, and date of 1916, however he does acknowledge that his inspiration was a fresco done in the fifteenth century by a Dominican friar, Fra Angelico.

The 1441 original of the ‘Transfiguration of Christ’ can be found in the Museo di San Marco in Florence painted on the wall of Cell 6 in the former monastery. The Lindal picture is not an exact copy since only three supporting figures are depicted whereas on the original there were seven. Fra Angelico, whose real name was Guido di Pietro, was a prolific Florentine painter and manuscript illustrator. John Ruskin said of him ‘not an artist properly so-called but an inspired saint’; today Angelico’s work is highly valued. Indeed in his own lifetime his work was much sought after and he travelled widely from his beloved Fiesole, a village in the Appenine Mountains above the city of Florence, where he was the Prior. His work adorns the walls of the private chapel of Pope Nicholas V in the Vatican and he influenced much of the religious painting of the Perugia school.

The Church of England celebrates the transfiguration of our Lord on the 6th August. However it is part of the heritage of the village that the congregation of St. Peter’s extends a welcome to all. So why not come and have a quiet contemplation in the church, admire the stained glass windows, particularly the East one resplendent in the morning on a bright sunny day. Then gaze upon the golden icon in the centre of the carved wooden screen and wonder at the serenity captured by that holy monk and so ably reproduced by the artist known only as A M. Maybe you too will discover that inner peace that the holy Fra Angelico sought to illustrate.

Child Labour

Aspects December 2005

With the commercial extravaganza of Christmas fast approaching its zenith, it is appropriate to remember that not long ago children had to ‘earn their keep’. Charles Dickens endeavoured to publicise the plight of workers and their families in his novels about Victorian England. It was also true that poverty was rife among many of the families that came to settle in Lindal and Marton looking for work in the burgeoning mining industry. Those who were fortunate enough to be employed had no security of tenure and certainly none of the welfare benefits enjoyed today.

In 1842 one of the early social reformers, Anthony Austin, wrote a report highlighting the plight of children employed in the Coniston copper mines. The children worked during the hours of daylight in winter, or from 7 am to 6 pm in summer, for a reward as low as 2 shillings a week for a six or seven year old. The older children were better paid and might take home 8 shillings a week. Illiteracy was rife with only 11% able to write, though most could read.

The work these unfortunate children had to do was arduous; the wet rock was brought straight from the mine to an open shed where some of the children used hammers to break up the rock. The smaller boys and girls washed the clay from the ore which was then further sorted on a table before being crushed. The crushed ore was sieved in a tub of water, sometimes called tubbing or jigging, arduous, cold and dirty work. Mr. Austin noted that that no work was done in severe frosty weather (probably because the wet ore would freeze solid), neither did the proprietor inflict corporal punishment on the children.

In our present enlightened times such treatment of children would be considered inhuman, but in 1842 life was considerably harsher. Anthony Austin must have been a courageous man to have penned an account that helped lead to the social reform we enjoy today. Perhaps we could all reflect this coming Yuletide on how far we have moved on from those times. Maybe give a thought to those children who are less fortunate in this world and have to endure conditions not much better than those of the mineworkers of 1842.

Mascalles

Mascalles Power Station

Aspects February 2006

The power station was inaugurated, amid great pomp, at a ceremony by Lord Muncaster in the presence of the directors of the reconstituted Harrison Ainslie Mining Company as reported in the NW Daily Mail of the 10th October 1907. A £50,000 contract had been placed with The Electricity Company, London to design and build a power station to supply electricity to pumps to be installed in the Bercune, Diamond and Lowfield pits.

The recession in the iron ore extraction industry had seen the closure of many of the mines higher up on Lindal Moor. This resulted in the steam pumps at the three pits being overwhelmed and so reluctantly ore extraction had ceased, Harrison Ainslie went into liquidation and the pits flooded. A new company was formed; they retained the name of the former company, and came up with the proposal to de-water the workings using modern technology. 250 HP (187 kW) pumps would be used in the Diamond and Bercune pits capable of an output of 1000 gals/min (3785 l/min) whilst the Lowfield pumps were rated at 750 HP (560 kW) and delivered 2000 gals/min (7570 l/min). To service these pumps a power station had be built (there was no National Grid supply in those days) and it was outfitted with 3 AEG turbo-alternators of 1000 HP (746 kW) each operating at 3,300 volts. Babcock and Wilcox water-tube boilers, fitted with electrically driven mechanical chain grate stokers, supplied steam at 200 lb/in2 600 °F. These boilers were a radical and advanced departure from the traditional Cornish fire-tube boilers used by the mining companies. The chimney was 11 ft. square and 100 ft. tall, whilst the boiler house was approximately 40 ft high and the turbine hall was probably 50 ft high.

The alternating current (AC) output of the power station was indeed state of the art at a time when gas mantles were mostly used for illumination in many homes. Those premises that did use electricity would probably have had a direct current (DC) supply which could be as low as 200v or as high as 250v. This could well have been a reason for rejecting the offer made in 1912 by Harrison Ainslie to use the surplus power to light the streets of Dalton, Lindal, Swarthmoor and Ulverston.

The power station equipment was sold in 1919 and the buildings demolished. It has been suggested that the bricks were recycled to build houses. The site, where the power station stood, was used for a time as a chicken farm. It is now a caravan storage area and a dwelling though remnants of its previous use are still apparent.

Recycling

Aspects April 2006

Railway sidings, crushing mill & gas works chimneyWhat has recycling got to do with heritage, you may wonder? Well it may be one of the buzzwords in fashion today but really it has been something that has been carried out throughout the ages. Recycling is really a case of finding a practical use for discarded materials. With the demise of the mining industry in this area a lot of useful material became available. Sometimes whole redundant buildings could be usefully employed in another role; the Lindal Moor Mine Offices were easily converted to dwellings, as were those at Lowfield. Other industrial buildings took on a new lease of life when occupied by another owner; the old engine sheds are still recognisable but now are used to house a vehicle repairer. In the case of the sawmills only the outside wall remains, a modern steel structure being erected alongside to contain the West Cumberland Farmers warehouse.

Where a building or structure became derelict or just would not lend itself to conversion, such as the many tall chimneys that serviced the boilers that every mine had to power winding engine and pumps, were however still a rich source of material once demolished. Quite a few houses built during the Great Depression of the 1930's utilised bricks from such sources. Urswick Recreation Hall was built in 1929 with bricks recycled from the demolished Harrison Ainslie Power Station, as did several of the bungalows that were built in the early 1930's at Mascalles. Of course bricks were not the only material to be salvaged, a length of mineral tramway rail was recovered during a restoration of a cottage in Marton where it had been reinforcing a garage door lintel. It is understood that more examples of light rails being incorporated as strength members can be found in local buildings. Probably a significant quantity of timber was also salvaged and found other uses but now would be difficult to identify.

In more recent times many a stone barn has become a highly desirable residence and there are a number of examples of such conversions in both Lindal and Marton. But converting barns was also practised during the nineteenth century with the population explosion of the villages. The old tithe barn at Melton Brow became home to many a family of miners with at least six separate dwellings, which have now been reduced to four cottages and acquired the name Melton Terrace.

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