Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National Park. It is south-west of Carlisle. The parish also includes the small village of Sandwith. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 24,040 and the Whitehaven built up area had a population of 22,945.
The town's growth was largely due to the exploitation of the extensive coal measures by the Lowther family, driving a growing export of coal through the harbour from the 17th century onwards. It was also a major port for trading with the American colonies, and was, after London, the second busiest port of England by tonnage from 1750 to 1772. This prosperity led to the creation of a Georgian planned town in the 18th century which has left an architectural legacy of over 170 listed buildings.
Whitehaven was the site of a major chemical industry after World War II, but both that and the coal industry have disappeared, and today the major industry is the nearby Sellafield nuclear complex, which is the largest local employer of labour and has a significant administrative base in the town. Whitehaven includes a number of former villages, estates and suburbs, such as Mirehouse, Woodhouse, Kells and Hensingham, and is served by the Cumbrian Coast railway line and the A595 road.
History Although there was a Roman fort at Parton, around to the north, there is no evidence of a Roman settlement on the site of the present town of Whitehaven.
The area was settled by Irish-Norse Vikings in the 10th century.Wainwright, F. T. Scandinavian England: Collected Papers, Chichester: Phillimore (1975) The area name of Copeland, which includes Whitehaven, indicates that the land was purchased from the Kingdom of Strathclyde, possibly with loot from Ireland.Winchester, Angus J. L. "The Multiple Estate: A Framework for the Evolution of Settlement in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian Cumbria" in Baldwin, John R. and Whyte, Ian D. (eds), The Scandinavians in Cumbria, Edinburgh: The Scottish Society for Northern Studies (1985) pp. 89–101
Following the arrival of the Normans, in about 1120 St Bees Priory was founded by William de Meschin, which was granted a large tract of land from the coast at Whitehaven to the river Keekle, and then south down the River Ehen to the sea. This included the small fishing village of Whitehaven. Following Henry VIII's dissolution of the priory in 1539, ownership of this estate passed through a number of secular landlords until it passed into the hands of the Lowther family in the 17th century.
Whitehaven was historically a township within the parish of St Bees. The town's three Anglican churches of Holy Trinity, St Nicholas, and St James were chapels-of-ease to the parish church at St Bees until 1835 when each was given an ecclesiastical parish.History, Topography and Directory of Cumberland, 1901, T.F. Bulmer, T.Bulmer & Co., Penrith, 1901
Growth and prosperity The modern growth of Whitehaven started with the purchase by Sir Christopher Lowther of the Whitehaven estate in 1630 and the subsequent development of the port and the mines. In 1634 he built a stone pier providing shelter and access for shipping, enabling the export of coal from the Cumberland Coalfield, particularly to Ireland. This was a key event in the rapid growth of the town from a small fishing village to an industrial port.
In 1642 the manor of St Bees was inherited by Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet, of Whitehaven (1642–1706), who developed the town of Whitehaven, its coal industry and the trade with Ireland. He oversaw the rise of Whitehaven from a small fishing village (at his birth consisting of some fifty houses and a population of about 250) to a planned town three times the size of Carlisle.first item (ahead of news from London) in At his death the 'port of Whitehaven' had 77 registered vessels, totalling about four thousand tons, and was exporting more than 35,000 tons of coal a year.
Whitehaven's growing prosperity was also based on tobacco. By 1685 there were ships regularly bringing tobacco from the British colonies of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania in America, and by the early 18th century about 10% of England's tobacco imports passed through Whitehaven. By the middle of the 18th century, it was the second or third port in England for tobacco imports. The tobacco was then sold on the domestic market or re-exported, e.g. to Ireland, France and the Netherlands.J. E. Williams (1956) Whitehaven in the Eighteenth Century, in The Economic History Review Vol. 8 No 3 pp396-397
However, after the Acts of Union 1707 united England with Scotland, thereby abolishing excise duties between them, the port of Glasgow began to take over Whitehaven's tobacco trade, leading to the later creation of Glasgow's Tobacco Lords. By the second half of the 18th century, there was a marked decline in shipping of tobacco via Whitehaven, and by 1820 the Customs Collector did not mention tobacco in his report on Whitehaven.J. E. Williams (1956) Whitehaven in the Eighteenth Century, in The Economic History Review Vol. 8 No 3 pp400-402
Daniel Defoe visited Whitehaven in the 1720s and wrote that the town had
Whitehaven was involved with the transatlantic slave trade, and records show 64 known slaving voyages to Africa originating in Whitehaven between 1711 and 1768. That is about 0.5 per cent of all British slaving trips. Whitehaven was not a good base for ships in the slave trade as there was a limited supply of trade goods to be obtained from the port or its hinterland. The trade eventually moved to other ports where there were local industries that could supply the goods that were exchanged for those people bought in Africa. The only advantage Whitehaven had was during wartime, when ships setting out or returning were less likely to be intercepted by enemy privateers. In 2006, the Copeland Council (Whitehaven's local authority) issued a formal apology for Whitehaven's role in the slave trade.
Scottish-American naval officer John Paul Jones raided the town in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, burning some merchant ships in the harbour.
The population in the 1841 census was 15,841 inhabitants.
During the 19th century the port of Whitehaven was overtaken by Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow, as they had deep-water dock facilities and were closer to large centres of population and industry. The huge development of a national railway network had also reduced Whitehaven's 18th century competitive advantage of having coal extracted very close to a harbour for shipment by sea.
An 1888 legal case, Bush v Whitehaven Port and Town Trustees, was one of a series of legal cases involved in the development of the doctrine of frustration of contract in English law.Viscount Simonds, in the House of Lords ruling on Davis Contractors v Fareham Urban DC, UKHL 3, delivered 19 April 1956, accessed 30 April 2024 Bush, the contractor in this case, had contracted to construct a water-main for a "slump sum" . His tender was submitted in June, and he was "given to understand" that he could begin the work at once, but part of the land was not available until October. This meant the work took place during the winter, when operations are more difficult and more costly. The jury in this case decided that the timing issue substantially affected the contract, and awarded damages to be paid to the contractor.Lord Dewar, in Smellie v. Caledonian Railway Co. ScotLR 336, Scottish Court of Session, Inner House First Division, delivered 1 February 1916, accessed 5 June 2024
Coal mining
Early mining The earliest reference to coal mining in the Whitehaven area is in the time of Prior Langton (1256–1282) of St Bees Priory, concerning the coal mines at Arrowthwaite. St Bees Priory was dissolved in 1539, and the lands and mineral rights passed to secular owners. The first of these, Sir Thomas Chaloner, granted leases of land in 1560 for digging coal, and in 1586 he granted St Bees School liberty "to take 40 loads of coal at his coal pits in the parish of St Bees for the use of the school". Such workings were small-scale and near the surface, using adits and bell pits. But the Lowther family later developed and dominated the coal industry in Whitehaven from the mid-17th century to the early 20th century.
The influence of the Lowthers Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet (1642–1706) significantly developed the coal industry and the trade with Ireland. He spent over £11,000 in expanding the Lowther holdings in the area, and considerably improved the drainage of his pits; thus allowing mining at greater depths.Oliver Wood, West Cumberland Coal 1600-1982/3, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society Extra Series XXIV, Titus Wilson, Kendal, 1988,
Sir James Lowther, 4th Baronet FRS (1673–1755) continued the work of his father and reputedly became the richest commoner in England. Between 1709 and 1754, over £46,000 was spent to extend the Lowther holdings of land and coal royalties in West Cumberland. By the 1740s Lowther was the dominant supplier of coal exported from every harbour in the Cumberland coalfield and from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries this coal represented 6%-7% of all English exports to Ireland; most of the coal burnt in Dublin came from here. However, Lowther was noted for his unscrupulous business practices, and a lease of the coal royalties owned by St Bees School was obtained in 1742 on manifestly unfair terms: an annual rent of £3.50, with no payment per ton raised, for 867 years. The lease was eventually quashed in 1827, with compensation of over £13,000 paid to the school.
Mining under the sea Sir John, and after him Sir James, had concerns that there were few reserves of economically retrievable coal under dry land. They felt that exploration under the sea was necessary, but this carried the risk of flooding. However, Sir James had two very able managers, the brothers Carlisle and John Spedding, who were willing to explore new technology and techniques. In 1712 John Spedding urged Lowther to consider pumping by steam, and in 1715 he became one of the earliest customers for the newly invented Newcomen engine. Spedding concluded that such an engine would drain a flooded pit in two-thirds the time that horse gins would take, and would do so at a quarter of the cost. Consequently, a small (17-inch diameter cylinder) Engine No. 5, built by Thomas Newcomen and John Calley, was erected. It was so successful that in 1727 Lowther bought an additional pumping engine.
With this proven method of pumping Lowther was able to exploit the coal measures under the sea by sinking a pit at Saltom on land below the cliffs south of the harbour, to a depth of 456 ft (138m). Work began early in 1730, and the pit was officially opened in May 1732 with great celebration. Carlisle Spedding had charge of the design and construction, and successfully sank only the second sub-sea pit in Britain. It was reported that "A shaft twelve foot by ten had been sunk seventy-seven fathoms" (141 metres) "(the deepest a pit had been sunk in any part of Europe) to a three-yard thick coal seam (the Main Band) in twenty-three months, using thirty barrels of gunpowder, and without any loss of life or limb by the workforce'.First item (ahead of news from London) in