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Written by Richard
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 12:44 |
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Test1
Cleator Moor is a historic mining town nestled on the edge of the Western Lake District, close to the Cumbrian coast just a few miles from the old port of Whitehaven. The town is surrounded by open countryside and fells, offering wonderful views and provides a bustling shopping and business centre.
In the Market Square built in the late 1800s are three sculptures by Conrad Atkinson, an artist of international repute who was born in Cleator Moor in 1940. They are a memorial to the once thriving mining industry. The three sculptures represent the Miner, the Phoenix and the Hand.
Outside the library is a blue plaque reminding us that the artist L.S. Lowry often stayed in Cleator Moor. He had a long standing friendship with Geoffrey Bennett (1902-1991), who was manager of the Westminster Bank in Cleator Moor. Lowry often visited his friends in Cleator Moor and painted several pictures of buildings, including the Old Co-op building, Cowles fish and chip shop opposite the library, the former Westminster Bank and Wath Brow Church. Some of Lowry's local landscapes were also inspired by his trips into the hills at Ennerdale.
A hundred yards or so from the Market Square, in the Whitehaven direction, is a car park by the West Cumbria Cycle Network, using the old railway line from Whitehaven to Ennerdale. This forms part of the Sustrans C2C Cycle Route, from Whitehaven to Sunderland. At the entrance points to the track are metal sculpures designed by the children from local primary schools.
Since the 12th century, residents and Monks from the nearby St Bees monastery have mined the area and the village experienced its economic boom in the 1840s. Mining had declined with the depletion of supplies of high grade ore by the early 1900s.
The Cleator Moor Iron Works were built in 1842, and the town and nearby village of Cleator continued to grow with the Industrial Revolution.
Cleator Moor and all the villages around it - Frizington, Rowrah, Keekle, Bigrigg - were a maze of railways and mines which produced the materials for iron works in Cleator Moor and Workington. Early in the 20th Century supplies began to decline. Some of the materials mined in the area were exported from the port at Whitehaven.
Limestone quarrying in addition to water powered flax mills were also major industries for the town's residents and, as was common after the mines closed down, agriculture then again became the major industry, with good pastoral land for sheep.
NE Copeland has a strong sporting heritage producing nationally renowned sportsmen in the fields of football, rugby league and cricket. The area also hosts traditional lakeland sports including hound trailing and fell running - with the 23mile annual Ennerdale Horseshoe race attracting only the most fearless local runners!
The last coal mine, Haig Colliery at Whitehaven closed a few years ago. The remaining buildings at the pit head have been renovated to make a mining museum and heritage centre. Examples of various minerals mined in Cleator Moor and other nearby mines may be seen at the Natural History Museum in London.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 23:41 |
