A-Z of industries

Defence and Industry in Cumbria
 by Alan Postlethwaite
(Page created 26/09/09. Last updated 13/11/12)

Pre-history

The Neolithic production and polishing of stone implements at sites in central and western Lakeland is the very first British industry. The worked hornstone from outcrops at Stickle Pike, Scafell Pike, Glaramara, Carrock Fell and Fairfield answered many practical and cultural needs for our prehistoric ancestors rather than meeting any specifically defensive function. However, associated with stone implement manufacture at Carrock Fell is the existence of a hill fort enclosure. The workers and perhaps their work site required protection. Similar defensive hill sites are recorded at Hunsonby in the Eden Valley, The Helm near Natland, Warton Crag on the Lancashire border, Skelmore Heads near Urswick and Castlesteads near Allithwaite. The remains of a motte and bailey defence at Aldingham is an example of an early coastal fortification. Henges at Mayburgh near Eamont Bridge are probably more intended to delineate a place of cultural or religious significance rather than to afford any physical defence.

Prehistoric Monuments of the Lake District : Tom Clare, Tempus, 2007
A History of Man in the Lake District : William Rollinson, J M Dent & Sons, 1967
The Langdales : Mark Edmonds, Tempus, 2004

The northern limit of Province Britannia required the erection of a defensive boundary. First, during the reign of Trajan (AD98-117), a series of fortifications was built between Carlisle and Corbridge along the route later known at The Stanegate. Later, around AD124, Hadrian’s Wall was raised to consolidate the Tyne to Solway frontier. Military communications within Roman Cumbria required engineered routes from the south through the Lune gorge, along Wicker Street to Penrith, to the frontier defences; via Watercrook (Kendal) to Galava (Ambleside) and on to Clanoventa (Ravenglass); High Street (if ever completed) or more probably the Kirkstone Pass road via the Roman camp at Glencoyne on Ullswater; a road over Stainmore from Yorkshire branching at Kirkby Thore to the mountain route into the South Tyne valley by the Maiden Way; a main highway north from Brougham to Carlisle; another westwards from Brougham to Moresby; the Military Road along the line of the Wall continuing westwards to Maryport with a southerly extension via Papcastle to Egremont. These roads were protected and travel along them facilitated by forts such as Low Borrow Bridge, Old Penrith and Hardknott at intervals of a day’s march. The defence requirement of the three centuries of Roman occupation bequeathed to the county a basic system of communications which through the succeeding Dark Ages seems to have served mainly to assist the movement of new invaders and incomers from Scotland, Anglians from the south-east, Vikings from Ireland and the Isle of Man and Danes from the east. An emerging pattern of settled pastoralism had little need of strategic routes or formal structures for defence.

Walking Roman Roads in East Cumbria, and Walking Roman Roads in Lonsdale and the Eden Valley : Philip Graystone, CNWRS, 1994 & 2002
Roads and Tracks of the Lake District : Paul Hindle, Cicerone, 1998

During the 10th and 11th centuries Cumbria could not be considered part of England but was effectively controlled by various Scottish kingdoms. The Domesday Book records only a few manors in the south of present Cumbria. It was not until 1092 that Norman government spread to Carlisle when William Rufus arrived with an army, built the castle and settled a multitude of English peasants with their wives and stock in the district. Norman rule was established by the construction of castles at Brough, Appleby, Brougham, Cockermouth, Egremont and Kendal. Raiders from Scotland continued to harrass the border lands and gave the Carlisle area a great strategic importance and an economic base for over two hundred years. Mediaeval towns often came into being for military or defensive reasons which accounts for Carlisle being the earliest recognisable town, but then with a population of not more than 2,000. By 1200 only Appleby and Kendal could be added to the list of municipalities. The founding of a series of twelve monastic estates across Cumbria consolidated Norman control and began a restructuring of the economic life of the area. Sheep and cattle farming on a large scale, iron mining and forging, fisheries and trading were developed and imposed a requirement for reliable means of transport as well as for security . Piel Castle was built to provide secure storage for the coastal trading activities of Furness Abbey. 

The thirteenth century marked the growth of a woolen cloth industry following the invention of the fulling mill and the ready availability of water for power. Mining of coal, iron, copper, lead and silver and the quarrying of limestone and slate were all taking place in Cumbria by 1500. Pig iron was being smelted and exported. Salt was being produced on the Solway coast and traded. Events early in the fourteeen century threatened to compromise this economic evolution. Following the English defeat at Bannockburn in 1314 what had previously been sporadic raids from north of the Border turned into a virtual Scots ravaging of the whole of Cumbria which continued intermittently until the end of the century. The English monarchy was obliged to grant permits to northern landowners to fortify their properties and thus many built pele towers - sturdy defensive three-storey structures - as their only hope of protection from the marauderers. Pressing national needs lay behind the drive to extract copper ore from the Lakeland hills. Mining had been carried out around Keswick from the 12th century but when Elizabeth I came to the throne imports of copper were crippling the Exchequer. The prosperous wool industry used brass carding pins, copper was used for most domestic cooking utensils, the ordnance factories required copper for the bronze in their cannon and musketry. Copper was known to lie in the Cumbrian fells but the expertise to find and retrieve it was lacking. In 1565 agreement was reached for a team of German prospectors called the Company of Mines Royal to begin work in the Newlands Valley which rapidly grew into a productive mining, dressing and smelting operation that lasted for almost a century. Only the wadd (graphite) industry compares in value with the copper trade in its heyday. Borrowdale’s high quality graphite could be used in the casting of cannonballs, bomb-shells and round shot. It was a rust inhibitor, pottery glaze, pencil lead and dye fixitive. Again the local source lasted for about a hundred years.

Roads and Tracks of the Lake District : Paul Hindle, Cicerone, 1998  
Goldscope and the Mines of the Derwent Fells : Ian Tyler, Blue Rock, 2005
Seathwaite Wad and the Mines of the Borrowdale Valley : Ian Tyler, Blue Rock, 2000

With the increase of trade and travel and the loss of the organisation provided by the monastic foundations, by the end of the 17th century travel in the north of the country was becoming difficult. So, when Bonny Prince Charlie and his supporters arrived in Carlisle in November 1745 it proved impossible for English troops to move from Newcastle in less than a week to avoid the town’s capitulation. A little over a month later, as Charles Stuart was attempting his retreat from Derby, his cannon became mired in the unimproved road over Shap and his artillery was overtaken and savaged by the Duke of Cumberland’s forces at Clifton - the last battle on English soil. The ‘45 rebellion prompted the Government - funded construction of the Military Road between Newcastle and Carlisle at a cost of over £20,000. This expenditure was clearly a strategic rather than an economic expedient although the road was subsequently operated as a turnpike and maintained by tolls. The century saw the first onset of modern industrialisation. Within Cumbria technical innovation was sufficiently advanced to attract the attention of the Swedish investigator and diarist R R Angerstein. One of his journeys in 1754 took him to Maryport where he sketched the blast furnace, then to Clifton where he reported coke being used to fire the furnace. At Whitehaven Angerstein made detailed notes of the coal mines, their working methods and value and sketched the spark machine invented by Carlisle Spedding as a means of providing safe underground illumination. His journey southward gave him the opportunity to visit the slitting mill at Egremont, the iron ore mines at Lindal and the furnaces at Newland and Penny Bridge. Only at Clifton did Angerstein encounter a rebuff to his inquisitiveness when he was ordered off the premises by the operators in what was an early instance of defending trade secrets. 

Towards the close of the century John (‘Iron Mad’) Wilknson, himself a son of the parish of Clifton, was perfecting the use of coke for smelting and developing techniques for the casting and machining of cylinders and gun barrels. Although John and William Wilkinson conducted profitable business in France it is safe to assume that they would take care to protect their inventions at a time of Napoleonic expansionist ambition. John Wilkinson attracted attention with the launching of an iron boat at Coalbrookdale and one of his iron vessels is reputedly still resting in Helton Tarn on the River Winster. Cumbria around this period became an important centre of a new industry with both military and civilian uses. Gunpowder production began at Sedgwick in 1764 followed by factories at Bassingill (1790), Lowwood (1799), Elterwater (1824), Gatebeck (1850), New Sedgwick (1857) and Blackbeck (1860). It was a Westmorland man - the Revd Richard Watson born at Heversham in 1737 and later to become Bishop of Llandaff - who when Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge advised the Government on a process for producing "cylinder charcoal" by distilling wood in retorts which delivered a more consistent product for the gunpowder mills.

RR Angerstein’s Illustrated Travel Diary, 1753-1755 : Science Museum, 2001
Ironmaster Wilkinson of Lindale : S Raymond, Lindale, 2000
Roads and Tracks of the Lake District : Paul Hindle, Cicerone, 1998
The Gunpowder Mills of Cumbria : Ian Tyler, Blue Rock, 2002

Gunpowder manufacture continued at the Cumbrian mills until the last one (Gatebeck) closed in 1937. Initially the output of the northern mills was chiefly black blasting powder for use in mines and quarries. Most powder for military use then came from the factory at Waltham Abbey. By 1914 the local mills were producing about 50% of the gunpowder made in the UK. From 1917 the Westmorland and Furness mills were absorbed into Explosive Trades Ltd which finally merged with ICI to whose works at Ardeer in Ayrshire all production eventually was transferred. Anxieties in the opening years of the 20th century over German rearmament greatly affected the pattern of industrial activity in the area. At the new town of Barrow in Furness the Naval Construction & Armament Company, born out of Sir James Ramsden’s Barrow Iron Shipbuilding Co., amalgamated in 1897 with Vickers Ltd, the Sheffield steel and armament company. The year was a critical one for Imperial defence with mounting anxieties at the hostile intentions towards British interests of Russia, France, Japan and Germany. Naval estimates for that year swelled by 15% and Barrow received an order for a new cruiser, followed a year later by the order of a battleship ‘the only ship in the British Navy which had been built, engined, armoured, and supplied with her heavy gun-mountings by one firm.’ 1897 was also the year when Lowther Estates granted Vickers firing rights over the foreshore near Bootle and the Eskmeals heavy gun range was established. A similar firing range owned by the Newcastle firm of Sir W G Armstrong & Co was created at Blitterlees Bank, south of Silloth. Expansion of the Barrow Yard was dramatic: capacity was more than doubled, the work force grew from 5,000 to 10,000, thirteen acres of covered space became twenty-five acres. In the years leading to the outbreak of the Great War Barrow Yard continued to fulfil the share of new naval construction awarded by the Admiralty but also embarked on the development of submarine technology with rather less support from the Admiralty. Barrow Works was also involved in a less successful adventure into airship design at workshops built near Cavendish Dock. A start was also made on an airship landing site and hangers at Flookburgh. The prototype rigid airship, named prophetically "Mayfly", broke its back before becoming airborne and the programme was shelved. (Click here to read more).

English Heritage Archaeological Investigation Reports on the Cumbrian Gunpowder Works
Vickers - A History : J D Scott, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962
A Century of Shipbuilding : T Clark, Dalesman, 1971
James Ramsden: Barrow’s Man of Vision : J Kellett, Monksvale,1990
Carrock and the Mines of Skiddaw & Blencathra : Ian Tyler, Blue Rock, 2003

The gathering clouds of war over continental Europe and the threat of a German submarine blockade brought some new investment in UK mineral extraction. At Force Crag Mine in Coledale the workforce was increased, the flotation plant and mill were improved and the driving of a major new level was being planned. To meet the wartime demand for tungsten the Government funded the revival of the then recently closed Carrock Wolfram Mine which enjoyed a brief flourishing until 1921 when imported tungsten could be obtained from China at a third of the cost of home production and the mine again closed. Iron ore and coal production increased and steel output was demanded from every serviceable blast furnace in Furness and West Cumberland.

Vickers Barrow Works effectively came under Government control for the duration of hostilities. The Turkish battleship Reshadieh, completing in 1913, with crew in place and commissioning awaited, was summarily appropriated by the UK Government and commissioned as HMS Erin. One further battleship - the Revenge - was completed at Barrow during the war but Barrow’s major war work for the Royal Navy was in the delivery of a fleet of 64 new submarines. The advances made by Vickers in the improvement of diesel propulsion for submarines gave them a head start in the development of heavy diesel engines for surface vessels. The success in reconnaissance over the North Sea of the German Zepellins led to a brief revival by Vickers of the airship programme. The design team included a young engineer named Barnes Wallis. Three airships were completed at Barrow before the project was again closed down. The Gun Range at Eskmeals came under the control of the Ministry of Munitions but continued to be operated by Vickers. The town of Barrow was virtually a garrison town during the war years and was flooded with munition girls and conscript workers. Unlike the emergency housing provisions for workers at the Gretna munitions plant, little extra housing was made available in Barrow where families were separated into different lodgings and Lancashire mill girls brought to the town were housed in emergency hostels. 

Few departments of life and industry were unaffected by the war. Military service deprived many businesses of their established workers. Women were now depended on to fulfil roles hitherto the exclusive preserve of their menfolk. Female labour was especially vital for the munitions factories built around Carlisle. The city was also the scene of a unique attempt to control the strength and consumption of alcohol by placing the local brewery and licensed premises under the control of a State Management Scheme. On the land the labour shortages were partially offset by the employment of POWs from camps hurriedly erected to hold them. The railways were required to perform heroic endeavours to move unprecedented volumes of fuel, munitions, troops, and casualties. A procession of ‘Jellicoe Specials’, many using the Cumberland coast line to relieve pressure on the main west coast line over Shap, carried huge tonnages of coal to fuel the Northern Fleet through the Scottish ports. Extra capacity was required at Carlisle to cope with the volumes of traffic. Locomotives and wagons were borrowed from the larger railway companies to supplement the limited resources of the local operators. The Kent and Leven viaducts on the Furness line required major reinforcement to handle the heavy traffic. Of all the costs of the war undoubtedly the greatest was the human one of the loss of so many of a generation of young skilled and productive workers.

Vickers - A History : J D Scott, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962
Building Barrow  and The Barrow Blitz : Bryn Trescatheric, Titus Wilson, 1992 and The Dock Museum, Barrow, 2009
Rail Centres: Carlisle : P W Robinson, Ian Allan, 1986
Carrock and the Mines of Skiddaw & Blencathra : Ian Tyler, Blue Rock, 2003
Force Crag - the History of a Lakeland Mine : Ian Tyler, Red Earth, 1990

The critical wartime housing shortage in Barrow had seen 200 prefabricated bungalows built in 1918 and led the Ministry of Munitions to agree the construction of 400 new houses but it was late 1920 before their development of just 250 properties was completed, by which time many of the munition workers had returned to their former areas. Like many UK companies Vickers at Barrow had a buoyant and expansive outlook on the post-war world. In 1917 a Peace Products Committee foresaw a future where defence capacity would turn to the production of locomotives, piano frames, and soft toys. The reality proved starkly different. Although several new branches of engineering were pursued in such fields as power station boilers, aircraft cylinders, cement kilns, pumps, bridges, ship stabilisers and diesel engines, the 1918 Barrow Works payroll of 28,000 employees earning £5,146,000 had by 1923 reduced to 4,900 workers earning £645,000. The high quality precision engineering which had met the nation’s defence needs during the war proved the chief handicap in winning business in peace. Armament tolerances were too fine and costs too high to be able to compete successfully with general engineering concerns. Although shipbuilding at Barrow after 1923 did not suffer to the same extent as in the UK as a whole, it was not until the mid-1930s that prospects at Vickers began to improve. With the introduction of a national rearmament drive the Barrow Works labour force as good as doubled from 8,355 in January 1934 to 16,340 in January 1938. A significant consequence was a resurgence in the local house-building market of both private and Council-owned properties

Building Barrow : Bryn Trescatheric, Titus Wilson, 1992
Vickers - A History : J D Scott, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962
The Furness Area : Lancashire Industrial Development Association, Manchester, 1948