2014

SD1778 : The Commodore - now closed

taken 11 years ago, near to Haverigg, Cumbria, England

The Commodore - now closed
The Commodore - now closed
The speculation in SD1778 : The lagoon at Hodbarrow about the immediate status of this local restaurant appears correct; there's little evidence of anything happening here now, apart from the fact that the pub's signage has been removed. In better times, it was formerly the mine office for the Hodbarrow Mining Company.
The Hodbarrow Mining Co at Millom

The Hodbarrow Mining Company was formed in 1853, when the then Earl of Lonsdale granted permission to Nathaniel Caine & John Barratt to search near Millom for iron ore (in the form of haematite). Its discovery started the boomtimes for the town, which grew up on the back of the Millom Ironworks, built in the 1860s.
The nature reserve and lake we see now is the result of that mining work, dammed to the seaward end by the Outer Barrier, which was constructed between 1900 & 1905 at a cost of nearly £600,000. It replaced previous, smaller scale protective works that had been breached by the sea in 1885 and 1898, flooding the mines. Most of the 5157 concrete blocks have a dimension of 11’ x 6’ x 6’, and weigh 25 tonnes apiece, although there are also a couple of hundred 20-tonners in the walls; they were all made on site of a mixture of 6:1 aggregate to cement, with a maximum of 20% coarse aggregate.
One condition of building the Outer Barrier was that the company also had to provide a lighthouse, which was duly erected in the February of 1905, and was operational by July of that year. No photographs have ever been found that prove the design of the optics, but it is thought to have been a 4th order Fresnel Lens assembly, supplied by the Parisien company that built the tower, and would have produced a flashing beam, visible 10 miles away. It operated until 1949, when declining trade at the mines and wharves led to the mining company turning off the paraffin lamp.
The mines themselves continued to operate up until the late 1960s, closing in 1968, and the nearby Millom Ironworks closed the year after.

The lighthouse was refurbished in 2003, repainted and given a new dome and glazing, at which time a Solar LED Navigational Lantern was fitted.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Richard Law and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Business, Retail, Services Derelict, Disused Primary Subject: Restaurant
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Pub and Restaurant [2] Other Photos: · "HerdwickS" Pub and Restaurant ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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SD1778, 47 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Richard Law   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Tuesday, 20 May, 2014   (more nearby)
Submitted
Friday, 13 June, 2014
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SD 1708 7887 [10m precision]
WGS84: 54:11.9311N 3:16.3534W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SD 17080 78865
View Direction
North-northeast (about 22 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Geograph
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