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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.
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.
by Richard Law
Created: Sat, 14 Jun 2014, Updated: Sat, 14 Jun 2014
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