Mine Cage from Hodbarrow Millom Cumbria

Each time the cage went up the shaft it could be carrying 1 ton of high grade iron ore or 8 miners.The cage came from the last mine to be worked, Moorbank, Hodbarrow. It was used by miners to descend the shaft to get to the Iron Ore drift. It weighs 1.5 ton and could carry 8 men or 1 of the 28 million tonnes of iron ore produced at Hodbarrow. In 1841 the population of Millom Below was just 356; most lived in the village of Holborn Hill, 3 were miners. From 1865 the population boomed due to immigrant miners from Cornwall and Ireland coming for work. Working conditions were hard, miners had to buy their own tools and candles from the Mining Company. Iron ore gives a red and greasy dust which adhered to everything, including the miners. They lived in makeshift huts until Millom Newtown was built in the early 1870's. Sanitation was dire causing a smallpox epidemic in 1872. By 1900 the effort of these hardy men was rewarded by a strong local economy, arrival of the railway, ship building, trade and commerce and great community spirit.

Each time the cage went up the shaft it could be carrying 1 ton of high grade iron ore or 8 miners.