One of many iron ore shafts in the area and the last deep working mine in Europe. When British Steel Corporation closed Florence in 1980, a group of miners decided to keep it going under the name of the Egremont Mining Company.
Known as haematite, the red ore within the limestone layers was common. First mined here in the 1830s, the dust quickly covered buildings and the people who worked there, giving rise the phrase ‘the red men'
The ore was used in steel making, for producing pig iron and later sold as annealing ore - used to extract carbon from castings. It was also extracted as a pigment for paint and cosmetics.
The mine is now completely flooded, sellafield were pumping water at their cost for reactor coolant which kept Florence going, but back in 2007 due to the decommissioning of Sellafied the mines water was no longer required. This along with the demise of the British steel industry and cheap imports helped to bring about the death knell for this mine that once employed over a 1000 men!
latterly the mine was a museum up until 3 years ago when the flooding brought to an end the underground tours.
Known as haematite, the red ore within the limestone layers was common. First mined here in the 1830s, the dust quickly covered buildings and the people who worked there, giving rise the phrase ‘the red men'
The ore was used in steel making, for producing pig iron and later sold as annealing ore - used to extract carbon from castings. It was also extracted as a pigment for paint and cosmetics.
The mine is now completely flooded, sellafield were pumping water at their cost for reactor coolant which kept Florence going, but back in 2007 due to the decommissioning of Sellafied the mines water was no longer required. This along with the demise of the British steel industry and cheap imports helped to bring about the death knell for this mine that once employed over a 1000 men!
latterly the mine was a museum up until 3 years ago when the flooding brought to an end the underground tours.
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