Workington
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| Workington | |
  Workington shown within Cumbria |
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| Population | 75,350 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| - London | 259 miles (417 km) SE |
| District | Allerdale |
| Shire county | Cumbria |
| Region | North West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WORKINGTON |
| Postcode district | CA14 & CA95 |
| Dialling code | 01900 & 01946 |
| Police | Cumbria |
| Fire | Cumbria |
| Ambulance | North West |
| European Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | Workington |
| List of places: UK • England • Cumbria | |
Workington is a town and port on the west coast of Cumbria, England at the mouth of the River Derwent. Lying within the borough of Allerdale, Workington is 32 miles (51.5 km) southwest of Carlisle, 7 miles (11.3 km) west of Cockermouth, and 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Maryport.
Historically a part of Cumberland, the area around Workington has long been a producer of coal, steel and high grade iron ore.
Workington is the seat of Allerdale Borough Council, which is one of three borough councils in Cumbria and has a population of around 75,350. Tony Cunningham is the local MP for the constituency of the same name that includes other towns in the hinterland of Workington .
Workington is twinned with Selm in Germany and Val-de-Reuil in France.
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[edit] History
Mary, Queen of Scots after the defeat of her forces at the Battle of Langside fled to England by crossing the Solway Firth, and landed in the vicinity of Workington . She spent her first night in England as an honoured guest in Workington Hall (commonly known locally as Curwen Hall), but was soon moved on to Carlisle Castle.
[edit] Geography
Workington is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea and on the north by the Derwent Workington is made up of various districts, many of which are housing estates. These incude:
- Northside
- Stainburn
- Derwent Howe
- Ashfield
- Banklands
- Frostoms (Annie Pit)
- Port and Oldside
- Mossbay
- Moorclose
- Salterbeck
- Seaton
- Distington
- Bridgefoot
- Lillyhall
- Harrington
- High Harrington
- Clay Flatts
- Kerry Park
- Westfield
The Marsh and Quay, a large working class area of the town around the docks and a major part of the town's history was demolished in the early 1980s. Much of the former area of the Marsh is now covered by Clay Flatts industrial estate.
[edit] Economy
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[edit] Iron
The Cumbria iron ore field lies to the south of Workington, and produced extremely high grade phosphorus-free haematite. The area had a long tradition of iron smelting, but this became particularly important with the invention of the Bessemer process by Sir Henry Bessemer, the first process for mass production of steel, which previously had been an expensive specialist product. For the first 25 years of the process, until Gilchrist and Thomas improved it, it required phosphorus-free haematite. With Cumbria as the world's premier source of this, and the local coalfield also available for steel production, the world's first large-scale steel works was opened in the Moss Bay area of the town. The Bessemer converter continued to work until 1977, the world's first and last commercially operating Bessemer converter. The Moss Bay steel works were themselves closed in 1982 by the Thatcher government, despite having received significant infrastructural investment and improvement almost immediately prior to the closure.
During World War II, a strategically vital electric steel furnace crucial to producing steel for aircraft engine ball bearings was relocated to Workington from Norway to prevent it falling into Axis hands.
Workington was the home of Distington Engineering Company (DEC) the engineering arm of British Steel Corporation (BSC), which specialised in the design of continuous casting equipment. DEC, known to the local people as "Chapel Bank" had an engineering design office, engineering workshops and a foundry, that at one time contained 6 of the 7 electric arc furnaces built in Workington. The 7th was situated at the Moss Bay plant of BSC. In the 1970s as BSC adapted to a more slipstreamed approach to the metals industry the engineering design company was separated from the workshops and foundry and re-designated as Distington Engineering Contracting. Employing some 200 people its primary purpose was the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of continuous casting machines.
One offshoot of the steel industry was the production of steel railway rails. The rail plant in the 1980s and 1990s was ( ). Workington rails were widely exported and a common local phrase was that Workington rails 'held the world together'. Originally made from Bessemer steel, following the closure of the Moss Bay steel works (ending actual steel production in Workington), steel for the plant was brought by rail from Teeside. The plant was closed in August 2006, the final end for Workington's long and proud association with the steel works. (Although welding work on rails produced in the Scunthorpe rail plant, which took most of the work from the Workington site, continued at Workington for a few months after its official closure, as the Scunthorpe site proved initially incapable of performing this adequately).
The two industries Workington was built on, coal and steel, having vanished from the town, has led to Workington (as with the whole of West Cumbria) being something of an unemployment blackspot. Industries which exist in the town today include chemicals, cardboard, the docks (originally built by the United Steel Co. and with a seemingly continually shaky future), waste management and a relatively novel industry, recycling old computers for export, mainly to more impoverished countries. The town also contains the British Cattle Movement Services, a government agency set to oversee the U.K. beef and dairy industry following the BSE crisis in Britain. It is located in former steelworks offices. Many Workington residents are employed outside the town in the nuclear industry located in and around Sellafield, West Cumbria's dominant employment sector. None of the nuclear industry is located in Workington itself; much of it is based around Whitehaven.
Workington formerly manufactured 'Railbus' and 'Sprinter' type commuter trains and Leyland National buses. The Leyland National was based on an Italian design, which included an air conditioning unit mounted in a pod on top of the roof of the bus at the rear. Adapting the design for Britain, Leyland replaced the air conditioning unit with a heating unit. However, as hot air rises, much of the heat generated by the heaters was wasted as it escaped out of the top (most vehicle heaters are located low down in the vehicle). This design flaw in the National bus became infamous in certain circles. The 'Railbus' trains were based on the National bus design, designed as a cheap stopgap by British Rail. This initiative led to Workington's brief history of train manufacturing, the buses already being built there. They are generally considered a poor design, and are very uncomfortable to ride especially on less-than-perfectly-smooth rail lines, as the carriages tend to jump about much more than most trains. This is due to the fact that they are not equipped with proper train bogies, but have two single axles per carriage (each train consists of two carriages), a cost-cutting design feature which when they have been worked on some lines has also caused problems with rounding tight-radius corners. Some industry experts have also raised significant doubts about their level of safety compared to other commuter train types, such as the Sprinter. The former bus plant, located in Lillyhall, is now a depot for the Eddie Stobart road haulage company.
[edit] Transport
Workington is linked by the A596 road to Maryport and (via the A595 road) to Whitehaven, and by the A66 road to Cockermouth, the M6 motorway, Penrith and County Durham. The town has bus connections to other towns and villages in West Cumbria, Penrith, Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, as well as the rail connection provided by the Cumbrian Coast Line to Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, with occasional through trains to Newcastle, Lancaster and Preston.
[edit] Sports
Workington has a non league and former professional football team, Workington Reds, currently playing in the Conference North. The local professional rugby league team are former Challenge Cup winners Workington Town, whilst there is also a professional speedway team, the Workington Comets.
Workington is home to a tradition known as "Uppies and Downies", a traditional version of football, dating to Medieval times.
Speedway racing has been staged at three venues in the town. Before WWII racing was staged at Lonsdale Park. The sport did not return to the town until 1970 when it was introduced to Derwent Park. The team, known as The Comets, has operated off and on with varying degrees of success. In 1987 the track was a temporary home to the Glasgow Tigers who briefly became the Workington Tigers prior to withdrawal from the League. More recently a training track has been established at Northside. This venue has staged a public meeting in 2007.
[edit] Notable people
- Carl George Dalton (d.21.06.1987) once lived in Workington Hall, Master Dalton the last remanding titled member of the Curwen Family and then moved onto Ribble Hall, Preston. The Curwen family however is still remembered in Workington to the present day. (The Curwen family has branches extending into present-day New England and in the Midwestern United States (Wisconsin and Illinois)). Workington Hall, which stands in the middle of a public park, later passed into the stewardship of the local council and is now a ruin.
- Mark Cueto - English international rugby union player.
- Scott Dobie - Carlisle United Footballer
[edit] Regeneration
Workington has recently seen a massive town centre redevelopment plan in operation, which has demolished the former Co-op building and a former Tesco outlet [1] for a new shopping centre known as Washington Square, including a new car park. Work began three years ago, resulting in the opening of the £45 million pound centre in August 2006 where the main attraction has been a new Debenhams to cater for West Cumbria. Next, River Island, HMV and BB's Coffee and Muffins are other stores which have come to Workington for the first time. Workington is also getting a brand new Tesco Extra. It will be placed on the towns Cloffocks site, an important area of common recreational land for the town, causing significant controversy;.
Retailers nearby, especially Marks and Spencer have been under threat, where the Workington store is proposing a new £2 million refit.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Workington Town Centre
- Full history of the Uppies and Downies at the Times & Star, Workington newspaper
- For locals and visitors
- A website about the twinning of Workington with Val-de-Reuil in France
- The Workington Twinning association's web page
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