Florence Mine
Florence was an Iron ore mine, 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 them 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 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. The small amount of ore still produced is annealing ore, used to extract carbon from castings and in pigment extraction for paint and cosmetics.
Unfortunately the Florence Mine underground tours have now closed to the public for the foreseeable future.
Information and maps of mines in the area can be found at http://www.mindat.org/
The West Cumbria Mines Research Group owns an extensive collection of exhibits of all aspects of mines, miners and mining in Cumbria, from the clay pipes the workmen smoked to the actual mining techniques used in coal and iron ore extraction. The group also has a geology collection including samples of fluorescent crystals and the nationally acclaimed Edgar Shackleton's fossil and mineral collections.
The collection includes surveying instruments, old fashioned lamps carried by hand and examples of old drinking flasks. Many of the items in the collection were recovered from local iron ore mines and additionally others have been found in other mines in the North Pennines.
The group hope to establish a centre in the near future and news will be published on their web site at http://www.florencemine.co.uk/
