Wellington Lodge
Building In Whitehaven, Cumbria
A castellated lodge built for the Wellington Pit in Whitehaven, now serving as a Coastguard base and one of the few remaining surface buildings from the colliery.
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The Wellington Lodge in Whitehaven is closely linked to the Candlestick Chimney, as they were both part of the same pit complex known as Wellington Colliery from 1840 -1933. The chimney was a boiler house flue, while the Wellington Lodge was the gateway to the complex and offices for the workers. The complex was designed by the architect Sydney Smirke and was very extravagantly built to look like a medieval castle to give the industrial site a grand appearance. Would have loved to have seen this pit castle back in the day!
Most of the pit was demolished in 1969 but the crenellated perimeter walls close to the chimney still survive to this day. The lodge luckily survived too and is now used by HM coastguard to assist in rescues around the harbour, beaches and cliffs at Whitehaven and in inland rescues in the Lake District. The team at Wellington Lodge are responsible for a huge range of emergencies including: rescuing people from the cliffs; rescues in the water, conducting searches for missing people, managing helicopter landings and responding to reports of unexploded ordnance. What a remit!
Because the coastguard base is operational, there is no access inside the building so that the team are always ready to head out during an emergency. If you wanted to find out more about the history of the building, however, you could visit The Beacon Museum just a 5-minute walk away. They have extensive exhibits on the Wellington Pit, including artefacts and stories from the miners who worked there every day.
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Login to bag this placeHow To Find Wellington Lodge
Where Is Wellington Lodge?
Lat / Long
54.549146, -3.596005
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Where To Park For Wellington Lodge?
Lat / Long
54.549146, -3.595168
What three words
Park right next to it in the West Strand car park.
Contributed by Sandra Clemens
I love the great outdoors and have been a National Trust & English Heritage member for years. I also love going off the beaten track and finding places like Sharp's Folly or Rothley Castle which are hidden gems in Northumberland. My favourite recent hike was climbing Red Screes in the Lake District on a whim, not fully grasping how high 776m was. It was still an achievement to conquer a Wainwright walk and I hope to do more one day.
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