Workington is an old market town and seaport situated at the mouth of the River Derwent. Its history dates back to Roman times when during the Roman occupation Workington was the site of a Hadrianic fort which formed part of the Roman Coastal defences. After the Romans had left, Anglian invaders started to harry the coast and the town is said to derive its name from 'Wyre' a small stream that flows into the sea at Harrington and 'Weork' an Anglian Chieftain.
The earliest surviving building in Workington is the 14th century ruins of Workington Hall the hereditary seat of the Curwen family, Lords of the Manor. In 1568 the Hall was refuge for Mary Queen of Scots during her flight from Scotland before her imprisonment and final execution.
It is now a classified ruin and the stage for Shakespearian plays and the site for the town's annual Curwen Fair.

It was in 1573 that a charter was granted for Workington to hold a market and fair. From then to the present day, market days in Workington have been on a Wednesday and Saturday. Corn and provisions were sold on a Wednesday market and on Saturdays butchers meat and other provisions were offered.
Two fairs were held in the course of the year for the sale of cattle on May 18th and October 18th. The life of the town at this time centred mainly around the Hall and it was only with the exploration of iron ore and coal that Workington began to expand. The Cumberland coalfield lay along the coast from Whitehaven to Maryport but there was no substantial working of coal in the Workington area until the middle of the 18th century when the Industrial Revolution created a demand for coal and iron ore deposits. Coal became Workington's principal export and over a long period of time the town's prosperity was dependant on mining. There were 97 vessels belonging to the port of Workington in 1770, with the majority being engaged in the coal trade with Ireland. By the early 19th century, 6 steam engines had been erected for the winding up of the coal and the pumping of water. At this time there were between 500 and 600 men women and children employed in the pits.

This expansion in trade and industry at the turn of the century created a demand for an increased labour force, resulting in an influx of workers from the surrounding countryside, as well as from Ireland and Wales, causing the population to reach 5716 by 1801. This influx brought many new developments and changes to the town, particularly among housing. More houses were built on the higher ground around the Hall and in the area around the parish church, in the lower part of town, near to the harbour. The fields between creating two virtually separate communities. By 1828 the number of ships in the harbour had increased to 126 ships and adjacent to the harbour, three shipyards were building ships ranging from 400 to 600 tons. Railways were built in West Cumberland primarily for the transport of coal and ore with the track connecting Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport and then on to Carlisle opening in March 18th 1847. The track from Workington to Cockermouth was completed in April 28th 1847. Between 1875 and 1883 there was a steep decline in coal exports, one reason being that in the previous years there had been a strike by Cumberland miners. Scottish producers had taken the opportunity to capture a large proportion of the Irish market and so Workington's main export trade was seriously affected.

There is no doubt that the prosperity of Workington was based mainly on the rapid growth of the iron and steel industry in the second half of the 19th century. Workington's first iron works were established at Bareport in 1763. The Oldside works were opened in 1856, the same year that Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) invented a new method of converting pig iron into steel. This resulted in a substantially increased demand for Cumberland Pig Iron, so that by 1882 there were 21 blast furnaces in Workington.
At the end of the 19th Century Workington had expanded to 2819 acres with the two clusters of buildings around the Hall and the harbour having grown larger and the space between them smaller. There does not seem to have been any overall plan for building development within the Town, it seems to have been spontaneous, but despite this houses of substance and character were built as well as shops. Coal mining was still carried out, though most of the smaller pits had been worked out. Shipbuilding was carried out by the Workington and Harrington Shipbuilding Company who employed 150 men, with a second yard owned by Charles Lamport employing 120 men.

The Parish

Workington is an ancient and considerable market and seaport town, municipal borough, township and parish, at the mouth of the River Derwent, 5 ½ miles south-south-west of Maryport, 6 ½ north-by-east from Whitehaven, 8 west-by-south from Cockermouth, 33 ½ south-west from Carlisle and 306 ½ from London, with stations on the London & North Western and Cleator & Workington Junction railways.
The Cleator and Workington Junction Railway Company's line from Cleator Moor through Workington joins the London & North Western railway at Siddick Junction. The branch lines from Distington to Rowrah and Workington to Linefoot are worked by the company, but only for goods traffic.
The London & North Western Railway Company erected a new station in 1886, and also widened the railway, there being now four lines ; bridges have also replaced the level crossings, and a better entrance has been made to the station.

The parish is in the Cockermouth division of the county, and is the head of a petty sessional division, within the ward of Allerdale-above-Derwent, Cockermouth union, county court district of Cockermouth and Workington, rural deanery of Cockermouth, archdeaconry of Westmoreland and diocese of Carlisle.
The town extends for more than a mile along the south bank of the Derwent, and though irregularly built, contains some spacious streets and good buildings and shops and now has direct railway communications with every part of England and Scotland.

The town is lighted with gas from works originally built in 1840 by a local company, and disposed of by them in 1847 to the Town Trustees ; the works now belong to the Corporation. The water supply is derived from reservoirs at Stainburn, supplied from Crummock Lake ; the Cockermouth Union Sanitary Authority (now the Rural District Council) obtained an Act of Parliament in 1878 authorising them to draw water from this lake for the use of the surrounding parishes, and in 1833, the Workington Local Board (now extinct) obtained a further Act enabling them to take water from the Derwent for the supply of the district ; the water works, purchased by the Local Board in 1865, are now the property of the Corporation.
In 1899 the Corporation by Act of Parliament, acquired powers to supply water to the town and also to the districts of the Cockermouth Urban and Rural Councils ; a new pipe, 21 inches in diameter, was laid from Crummock Lake to Colin Grove at a cost of £60,000.

The Harbour

The harbour is safe, and is capable of receiving ships of 1,500 ton burden ; the depth of the water at spring tides is from 15 feet to 18 feet and at neap tides from 10 feet to 11 ½ feet. Vessels entering by stress of weather, and departing without discharging, are exempt from harbour dues. When there is a depth of 8 feet of water a red ball is shown from John pier, and at night a red light may be seen in clear weather three leagues seaward.

The number of sailing and steam vessels registered as belonging to the port on December 31st 1908, was 3 of 12 tons, employing 7 men and boys. Fishing boats and implements were ordered (22nd June 1869) to be distinguished by the letters W.O. In 1873 a breakwater was constructed, commencing from the end of John pier and extending 300 feet north-west. The Lonsdale Dock, opened in 1865, is at the north-west entrance of the harbour ; it is 300 feet wide by 600 feet in length, and has gates 40 feet wide, and a depth of water of from 15 feet to 18 feet. A red ball is shown by day and a red light by night on the Lonsdale tower when a vessel is coming out of the harbour, so that the navigation may not be impeded.

The harbour and dock were formerly the property of the Earl of Lonsdale, but by Act of Parliament the harbour and dock in 1906 became the property of the Workington Harbour and Dock Board.
The Customs port was extended from Lowca Beck to Canker Beck, and legal quays appointed, 16th April 1850. The Merchants' quay and the South quay are built on the opposite sides of a wide branch of the Derwent called South Gut, which, with the Mill Race, separates the town from Cloffocks. On the Derwent is a considerable salmon fishery belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale, but Alan D. Lancy Curwen esq. of The Hall, has the draught at the mouth of the harbour and to the Merchants quay.

The bridge over the Derwent is a noble structure of three elliptic arches, erected in 1842 in place of the former bridge of 1763, which stood rather higher up the river and was built on the site of an ancient structure dating from 1650. In 1908 iron ore was imported to the value of £21,685, and iron and steel manufactures to the value of £16,905 exported.

The Church

The parish church of St. Michael, at the west end of town, rebuilt in 1770, was almost completely destroyed by fire , 17th January 1887 ; it has since been reconstructed and restored at a cost of £7,185, and is now a building of stone with red sandstone dressings in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south and west porches and a western tower containing a clock and 8 bells ; the east window and ten others are stained, one of these being a small window given by the Sunday school children ; in the church is an altar tomb, dated 1440, and bearing the recumbent effigies of a knight in plate armour, said to represent Sir Christopher Curwen, and his wife Elizabeth de Hudleston, of Millom ; the front of the tomb is arcaded, and exhibits five shields bearing the arms of Curwen impaled with those of other families.

During the restoration a fine Norman arch and several fragments of ancient carved stone were discovered ; in 1908 a triple marble tableture, the gift of T. Iredale esq. J.P. was attached to the west wall recording the names of the rectors of Workington from 1150 to 1905 ; the church affords 1,500 sittings. In the churchyard is a headstone to the memory of Joseph Glandoning, murdered in 1808. The register dates from the year 1680.

St. George's Mission room, in Queen Street, is licenced for divine service.

St. John's is an ecclesiastical parish, formed 9th October 1835, the church in Washington Street, erected in 1823 by the Commissioners for Building Churches, at a cost of £10,000, is a plain rectangular edifice in the Italian style, and has a portico supported by massive pillars of the Doric order, and a turret with cupola containing one bell ; there are 1,040 sittings. The register dates from the year 1835.

The cemetery, in Harrington Road, was formed and laid out in 1877, at a cost of £10,000 ; it comprises an area of 10 acres, and has two mortuary chapels, united by a covered archway, above which rises a bell turret with spire ; the cemetery is under the control of a Joint Burial Committee of 10 members, representing the parishes of Workington Municipal and Rural, Stainburn and Winscales.

The town

The Town Hall is in Oxford Street. The County Police Station is in Nook Street, and there is a branch station in Gladstone Street. The Fire Brigade, consisting of a Captain and 16 firemen, has headquarters in Harrington Road, opened in 1905.

The chief industries here are concerned with the manufacture of iron, steel rails and tinplates ; there are also works for the manufacture of iron bridges, fences, gates, rivets, boilers and railway spikes, the immediate vicinity of the town affording an almost inexhaustible supply of iron ore, and the port offering facilities for the export and import of goods and material ; there is also a brewery and a shipbuilding yard ; the exports include lime, coal, tinplate bars, steel rails and pig iron ; the chief import is iron ore.

In the year 1573, a charter was granted to the lord of the manor by Queen Elizabeth to hold a market and fair. The market days are Wednesday and Saturday, and the market is well supplied with corn and provisions ; there is an auction mart for cattle in Guard Street. The fairs are held on Whit Wednesday and the Wednesday after the 11th of November.

The "Public Libraries Act, 1855" (18 and 19 Vict. C. 70) was adopted by the town 19th December 1889. In 1904, on the completion of new premises in Finkle Street, the library, now consisting of 12,000 volumes, was removed from Pow Street to the building known as the "Public Library and Carnegie Lecture Hall", provided by a grant of £7,500 from Andrew Carnegie esq. of Skibo Castle, N.B. The Theatre Royal, in Washington Street, will hold 550 persons. The Opera House, in Pow Street, will hold 2,500 persons. The Carnegie Hall, in Finkle Street, will hold 400 persons.

A Freemasons Hall is now in course of erection in Oxford Street, in which the meetings of the following Lodges will be held, viz.:- "Sun and Sector", "Curwen" and "Eden" ; it will be the property of the Workington Masons' Hall Company Limited. There are also several public halls. There is a station, here of the Board of Trade, with rocket and lifesaving apparatus.

The Territorial force stationed in Workington comprise the 4th East Lancashire (Howitzer ) Brigade Royal field Artillery, with Drill Hall in Edkin Street, and the 5th (Cumberland) Battalion and B and C Companies of the regiment, with Drill Hall in Portland Square.

In Portland Square stands a fine memorial of granite, erected by public subscription, to Anthony Peat esq. surgeon, who died 4th June 1877.

The Infirmary, in Infirmary Road, built in 1885, is principally intended for the treatment of accidents, and during the year 1909, 261 cases of this kind were received ; the infirmary has 30 beds and is supported by voluntary subscriptions. The Dispensary, in Pow Street, was established in 1828, and during the year ending October 1909, there were 120 patients. The Ellerbeck Hospital for Infectious Diseases occupies a site near the Whitehaven Road, and is the property of the Corporation.

The chief crops are oats, turnips and potatoes, and there are several market gardens. The soil in some places consists of fertile loam ; a tract of light sandy land extends along the coast, and in other places it is inclined to moss ; subsoil, clay.

The area of the municipal borough is ; Workington, 2,327 acres of land, 31 of inland water and 28 of tidal water and 519 of foreshore ; rateable value, £100,208 ; Cloffocks, 90 acres of land, 9 of tidal and 12 of inland water and 12 of foreshore ; rateable value, £980 ; total area of land, 2,426.
The population in 1901 was, Workington, 26,139 ; Cloffocks, 4 ; total, 26,143.
Adjacent districts : Cloffocks, West Seaton, Siddick, Stainburn, Winscales.

Workington Hall

Workington Hall, the seat of Alan D. Lancy Curwen esq. is a large quadrangular embattled structure, on a woody acclivity at the east end of town, overlooking the Derwent, and near the edge of the park, which is 40 acres in extent. The original mansion was crenellated pursuant to a royal licence granted by Richard II in 1379 to Sir Gilbert de Culwen. Mary Queen of Scots landed near the Hall on Sunday, May 16th, 1568, and was hospitably entertained here by Sir Henry Curwen till she removed to Cockermouth, on her route to Carlisle ; the house dates from the 13th century, and was almost entirely rebuilt by John Christian Curwen esq. great-great-grandfather of the present proprietor ; the principal entrance is on the south-west front, where a gateway opens into a courtyard, and over the entrance door is a shield bearing the arms of Curwen with quarterings and the date 1665. According to Camden, the ancient and knightly family of Curwen derive their descent from Gospatrick, one of the Saxon Earls of Northumberland (1067-72) and took their surname from Culwen, a lordship of Galloway, which Thomas the eldest son of Gospatrick, received from one Rowland, son of Ughtred, and died 7th December 1152. A fine stone bridge crosses the Cockermouth road connecting the estate. Alan D. Lancy Curwen is lord of the manor and chief landowner.