In the summer of 1813 William Daniell, a well-known artist decided to make a trip around Britain.  He took with him Richard Ayton to write text to go with his pictures. When they were in Whitehaven, they went down William Pit and described the experience. Their words still have the power to create a feeling of dread.  Who would choose to work in a place where “A dreariness pervaded the place which struck upon the heart…’ ? 

They described how an approaching light in the gloom could signal the passing of a horse driven by ‘... a young girl covered with filth … uttering some obscenity as she hurried by us.’   Their comments about children were the most shocking of all. ‘ On their first introduction to the mine the poor little victims struggle and scream with terror at the darkness, but there are found people brutal enough to force their compliance, and after a few trials they become tame and spiritless … Surely the savages who murder children which they cannot support are merciful compared with those who devote them to a life like this’.

The effects of mining were so distressing that Ayton and Daniell described the miners as appearing to be ‘ … a race fallen from the common rank of men’.

It was almost 30 years before Lord Shaftsbury began his political campaign for improvements to such conditions.  This led to the Coal Mines Act of 1842.