Moor Row

The village name probably refers to the Scalegill street houses, which are noted on an 1860 Ordnance Survey map. The 1859 homes on Dalzell Street are thought to be the oldest of the terraced rows. The village has grown in the 20th century, adding modern suburban homes to the mixture and is continuing to do so in the 21st century. The growth of suburbia forms the corollary of the destruction of local amenities and facilities; only the school and a working mens institute survive from the many shops, coal merchants, takeaways, car dealerships, bus servcies and train services that once meantresidents felt little need to leave the village except for luxury items. The other small businesses of builders, insurance agencies, joiners, decorators, smiths, dress makers, confectioners and bakers, have almost completely diappeared too. The local chapels have been converted in to houses and a car work shop, while the former Working Mens Institute building that has stood for 120 years is now a chapel with a war memorial mural painted on its gable. In the brave new green world of climate change mitigation there is no public transport, no local shops, and no local health care provision, and very few street lamps for pedestrain safety. The Sellafield traffic that uses the roads through the village as commuter rat runs exceeds the volume that uses the main road at Calder bridge, at speeds greatly in excess of the speed limits. There are no pedestrian crossings in the village.

Moor Row's Montreal Mines produced 250,000 tons a year, the largest of any mine in the Whitehaven or Furness district except for the one at Hodbarrow. The mine property covered 1,000 acres (4.0 km²), half of which was ore bearing. Both open pit and shaft mining took place. Between 1000 and 1200 people were employed locally in the industry. There were six active shafts lifting ore within Moor Row, whose workings spread around the village. One shaft is in the centre of a new subrban development in Montreal Place. The last mine was closed in the 1920s, leaving most of the workings drowned and the surrounding lland flooded with cankered mine water. A number of mine shaft caps have sunk or collapsed in the last twenty years. The old railway yard is listed on the coal authority risk register as not suitable for housing development at its eastern end near the Keekle River because of under mining.

Moor Row formerly had a station on the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Junction Railway.[2] There was a junction at Moor Row to Cleator Moor east to avoid mine subsidence at the original Cleator Moor station. A second branch ran to Egremont and on to Sellafield, which was marked by mine subsidence. A sub branch from Egremont served the Bigrigg mines. A railway shunting yard was built in the village, bringing further jobs and prosperity to the inhabitants along with an engine shed and carriage and wagon repair facilities.. It became western Cumbria's most important junction and goods yard until the end of World War II when trucks and the motorways brought about the decline of the railways in the UK. The railway closed in 1980 with the closing of the last mine at Beckermet. The railway bed is still in situ and runs to Mirehouse Junction. It is also now part of both the national coast to coast walk and cycleway.

Westlakes Science and Technology Park is a local employer today. Also the nuclear power plant Sellafield is a few miles away which also offers local employment. The area has lost praactically all the industries induced to the area in post WW2 government schemes managed through various development agencies. Those aganecies functions have largely been replaced by the Britains Energy Coast land agency owned by the governments Nuclear Decommisioning Authority that replaced BNFL as the owner operators of the Sellafield and Windscale plutonium factory. The site is currently at the start of a 100 year clean up programme expected to cost over £100 billions.

The Village has a football team, Moor Row F.C.

'Moor Row in 1891' Dugald R Sperry Lamb 2023

Media related to Moor Row at Wikimedia Commons