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40-523: Shireoaks is a former pit village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, located between Worksop and Thorpe Salvin on the border with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire . The population of the civil parish was 1,432 at the 2011 census , and this increased to 1,774 in the 2021 census . Shireoaks colliery was opened in 1854. It was closed on 25 May 1991 and was capped in August 1992. The depth of

80-755: A 19-band charity music festival. It was staged at the Ernest Valentine Ground home of Workington Cricket Club. Artists included The Chairmen, Novellos, With Lights Out, Volcanoes, Breed, Colt 45, Relics, Telf, Thir13een, Slagbank, Hangin' Threads and Hand of Fate. Profits went to the RNLI and West Cumberland Lions . In 2008, the Paint Your Town Red Festival invited Liverpool comic and actor Ricky Tomlinson . Described as 'The biggest free festival in Workington's history',

120-481: A 92,900 sq ft (8,630 m ) Tesco Extra store on the Cloffocks provoked controversy and opposition from local people; a planning application was placed in 2006 by Tesco, after it acquired the Cloffocks site for £18 million; Tesco had been competing with Asda for the site since 2003. Campaigners opposed the sale, stating that the land was common ground and belonged to the people of Workington. In 2010

160-535: A convenience store that also functions as the post office, a small shop, a wine bar & restaurant, a primary school, a village hall, three private fishing lakes, and the Sports and Social Club which features a bowling green and a football pitch. Additionally, the village boasts a part-time pub called the Hewett Arms, located in the grounds of Shireoaks Hall. It is worth noting that the former Station Hotel, next to

200-472: A part of Worksop . Pit village The 1939 film The Stars Look Down , based on the 1935 novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin , is set in the fictional pit village of Sleescale. The film was shot partly on location at St Helens Siddick Colliery in Workington . The novel How Green Was My Valley and the subsequent film adaptation of the same name were based in a fictional pit village in

240-412: A temporary means of crossing the river after road bridges had been closed by flooding. A free train service between Workington (Main) and Maryport was funded by the government. The Workington Transport Heritage Trust, preserves the transport heritage of Workington and the surrounding area and is run by volunteers. Workington was the headquarters of the haulage company J. Roper (Workington) Ltd, which

280-401: A traditional version of football with medieval origins in mob football or an even earlier form. Since 2001, matches have raised over £75,000 for local charities. An Uppies and Downies ball is made from four pieces of cow leather. It is 21 inches (53 cm) in circumference and weighs about two and a half pounds (1.1 kg). Only three hand-made balls are produced every year and each

320-705: Is Neil Schofield. Workington lies astride the River Derwent , on the West Cumbrian coastal plain. It is bounded to the west by the Solway Firth , part of the Irish Sea , and to the east by the Lake District . The town has various districts, many of them established as housing estates . North of the river these include Seaton , Barepot , Northside, Port and Oldside. On the south side are

360-477: Is administered by Cumberland . It was formerly covered by the Seaton + Northside, St Michaels, Moorclose + Moss Bay, Harrington + Salterbeck, and St Johns wards on Allerdale Borough Council . The divisions for Cumbria County Council were Seaton, St Michaels, St Johns + Great Clifton, Moorclose + Moss Bay, and Harrington. Workington has a parish council : Workington Town Council. The current mayor (2024–2025)

400-744: Is currently closed after its last use as a bingo hall. The "Opera Action" group plans to restore it as a working theatre. The town once had four cinemas (the Carnegie, the Hippodrome, the Oxford and the Ritz), all now closed. There remains only the Parkway Cinema at Dunmail Park . During the 1950s, films were also shown at the Opera House. On 19 September 2009, Valentine Rock took place;

440-511: Is now covered by Clay Flatts Industrial Estate . The Cumbria iron-ore field lies to the south of Workington, and produced extremely high grade phosphorus -free haematite . The area had a long tradition of iron smelting , but this became particularly important with the invention by Sir Henry Bessemer of the Bessemer process , the first process for mass production of mild steel , which previously had been an expensive specialist product. For

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480-409: The 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. The town is 32 miles (51 kilometres) south-west of Carlisle , 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Whitehaven , 7 miles (11 km) west of Cockermouth , and 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Maryport . The area around Workington was long a producer of coal and steel. Between 79 and 122 CE, Roman forts , mile-forts and watchtowers were built along

520-543: The 2019 general election , the concept of the " Workington man " was devised by a think tank as a key election target. In November 2019, Nigel Farage visited Workington to campaign on behalf of the Brexit Party . The town is part of the parliamentary constituency of Whitehaven and Workington . In the 2024 general election , the Labour Party candidate for Whitehaven and Workington, Josh MacAlister ,

560-725: The A66 road to Penrith and continues to Scotch Corner in County Durham. The town has its own bus station and bus services to other towns and villages in Cumbria , such as Cockermouth , Keswick , Penrith , Carlisle , Wigton , Maryport , Whitehaven , Frizington , Egremont and Thornhill . The Cumbrian Coast line provides rail connections from Workington railway station to Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness , with occasional through trains to Lancaster and Preston . Workington North railway station opened on 30 November 2009 as

600-539: The Caldbeck and local relay transmitters. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Cumbria on 95.6 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Cumbria & South West Scotland on 102.2 FM and Workington Academy Radio, a student based radio station that broadcast to the Workington Academy . The town is served by the local newspaper, Times & Star. Workington is home to the ball game known as Uppies and Downies ,

640-537: The South Wales Valleys . A fictional village in this region was the site of the film The Proud Valley , starring Paul Robeson . Billy Elliot , set in a fictitious pit village during the miners' strike of 1984–85, was shot on location in Easington Colliery . Brassed Off was set in "Grimley", a thin veil for Grimethorpe . The depopulation of Fitzwilliam , West Yorkshire was

680-583: The 1970s and 1980s. Produced primarily for the state-owned National Bus Company , the Leyland National was styled by Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti , and included a roof-mounted heating unit in a pod at the rear of the bus. The Lillyhall factory later built the Leyland Titan , Leyland Olympian and Leyland Lynx buses. In the 1980s, Leyland manufactured Pacer railbus and Sprinter -type commuter trains at Workington. The bodyshells of

720-547: The 2008 festival included a free children's fun fair in Vulcan Park and stage and street entertainment. Attractions included "Jimmy James and his Soul Explosion", "Dearham Band" and the all-female band "Irresistible". Keswick's "Cars of the Stars" museum provided a stunt driving display. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Border . Television signals are received from

760-683: The British beef and dairy industry after the BSE crisis in Britain. It is based in the former steelworks offices. Many Workington residents are employed outside the town in the nuclear industry located in and around Sellafield , West Cumbria's dominant employment sector. British Leyland opened a factory in Lillyhall, just outside Workington, initially to build the Leyland National bus in

800-635: The Countess of Lonsdale invoked her rights to mine the land, in an attempt to prevent the development. In 2011 a closed meeting of Allerdale councillors discussed the sale of the site, but the council rescinded on its decision to sell it to Tesco in June 2011. Tesco stated that it was still seeking a site for a store of around 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m ) Workington to replace the established one. In 2014, North West MEP Julie Ward closed her Workington office and relocated it to Manchester . During

840-775: The Cumbrian coast, as defences against attacks by the Scoti of Ireland and the Caledonii , the most powerful tribe in what is now Scotland. The 16th-century Britannia , written by William Camden , describes ruins of these defences. A Viking sword was discovered at Northside. This is seen to suggest there was a settlement at the river mouth. The place-name Workington is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 946, as Wurcingtun . It appears as Wirchingetona in about 1150, meaning "the town or settlement of Weorc or Wirc's people". Several bridges were damaged or destroyed by

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880-533: The Pacer trains were based on the Leyland National bus design, designed as a cheap stop-gap by British Rail . Volvo Buses acquired Leyland Buses in 1988. By 1993, the factory had closed with the loss of 200 jobs. The former bus plant is now a warehouse for the logistics company Eddie Stobart , which bought the property in 1995. Workington is linked by the A596 road to Maryport , to Whitehaven via A595 road , by

920-672: The River Derwent during the 2009 Workington floods . In 2006, Washington Square, a £50 million shopping centre and mixed-use complex, was opened to replace the run-down St John's Arcade, built in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2007, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors named Washington Square the "best commercial project" in North West England . Works of public art installed in the town centre include: While efforts have been made to find local names for

960-585: The closure of the Moss Bay Steelworks, steel for the plant was brought by rail from Teesside . The plant was closed in August 2006, but welding work on rails produced at Corus Groups ' French plant in Hayange continued at Workington for another two years, as the Scunthorpe site initially proved incapable of producing rails adequately. After the loss of the two industries on which Workington

1000-504: The closure. During the Second World War , a strategically important electric steel furnace which produced steel for aircraft engine ball bearings was moved to Workington from Norway to prevent it falling into Axis hands. Workington was the home of Distington Engineering Company (DEC), the engineering arm of British Steel Corporation (BSC), which specialised in the design of continuous casting equipment. DEC, known to

1040-406: The districts of Stainburn, Derwent Howe, Ashfield, Banklands, Frostoms (Annie Pit), Mossbay, Moorclose, Salterbeck , Bridgefoot , Lillyhall, Harrington , High Harrington, Clay Flatts, Kerry Park, Westfield and Great Clifton . The Marsh and Quay, a large working-class area of the town around the docks and a major part of the town's history, was demolished in the early 1980s. Much of its former area

1080-565: The first 25 years of the process, until Gilchrist and Thomas improved upon it, phosphorus-free haematite was required. With Cumbria as the world's premier source, and the local coalfield providing energy for steel production, the world's first large-scale steelworks was opened in the Moss Bay area of the town. The Bessemer converter continued to work until July 1974. The Moss Bay Steelworks closed in 1982, despite receiving notable infrastructural investment and improvement almost immediately before

1120-479: The land on which it stood has remained mostly undeveloped. A marina was constructed at the former location of the barge loading area adjacent to the Chesterfield Canal . Due to the number of housing developments in the village and the rapid expansion of the village of Gateford near Worksop , there is concern that Shireoaks, along with the neighbouring village of Rhodesia, will soon be regarded as just

1160-410: The level crossing, has been converted into a private dwelling. The local Church of England parish church is dedicated to St Luke. Main article Canal & River Trust 's Shireoaks Marina is a few minutes walk along the towpath from the village making it easily accessible for visiting boaters. Shireoaks Hall is a Grade II* listed 17th-century country house. Shireoaks Colliery lies within what

1200-512: The local people as "Chapel Bank", had an engineering design office, engineering workshops and a foundry that at one time contained six of the seven electric arc furnaces built in Workington. The seventh was situated at the Moss Bay plant of BSC. In the 1970s, as BSC adapted to a more streamlined approach to the metals industry, the engineering design company was separated from the workshops and foundry and re-designated as Distington Engineering Contracting. Employing some 200 people, its primary purpose

1240-412: The major streets of the new shopping centre, the initial planning title of Washington Square has been retained. In February 2019 plans for a new stadium for Workington were announced. This would in involve the demolition of Borough Park and Derwent Park. In June 2019, it was announced by the new leadership of Allerdale Borough Council that a new sports stadium would not be built. A plan to build

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1280-463: The shaft was 483.5m and the shaft's diameter was 3.66m. The Chesterfield Canal and River Ryton both run through the village. The A57 between Sheffield and Worksop passes close to the village and there are rail services to Sheffield, Lincoln and Cleethorpes on the Sheffield to Lincoln Line , which has a station at Shireoaks railway station . The current facilities in the village include

1320-410: The theme of a song by Chumbawamba and David Peace 's novel Nineteen Seventy Four . Citations Bibliography This article about geography terminology is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Workington Workington / ˈ w ɜːr k ɪ ŋ t ən / is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in Cumbria , England. At

1360-492: The years the ground has been used for many minor county cricket matches involving the second team of Nottinghamshire , and has played host to one first-class match and one women's One Day International , these were; Total list of matches played: [1] The ground has recently been used as a training ground for the Worksop Town Football Club Academy. Since the closure of Shireoaks colliery

1400-673: Was based in Moss Bay. Workington is also home to the headquarters of family haulage business J.R Dixon Ltd Workington is home to three theatres: the Carnegie Theatre , Theatre Royal and Workington Opera House . In the past Workington was a big town for variety acts and theatre and hosted many top acts including Tommy Cooper and Shirley Bassey . Workington Opera House also hosted many circus shows that included elephants and other circus animals performing on stage. The Carnegie Theatre and Theatre Royal are still open and put on performances all year round. The Workington Opera House

1440-552: Was built, coal and steel, Workington and the whole of West Cumbria became an unemployment blackspot. Industries in the town today include chemicals, cardboard, the docks (originally built by the United Steel Co.), waste management and recycling old computers for export, mainly to poorer countries. The town also houses the British Cattle Movement Service , a government agency set up to oversee

1480-610: Was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP), with a 31.7 per cent Labour majority by a margin of 13,286 votes. Historically it has been a Labour-supporting area, the town had elected a Conservative MP only twice since World War II , at the 1976 by-election and 2019 general election . Before Brexit , Workington was in the North West England European Parliamentary Constituency. For local government purposes, Workington

1520-564: Was once part of the Shireoaks Hall estate. The cricket pitch along with its bowling green and tennis courts used to belong to the Steetley works in the village and was the home ground of their sporting teams. This is now under private ownership and the pavilion has been converted into a house; the new pavilion is a converted groundsman's shed. The village went without a cricket team for many years until, in 2002, Shireoaks Cricket Club

1560-538: Was re-established; it has gone from strength to strength, fielding two adult teams on a Sunday and providing opportunities for youth cricket to flourish. The club also fields a midweek 20/20 team, and a 7-a-side indoor team, known as the Shireoaks Snails. Shireoaks no longer use the cricket ground for home games. Woodsetts CC played 1st and 2nd team fixtures at this picturesque venue until they were forced to move elsewhere. No cricket club plays there anymore. Over

1600-457: Was the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of continuous casting machines. This business is now owned by the TATA Group and employs 400 staff. One offshoot of the steel industry was the production of railway rails. Workington rails were widely exported and a common local phrase was that Workington rails "held the world together." Originally made from Bessemer steel, but after

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