Unlocking the Great Moor: Using Lidar to X-Ray Sir John Pit

If you walk the fields around Moor Row today, you see a peaceful, rolling landscape. But beneath the grass lies the skeleton of an industrial giant. By overlaying modern LiDAR (Laser Imaging, Detection, and Ranging) data with historical OS maps, we can "strip away" the vegetation to see exactly how the Sir John Walsh Pit reshaped our village.

The "Crater" of the Walsh Workings

The most striking feature on the LiDAR scan is the prominent indentation where the main workings of the Sir John Walsh Pit once stood. While the 19th - century map shows a tidy arrangement of buildings and a shaft, the LiDAR reveals a rugged, disturbed "crater". This is the physical footprint of the headgear and the main shaft itself.

The pit was an independent operation founded on colonial wealth from the Benn - Walsh family. It sat directly atop the "Sir John Walsh Fault," a geological conduit that allowed massive bodies of high - grade haematite to form, making it one of the largest and most successful pits in the Bigrigg and Moor Row corridor.

Looking at Lidar for Sir John Pit, it is striking how much of the Victorian "industrial footprint" remains visible under the grass.

Lidar - Sir John Pit Illustration

Observations

​1. The Main Shaft and Spoil Heaps

​In the centre-left of the Lidar image, the prominent, bright "crater" and the raised, rugged area correspond directly to the Sir John Pit.

​The Shaft: The deep indentation is likely the remains of the main shaft or the immediate area where the headgear stood.

​Spoil Mounds: The Lidar reveals significant "finger dumps" or spoil heaps extending from the pit. These are the result of years of extracting waste rock and lower-grade hematite.

​2. "Old Shaft" and Subsidence

​Moving to above (east) Sir John Pit, there are twocircular, slightly depressed mounds. These are typical of backfilled or collapsed shafts.

​The "pockmarked" nature of the terrain in the Lidar scan indicates subsidence, which was a major issue in Moor Row as the shallow iron ore bodies were chased upwards, often right beneath the surface.

​3. Transport Infrastructure

​The Lidar clearly preserves the linear "ghosts" of the transport links:

​Tramway/Railway Bed: The curved line running from Sir John Pit is the trackbed of the tramway. In the Lidar, this appears as a slightly raised, level embankment cutting across the natural slope.

​Old Tramway (Far Right): Lidar shows this as a very distinct linear feature, likely a cutting or an embankment that connected this pit complex to the wider Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Junction Railway.

Finger Dumps and Ghost Rails

To the left, the LiDAR shows raised, finger - like mounds. These are spoil heaps, also known as "finger dumps". In the Victorian era, miners shifted immense amounts of waste rock to reach the iron ore, piling it on the surface in these distinct patterns.

You can also see the "ghost" of the transport system:

  • The Mineral Railway: A faint, perfectly straight line cutting through the uneven spoil heaps marks the old trackbed.
  • The Junction: This line led directly toward the Moor Row Junction, positioned perfectly to transport ore to the furnaces of Cleator Moor and Workington.
Further away from the main Sir John complex (not pictured), the Lidar picks up a very distinct, sharp circular depression in the field south of Moor Row Farm. Cross-referencing this with a historical OS map identifies it explicitly as Pit No. 6.

​This belonged to the Moor Row Iron Ore Mine workings. What we see on the Lidar is likely a crown hole or a subsidence hollow. Over the last century, as the shaft backfill settled or the original capping decayed, it created a funnel-shaped depression that is often hidden by surface vegetation but glaringly obvious to the Lidar's laser.

A Landscape of Subsidence

As wooden pit props roted away over the last century, the ground above has begun to "settle," leaving telltale pockmarks that are almost invisible from the ground but glaringly obvious from the air.

Why This Matters

These images remind us that Moor Row wasn't just built near the mines – it was built because of them. The very shape of our fields and the dips in our landscape are pitted with the scars of an era when hundreds of men worked hundreds of metres beneath these feet, fueling the British Industrial Revolution with Cumbrian iron.

Peering Through Time: What is LiDAR and How Does It Reveal Our History?

To the naked eye, a field might look like nothing more than grass and sheep. But for local historians in places like Moor Row, there is a technology that acts as a digital time machine: LiDAR. By using light to "see" through vegetation, we are uncovering the industrial bones of West Cumbria in ways never before possible.

How LiDAR Works: Seeing with Light

LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It works by firing thousands of laser pulses from an aircraft or drone toward the ground. These pulses bounce off everything they hit – trees, houses, and the soil itself. By measuring exactly how long it takes for each pulse to return, a highly accurate 3D map of the landscape is created.

The real "magic" happens with a process called a Digital Terrain Model (DTM). Computer software can filter out the "noise" of modern life, such as trees, hedges, and buildings. What remains is the bare earth, revealing every dip, mound, and scar that has been hidden for decades.

What Can We Do with LiDAR in Moor Row?

In a village shaped by the "Red Gold" of iron ore, LiDAR is an invaluable tool for several reasons:

  • Identifying Ghost Infrastructure: As we saw with Sir John Pit, LiDAR can reveal the exact footprint of mine shafts and the raised "finger dumps" of spoil heaps that are now covered in grass.
  • Tracing Lost Railways: We can follow the precise path of old mineral railways and tramways. Even where the tracks were lifted a century ago, the level embankments and shallow cuttings remain visible as crisp, linear features.
  • Spotting Hidden Hazards: LiDAR is remarkably good at finding crown holes – small, circular depressions where old shafts like Pit No. 6 are beginning to settle or collapse.
  • Mapping Subsidence: The "pockmarked" terrain revealed in the scans shows exactly where shallow mining took place, explaining why certain fields were never suitable for modern housing.

A New Perspective on the Past

By comparing these "x - rays" of the earth with Victorian OS maps, we can piece together the daily lives of the miners who built our community. LiDAR doesn't just show us the ground; it shows us the ambition and the scale of the industry that once pulsed beneath our feet.

Lidar: Pit No2. Showing Subsidence And Railway Infrastructure
Pit No2. And Subsidence Illustration
Location: Moor Row CA24, UK

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