After Saltom Pit closed, the local people returned to the beach for fun. The cottages on the site continued to be occupied until WW2.
Local residents say ‘… most people from Kells would have memories of going down to Saltom to swim or picnic, but they would need to be over 70 to have much memory of the cottages being lived in.’
An ex-miner remembered people ‘… odd times ( before the days of orange overalls when we still wore pit "rags") coming up the pit and taking towels, soap and clean clothes down there [to Saltom beach]. [We] washed ourselves and the "rags" in one go.
But that was in the days when there was something called summer between winter and autumn.’
Others recalled that ‘… you made a fire with shore coal; got an old rusty tin off the tide mark, put your cuvvins [periwinkles] in and when they had boiled over three times they were ready. I never remember anyone being ill from eating them.’
They added variety by putting ‘… flidders and mussels on a old pit shovel… ’ and putting the shovel on a fire. ‘When the mussels opened we scoffed the lot … it is a wonder we were not all poisoned, but we took no hurt. In fact we were a lot healthier than today’s kids.’
Then 20th Century industry took over where the Victorians had left off:
‘We used to swim down Barrowmouth and Saltom. … The beaches were fairly clean, with seaweed, the sea was fairly clean. You could swim underwater and everything was clean, there was lots of seafood, all the seaweeds and that, and it was great. And as Marchon [Chemical Plant] took over and started to develop, that's when the… everything started to cloud up, all the seaweed started to disappear. Obviously there was a lot of pollution’
The close of Marchon and Haig saw the end of an era of industry in Whitehaven. Now the landscape, wildlife and history at Saltom are beginning to regain their former glory. What follows is a tribute to its place in happy memories.
‘Our Jane always says that's where she wants her ashes to go - off Saltom, because she remembers being taken there by Grandma and Granda.’