Coast

Walking on from 151 Queen Street, take a right turn onto Roper Street. The Georgian architecture continues and many of these grand houses belonged to some of Whitehaven’s more influential people.

Daniel Brocklebank lived in 25 Roper Street. Brocklebank was a famous shipbuilder in the 18th century and his fleet consisted of eleven vessels by 1795, ten years after he restarted his shipbuilding business.

The company evolved into the shipping line T and J Brocklebank, owned by Daniel’s sons, and this company want on to become Cunard Line, one of the oldest shipping companies in the country.

Spedding family home

Further down along Roper Street, namely on 30 Roper Street is the house which originally belonged to James Spedding, son of Carlisle Spedding.

Carlisle Spedding was the famous mining engineer who together with the Lowthers helped bring business and wealth to Whitehaven.  Spedding invented the Steel Mill, a device which saved the lives of many miners from gas explosions.

The 1743 building was intended to be used as both dwellings and offices, an early example of working from home. The entrance is decorated with an acorn finial, a reference to the Spedding coat of arms.

Entrance to tranquility

At the end of Roper Street, directly opposite of 30 Roper Street, you will find Trinity Gardens.

A tranquil garden, which used to be the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church, erected in 1715.

Holy Trinity Church, together with St Nicholas Church, served the Christian community of Whitehaven for many years, but in 1947 the building was demolished due to it being structurally unsafe.

The graveyard was then transformed into this attractive garden.

Safety first - gravestones down

The original gravestones were re-used round the walls of the park, telling the stories of lives past.

Local historian Joe Bragg MBE tells us the reason for the use of the stones:

“They’re dangerous, aren’t they, when they’re standing up? They were deteriorating quickly so they had to do something to make the garden safe so all these gravestones were laid flat.

“You can imagine what might have happened if they’d still been up  … I don’t know when this place closed as a burial ground, must have been in the 1800s or something.

“We still have records of all the burials here. There were quite a few mariners who were lost at sea.”

Coming out of the Trinity Gardens and walking up to right on Scotch Street, notice the different doorways on the buildings on the left.

The houses were built more or less to a certain specification, but the doorways offered an opportunity to show some individuality. Many of them have a maritime theme, ship parts or shells, or details with some kind of connection with the trade in the town, like barley sugar surrounds, they’re all well worth a look.