THE recent coastal bashing by rain, wind and wave has revealed part of an historic structure at Whitehaven.

It has caused a land-slip at South Beach exposing a section of the 19th century Wellington pit buildings.

A shoreline infill area, below the Candlestick chimney, Whitehaven, has collapsed and washed away bringing down barrier fencing and exposing part of the old pit masonry.

With its crenellated walls, turrets and great keep Wellington Pit's surface buildings were designed by architect Sydney Smirke to resemble a castle. The iconic landmark, the Candlestick, the Coastguard lodge and sections of the old wall are now all that remain.

On New Years Day, 2006, a 50-year-old woman from Frizington was killed when another section of the unstable banking collapsed on top of her while she was out walking with her partner. She suffered fatal head injuries as eight tons of rubble crashed down onto South Beach. The cliff there is a man-made slag bank, built up from mine debris from over 60 years ago.

Wellington, whose twin shafts were sunk between 1840 and 1845, was a fiery pit and the scene of numerous accidents, including the major disaster of 1910 which killed 136 men and boys. It closed in 1932.