Mirehouse, Whitehaven

Mirehouse is an area and ward in the English county of Cumbria and within the boundaries of the historic county of Cumberland. Mirehouse is 1.5 miles south of the town of Whitehaven near the A595 road. Mirehouse Estate, locally colloquially known as ‘The Valley’. The West was referred to 09 side and the East as 07 side, taken from the numbers of the bus routes that served them. The ward was 5,481 at the 2021 census.

1. Churches

St Andrew is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Calder, and the diocese of Carlisle. Its benefice is Mirehouse. St Benedicts is an active Roman Catholic Church Founded in 1961, right after the opening of the new church building at St Mary’s, Kells.

1. School

Valley Primary School and Nursery is a community school for children from 3–11 years. It opened as a Primary School in September 2004 and has a capacity of 294. The Whitehaven Academy is the local 11-18 comprehensive.

1. Facilities

On Meadow Road are Mirehouse Shops, Mirehouse Library and Mirehouse Post Office. Mirehouse all has St Benedicts Rugby Union Football Club and a Labour Club. There was once a pub named Crown and Anchor that is now a NISA supermarket.

1. References

Nearby Places View Menu

Corkickle

Corkickle is a suburb of Whitehaven in Cumbria, England. It is served by Corkickle railway station.

Neighbourhood Train

Whitehaven A.F.C.

Whitehaven Amateur Football Club is a football club in Whitehaven, Cumbria. The club are currently members of the West Lancashire League Premier Division and play at the County Ground.

Soccer Stadium

1.0 km

Recreation Ground (Whitehaven)

The Recreation Ground (known locally as the 'Recre') and for sponsorship reasons the Ortus REC is a rugby league stadium in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England. It is the home of Whitehaven R.L.F.C. The ground has witnessed many other sports such as football, boxing, speedway and whippet racing.

Landmark Rugby

1.0 km

Woodhouse Colliery

Woodhouse Colliery, also known as Whitehaven coal mine, was a proposed coal mine near to Whitehaven in Cumbria, England. The coal mine had been advertised as bringing jobs to a deprived area, but had also come in for criticism by green campaigners. The mine was proposed by West Cumbria Mining and planned to extract coking coal from beneath the Irish Sea for 25 years. The plan was criticised by some MPs, scientists and environmentalists due to the coal mine's environmental impact and the British government's legal commitments to reduce carbon emissions. The planning application had been under consideration since 2019, when Cumbria County Council granted planning permission for the venture. The colliery would have been the first new deep coal mine in the United Kingdom in 30 years (the last such development was the Asfordby pit in 1986). It is not to be confused with the former Woodhouse Close Colliery in Woodhouse Close, Bishop Auckland (County Durham) which operated between 1835 and 1934. The government initially took the view that the decision should be a local one, but became involved in March 2021, putting the project on hold. There was speculation that Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State involved, was influenced by the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, held that year in Glasgow, but he did not give a reason. Michael Gove, Jenrick's successor as Secretary of State, gave planning consent in December 2022, but faced legal challenges which had not been resolved by the time of the 2024 United Kingdom general election. After the election, as well as uncertainty about the outcome of the court case, there was some uncertainty about whether the incoming Labour government would oppose the project. However, shortly before the court hearing, the new Secretary of State expressed the view that the previous government's decision to approve Woodhouse Colliery was unlawful because emissions had not been taken into consideration. On 31  March  2025, West Cumbria Mining withdrew its planning application for Woodhouse Colliery at Whitehaven after the High Court had quashed the mine’s 2022 approval in September 2024 for failing to consider downstream greenhouse‑gas emissions, effectively cancelling what would have been the United Kingdom’s first deep coal mine in more than three decades. Environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change, welcomed the decision and called for investment in well‑paid, low‑carbon jobs for the region, ensuring West Cumbria benefits from the transition away from coal.

Industrial Landmark