Whitehaven
A few facts and information that might surprise you:
- Whitehaven was featured in the Sunday Times list of Britain's top 10 seaside towns
- Whitehaven was the first planned town since medieval times
- In the mid 18th century, Whitehaven was used as a template for the expansion of New York
- In the mid 18th century, Whitehaven was used as a template for the expansion of New York
- Sir John Rennie, who designed London Bridge, built Whitehaven's West Pier
- Daniel Brocklebank, based at Whitehaven and lived at Irton, founded the Brocklebank shipping line in 1770, which then became the Cunard Line.
- Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels was kidnapped to Whitehaven as a child, and loved it ever afterwards
- Whitehaven once supplied all of Dublin's coal
- Whitehaven was once the main importer of tobacco on the West Coast
- Whitehaven was one of biggest ports in the UK in 1700's, the town was the most important rum port and was once the third largest port in England
- Until June 1998, Jefferson's; the oldest family run wine merchants in the country, still operated from their premises in Whitehaven. The property has now been transformed into The Rum Story Visitor Attraction
- Brian Higgins, who wrote Cher's million-selling song 'Believe', comes from Whitehaven
Connections with USA
- The last invasion of the British Mainland occurred in Whitehaven in 1778 when John Paul Jones, father of the American Navy, invaded the port
- 'The Betsy', built in Whitehaven, was the last ship to be scuttled in the American War of Independence, in York River, Yorktown, Virginia.
'The Betsy' was the sister ship to the 1763 Whitehaven built slaver 'The King George', aboard which John Paul Jones was third mate and which the Beilby Goblet was made to commemorate - which can be seen in The Beacon - Robert Salmon, the 'Father of the American School of Marine Art' was born in Whitehaven in 1775
- George Washington's grandmother, Mildred Gale, married a Whitehaven merchant and is buried in St. Nicholas churchyard.