This followed a typical pattern of naming pits after famous figures of the day in Cumbria (Ladysmith after the battle and Wellington after the former Prime Minister).

Initially Haig was operated by the Bord and pillar method, with Longwall mining taking over from the late 1930s.

The day before, gas had been reported in the Six Quarters Seam of the mine, and the deputy in charge, William Weightman, descended to assess the situation with a shot-firer.

Weightman approved the shot-firer to go ahead and deploy his shot which ignited the gas in that area of the mine.

A body of 24 men entered the mine to assess the damage and various trips back to the surface for sustenance and to re-fill breathing apparatus were undertaken throughout the day and night.

11 survivors managed to navigate the 3 miles (4.8 km) in the dark to the bottom of the shafts where another rescue party was sent down the mine.

As there was evidence of another fire, the area was sealed off (and has remained so since) which meant that the 13 people in the initial party and the body of Harold Horrocks were never recovered.

[9] By the time of the miners' national strike of 1984, Haig Colliery was the only deep mine remaining in operation in Cumbria.

Shortly after miners elsewhere started walking out in protest at the NCB's planned pit closures in March 1984, the men at Haig heard that 80 per cent of them would be losing their jobs.

The surface part of the mine would be located on the former Marchon Chemical works and would utilize abandoned drift shafts from Sandwith Anhydrite mine to access coal reserves south-west of the Haig site underneath St Bees Head.

[12] Whilst there are some modest estimates about possible reserves, a note in the Haig Colliery Mining Museum stated that there is the possibility of the mine supplying 1,000,000 tonnes (980,000 long tons; 1,100,000 short tons) per year for the next 800 years.

This would involve the use of a conveyor to a railhead on the Cumbrian Coast Line then being railed to either Redcar (for export) or Scunthorpe and Port Talbot Steelworks for domestic steel production.