Stott Park Bobbin Mill is a 19th-century bobbin mill and now a working museum located near Newby Bridge, Cumbria, England. Built in 1835 the mill was one of over 65 such buildings in the Lake District, which provided wooden bobbins to the weaving and spinning industry primarily in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The building is today owned and run by English Heritage.
The earliest part of the mill was built in 1835 by John Harrison, a local landowner who had earlier inherited Low Stott Park Farm including the land on which the mill was built. It is believed to be one of the few mills to have been specifically built for bobbin production as many other mills were converted from earlier structures. At that time there was a great demand for wooden bobbins from the ever-growing cotton and textile industry and the Lake District provided a perfect place for bobbin-making owing to its abundant natural resources: water for power and coppiced woodlands for the bobbins. Having built the mill as a speculative venture, Harrison and his successors let it out to a string of trustees.
In the 1850s the mill was leased to members of the Coward family, who owned property at Skelwith Bridge near Ambleside and a bobbin mill at Crooklands near Kendal. The family expanded the mill, even when the bobbin industry was threatened by changes in technology and the Cotton Famine of the 1860s and many other Lakeland mills were closing. The construction of the Lakeside railway in 1869, with a station less than a mile away, no doubt made Stott Park a more viable location than others.
The Cowards continued to lease the mill until the 1920s when they bought it from the Harrison estate for £4,000. They continued to run the business until 1971 when the mill closed, the wood turning industry having declined hugely due to the increase in products made from plastic.
As one of the few remaining bobbin mills in the Lake District it was listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1973 [1] and the site was bought by the Department of the Environment in 1974 to safeguard it against demolition or conversion. It passed to the custody of English Heritage in 1983 and was opened as a museum run in conjunction with the Lakes Arts Trust. Today the mill is run solely by English Heritage.
Power to the mill was provided in the early days by a 24-foot diameter water wheel. A beck (stream) running from Roger Heights to the west fed a mill pond behind the mill itself. The wheel was later replaced by a water turbine and additional reservoirs were created to provide water, most notably High Dam which is now a popular beauty-spot owned by the Lake District National Park.
In the 1880s a small stationary steam engine built by Bradley's of Brighouse was installed to provide power when the water levels dropped in summer. The engine was run using the waste products from the bobbin-making process and remained in use until electricity was installed in 1941. The mill machinery is still powered by the 1940s electric motor and the steam engine is run for visitors on certain weekends throughout the year.
In 2014 Stott Park Bobbin Mill was awarded the title of best small visitor attraction at the Cumbria Tourism Awards and went on to win Silver at the national Visit England Awards for Excellence in 2015.
The name Stott Park derives from the Cumbrian dialect word stott meaning a bullock or young ox. The whole area of High Furness belonged to Furness Abbey during the Middle Ages and it is likely that at this time or in the early Modern period land was enclosed as a park to provide pasture for young beef or draught animals.
The River Meden is a river in Nottinghamshire, England. Its source lies just north of Huthwaite, near the Derbyshire border, and from there it flows north east through Pleasley and Warsop before merging temporarily with the River Maun near Bothamsall. The rivers divide after a short distance and go on separately to a point near Markham Moor where they once more combine to form the River Idle.
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution was centred in south Lancashire and the towns on both sides of the Pennines in the United Kingdom. The main drivers of the Industrial Revolution were textile manufacturing, iron founding, steam power, oil drilling, the discovery of electricity and its many industrial applications, the telegraph and many others. Railroads, steamboats, the telegraph and other innovations massively increased worker productivity and raised standards of living by greatly reducing time spent during travel, transportation and communications.
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The River Hipper is a tributary of the River Rother in Derbyshire, England. Its source is a large expanse of wetlands, fed by the surrounding moors between Chatsworth and Chesterfield, known as the Hipper Sick on Beeley Moor, which is part of the Chatsworth Estate. It then passes through Holymoorside and down into Chesterfield, just south of the town centre, before flowing into the River Rother. In July 2007, parts of Chesterfield flooded when the River Hipper burst its banks during a substantial storm that caused extensive flooding in North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. The surrounding landscape is known as the Hipper Valley.
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Dawn Mill, Shaw was a cotton spinning mill in Shaw and Crompton, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was built on the site of Shaw Mill at the "dawn" of the 20th century. Dawn Mill was equipped with mule weft spindles in 1950. It was powered by Engines named Venus and Mars, 1800 hp twin tandem compound engine by George Saxon of Manchester. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. It was sold again and used by distribution company DTS Logistics for storing and distributing clothing. It was demolished in 2006 to make way for an Asda supermarket.
Royton Ring Mill was a cotton mill in Royton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1908 and extended in 1912. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1935 and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production finished in 1966. It was extended again in 1969 and used for other purposes. It has now been demolished, the street has been renamed and houses replace it.
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Pear New Mill is a former Edwardian cotton spinning mill on the northern bank of the River Goyt in Bredbury, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Finsthwaite Heights is an upland area in the English Lake District, above Finsthwaite, Cumbria. It is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. It reaches about 600 feet (180 m). Wainwright's walk starts from Newby Bridge, climbs through woodland passing a tower which has a 1799 inscription commemorating the Royal Navy, passes through the village, and climbs to the man-made tarns of Low Dam and High Dam. These were made to provide power for Stott Park Bobbin Mill. Wainwright says of his route: "Everywhere the surroundings are delightful. But this is not fellwalking."
Stock Ghyll, also known as Stock Gill, Stock Gill Beck and Stock Beck, is a stream in South Lakeland, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria and the historic county of Westmorland. It flows about four miles from Red Screes through the town of Ambleside to the River Rothay. Its course includes two long-popular tourist attractions, Stockghyll Force and Bridge House. Stock Ghyll has been painted by J. M. W. Turner, John Ruskin, Kurt Schwitters, and many others. Its name derives from Old English stocc, 'tree-trunk', and Old Norse gil, 'a deep glen'.
Nailsworth Stream is a small river in Gloucestershire, England. It is a tributary of the River Frome. From its source near Cherington, it flows westwards through Avening to reach Nailsworth, where it turns towards the north, and passes through Woodchester to join the Frome at Dudbridge, a suburb of Stroud.
54°17′08″N2°57′57″W / 54.2855°N 2.9659°W
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