Stott Park Bobbin Mill is a 19th-century bobbin mill and now a working museum located near Newby Bridge,

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Built in 1835 the mill was one of over 65 such buildings in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or '' fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, which provided wooden

bobbin A bobbin or spool is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which yarn, thread, wire, tape or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in industrial textile machinery, as well as in sewing machines, fishing reels, tape measu ...

s to the weaving and spinning industry primarily in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. The building is today owned and run by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

History

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 Skelwith Bridge is a small village in the southern area of the Lake District in Cumbria, England. Historically, Skelwith Bridge is part of Westmorland, lying on the ancient boundary with Lancashire. The civil parish is called Skelwith. It ...

near

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's lar ...

and a bobbin mill at Crooklands near

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of t ...

. The family expanded the mill, even when the bobbin industry was threatened by changes in technology and the

Cotton Famine The Lancashire Cotton Famine, also known as the Cotton Famine or the Cotton Panic (1861–65), was a depression in the textile industry of North West England, brought about by overproduction in a time of contracting world markets. It coincided wi ...

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 Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates. Usually the term "turning" is reserved for the generation ...

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 the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

in 1973 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

Power to the mill was provided in the early days by a 24-foot diameter

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

. 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 A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, ...

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 The Lake District National Park is a national park in North West England that includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some coastal areas, and the Lakeland Peninsulas are outside the park boundary. The area was desi ...

. In the 1880s a small stationary steam engine built by Bradley's of

Brighouse Brighouse is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, east of Halifax. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 ...

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.

Awards

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.

Toponymy

The name Stott Park derives from the

Cumbrian dialect The Cumberland dialect is a local Northern English dialect in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands, not to be confused with the area's extinct Celtic language, Cumbric. Some parts of Cumbria have a mor ...

word ''stott'' meaning a bullock or young ox. The whole area of High

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

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.

References

External links

English Heritage - Stott Park Bobbin MillInside Stott Park Bobbin Mill
on Google Arts & Culture
National Register of Archives catalogue entry
* {{Authority control English Heritage sites in Cumbria Museums in Cumbria Preserved stationary steam engines Textile museums in the United Kingdom Steam museums in England Watermills in Cumbria Woodturning Colton, Cumbria