1901 Cockermouth showing railway and mills from balloon flight in 1901.

The Cockermouth Penrith Keswick railway skirts the outskirts of Cockermouth in 1901 with Cockermouth railway station in the centre of the photo with cattle pens on the left and sheds for the carriages on the right.

Below the station is a bridge and to its left is the second workhouse demolished in 1948 (the first was in Skinner Street previously demolished.)

Above Cockermouth station is the five storey Tweedmill built circa 1845 and demolished in 1918.

To the right of Cockermouth railway station is Fern Bank with the gap in the middle being the entrance to Harris Park that was gifted to the town by Mrs Harris, the widow of Joseph Harris who had founded Harris Mill that is now called Derwent Mill (now apartments) In Harris Park is the bandstand.

In the centre the two storey Fairfield School faces us on Sullart Street which was renamed Gallowbarrow at this time even though Gallowbarrow is the horizontal road in the centre, the names swapped by the Ordnance Survey and not corrected in subsequent maps.

Behind Fairfield School is open land called Fairfield where the land was used by Mitchells auction for the horse fair (see other photos) and also the drying ground for local people. Later the Council claimed ownership and stopped the public right of way and built Fairfield Primary School. On the left boundary of this land are the three long rooves of Mitchells auction company now replaced with Sainsbury store.

At the lower part of the photo is the single gas works gasholder, another must have been built later, the works adjacent to the railway for its supply of coal. The area is now Woodville Park housing estate.

The bottom of the photo centre is one of the multiple areas of allotments that were on the periphery of Cockermouth, and is now Aldi, Lloyds Motors and Low Road housing area.

Further left is Derwent Bridge (Gote Bridge) Derwent House and surrounding woodland and the terraced houses of Gote Road with the entrance to what is now the cricket ground called Sandair. The indication of lined areas in Sandair are undetermined.

On the far left middle edge is Harris Mill, later renamed Derwent Mill and clearly shows the mill race that powered the mills down the Gote. The footbridge across the Derwent is shown and it was built by the Harris family for Harris workers, and later called Mill Bridge, Millers Bridge, but known by the Town Council as Harris Bridge.

Note the multiple gravel beds in the Derwent and note that Derwent Bridge has only two arches, all combined to restrict the flow of the Derwent and Cocker and led to floods in the town. In 1936 two extra square arches were built to the left of the bridge to relieve potential flooding, but the gravel beds were still not always cleared and flooding continues, even in 1938 two years after building the intended flood alleviation arches.

Note the castle has the white lower boundary wall and washerwoman’s cottage (see other photos) and the flow of the river is bent by that lower boundary wall until it was washed away in 2009.

Below the castle is Jennings brewery at the confluence of the Derwent and Cocker but the route of the Cocker is too difficult to follow on this photo.

Above the Castle at the top is the Drill Hall on its own that was used by the Border Regiment until WW2 and is now part of the Sports Centre.

Top centre is the huge spire of All Saints church and on this website are photos taken by skilled and daring workers who were repairing at the top of this spire, taking photographs of the town.

Below All Saints is the Town Hall with its roof almost like a pyramid, a design originally for it original purpose of being a Methodist church until they moved to their current premises in 1932 on Lorton Street.

To left of the Town Hall are the three long rooves of the Market Hall that was demolished and is now housing and car park redevelopment of 1974.

In the middle of the photo is Main Street which runs from Cocker Bridge to Crown Street. Note the Mayo statue, erected 1875, and the Edward Waugh Memorial clock built in 1895 but it was off centre so an obstruction to modern traffic , so was demolished in 1932, but some photos show horses and even cars on either side of the road.

At the top right is Lorton Road, note a grey area at the top and some buildings that was the Industrial School, later converted to County secondary school, then Grammar School, then business centre, then apartments. To its left is Cockermouth cemetery.