Aerial Photos part 2 - 1930-1938
Aerial Menu
1929 Aerial Cockermouth Castle.
The Derwent is to the left and the Cocker flows from the bottom right to bend around to the left. To the right of the Castle’s trees are the castle’s farm building, mostly demolished except for those seen opposite today’s surgery which is built at the junction of Isel Road (called Park Lane at this time because it led to the parkland of Cockermouth Castle but duplication of name with Parkside Avenue resulted in its current rename) and Castlegate Drive. Note the original Cockermouth cottage hospital built by public subscription in 1914 with its adjacent large gardens. When public subscription was raised to built the hospital it also purchased the land in front all the way to Castlegate Drive.
Far right above the black trees Market Place with the Old Hall in the centre with the buildings around it. All the buildings around the Old Hall were demolished in 1974 to make way for the Market Street car park.
At the bottom right is the Town Hall, originally the Methodist Church until 1932 when the Methodists built their new church and hall in Lorton Street and moved there, and in 1934 the building became the Town Hall. Below this Methodist/Town Hall building is the Weavers Arms public house, long since demolished to make way for the Town Hall car park.
Follow the river Cocker past the Town Hall to where the river is hidden by a building on the left. On the opposite bank is the four storey hat factory of Thomas Wilson now demolished and all the smaller houses adjacent to the Cocker were also demolished.
Bottom centre is Croft Woollen Mill which remains nowadays as flats, but the adjacent two storey building were demolished; adjacent is Croft Bowling Green. A lot of the buildings in the centre middle of the photo were demolished to make way for Council flats.
In the centre of the photo is Main Street; starting from Cocker bridge is the Old Courthouse, next is the building with the right section being the Saving Bank; in the middle of the building in the roof is the Christopher Tatham clockmaker’s clock; the left part of this building is a grocery store; the building to the right with the arch is the former police station; to the left is the three storey white building, occupant uncertain; to the left is a smaller three storey building again uncertain use; at the extreme left is the three storey building with warehouse doors on the left of Joshia Hall who used the building as a warehouse as well as a shop, see a photo of him outside it.
Joshia Hall was a Quaker and to facilitate other Quakers to attend the Quaker Meeting House at the top of Kirkgate, he noted that people waded over the ford of the Cocker at the end of South Street, so in 1887 he built a bridge now called the Quaker Bridge by locals, or South Street Bridge by some.
Note the evidence before a great flood! This is in 1929 but in 1938 a great flood came down the Cocker and demolished the left side of Huddart’s shop that can be seen to the right of where Cocker bridge is hidden by the ex Midland Bank (vacant in 2025) building.
Aerial Cockermouth from All Saints Church spire taken after 1895 when the Edward Waugh Memorial clock was erected at the bottom of Station Street and before 1932 when it was demolished.
Aerial view Derwent Cocker note Whartons Mill and Graves Mill lower right.
The small white building with the arch on its right gable end is the arch of the water wheel that powered large Graves Mill to its right. Another photo shows this white building with its intriguing arch without the buildings behind it, and often with huge gravel banks that must have stopped the water that should have powered it.
Graves Mill was demolished and rebuilt as flats in about 1960s or 70s but locals and the authorities realised that the character of the buildings and their location and history were worth preserving and so the Waterloo Street development plan was established with appropriate assistance. See other set of information that was found in the local auction house that explains this development.
This photo is pre 1932 because Kirkbank has not been developed above the Cocker.
This photo shows the pre 1938 road bridge over the Cocker that was used by wagons taking brewery items, and also used by Cumberland Motor Service busses that had a garage opposite the brewery building. Road traffic might be the reason for the centre support but the support may have restricted the flow, and the 1938 flood shows the right section of the bridge washed away, and the anticipation and event of the Second World War meant the bridge was not rebuilt until …196?… See Waterloo Bridge 1938 flood pictures.
The bridge had been built as part of Queen Victoria’s jubilee celebrations in 1887 and had been named Waterloo Bridge in honour of the famous battle some years earlier but it was used to roll barrels that were made on the right side over to the brewery on the left side, so became known as Barrel Bridge.
Observe the left bottom part shows the mill race is full of water to power the High and Low Gote mills. And on the other side of the photos we see the Derwent flowing through the white building of another water mill.
1938 after the flood. Derwent and Cocker rivers meet and show Waterloo bridge damaged by 1938 flood.
At the bottom left the white line is the mill race that powers the Gote mills. Opposite the mill race are buildings, the left one with the white front is the washerwoman’s house, with various photos taken from the other side of the Derwent, note the wall to the left under the castle that was washed away in floods of 2009, and the trees below the castle are now gone and reinforcing bars have been drilled into the bank to strengthen it.
Beside the castle are the buildings of Jennings brewery with the iconic pyramid like roof with its ventilation tower that was part of the malting process.
To the right of the brewery buildings is the river Cocker with Waterloo Bridge over the Cocker that has been locally known as Brewery Bridge (adjacent to the brewery) and Barrel Bridge because beer barrels were made in High Sand Lane on the other side of the river and rolled over the bridge to the brewery. The bridge has a support in the middle because beer lorries and CMS busses crossed it to their garage (see photos of paving for vehicles on the bridge). In 1938 the force of a huge flood and floating debris destroyed the bridge, then the second world war intervened and the bridge was not replaced until 1963 – without a central support.
Unfortunately when the new bridge was completed (without the centre support ) there was a major flood and the new bridge was washed off its foundations, so they raised the foundations of the bridge edges and moved the bridge onto the higher foundations, which were adequate until a later flood! The bridge was opened by the Head Boy of Cockermouth Grammar School
Follow the river Cocker and note the pyramid roof of what is now the Town Hall which at that time was the Methodist church.
Top right corner of photo shows Kirkbank council houses that were built in early 1930s.
