Aerial Photos part 5 1968 - 1969
Aerial Menu
1968 Aerial Main Street Sullart Street Derwent. At bottom is Mitchells auction buildings with parking for lorries and cars and above the painted lorry parking lines is a vehicle with a white roof that is parked beside Cockermouth mortuary. In the centre is Thomas Armstrongs woodyard, now car park and former Wilko store. The Post Office sorting office and new telephone exchange is being built to replace the white walled building. On the left is Sullart Street where a row of houses has been demolished to make the road wider, Wordsworth Court will be built here eventually and at the bottom of that part of the photo you see the roof removed from a building to be demolished for Wordsworth Court. Note on Main Street the Congregational Church (now the URC) and behind it is Graves Mill that had been a woollen mill that was demolished to be rebuilt as modern flats. On the far bank of the Derwent is Derwent Mills with the path of the mill race from the weir. To the right of Millers Bridge is Walkers builders yard with access via the archway to the right of the Carnegie Library.
1968 Aerial Cockermouth Thomas Armstrong woodyard. Main Street at the top (note Mayo statue top left corner) and on bottom of photo is South Street with Thomas Armstrong’s offices (later removed for access to car park). The area between is Thomas Armstrong’s woodyard with access from Main Street through what is now called Lowther Went – note the grooves on the blocks of stone caused by horse drawn logs on the way to the sawmill sometimes scraped the pillar. The area became Walter Wilson and others premises then Wilko and now empty. The sorting office and telecoms is now on the left.
1969 Aerial shows Y shaped meeting of Derwent and Cocker and bend of Derwent around Sandair (Cricket ground off Gote road) and gasworks and Millers. Bottom left is the rectangle of Laithwate rugby ground, now redeveloped as Low Road Close. Beside it is the line of the Cockermouth Keswick railway that ceased in 1966 with the track removed in 1968, later developed as the greenway path. Gravel beds in the Derwent are obvious, even gravel blocking the flood relief arches that were built on Gote bridge in 1936 (just before the flood damage of 1938) From Gote Bridge (Derwent Bridge) turn right towards Derwent Mills and the housing estate is seen, however the floods of 2009 damaged these houses so badly that they have been demolished and rebuilt. Note the Sandair cricket ground, and James Walker factory being built. Of significant note is the sharp bend in the Derwent where Fitz Mill is clearly shown with its adjacent buildings. Zoom in and note where the white gravel bank ends at a white obstruction in the river that was the fish pass that is seen in other photographs. The fishing rights of this river were granted by the Senhouse family residents of The Fitz.
1969 Aerial view of Cockermouth shows the Derwent and Cocker rivers meet and the Derwent flows under Harris footbridge now known as Millers footbridge, downstream is Gote bridge showing the original two arches and one of the two square relief arches that were built in 1936 to allow an increased flow of the river when it floods, but unfortunately in 1938 there was a significant flood that overwhelmed the system and flooded Main Street again, when man posed with fishing rod (catch unlikely!!). Look closely at the left of Millers bridge and notice the square vertical supports, these carried the footpath over the mill race that powered the mills down the Gote. Note where the Cocker joins the Derwent, there is a bridge that is now a footbridge but at one time there had been stone pillar in the middle to support the weight of vehicles crossing, another photo shows the paving slabs where the wheels would go. The bus company and brewery wagons used this bridge until the right side was washed away in a flood and the bridge not repaired until many years later – see other notes. At the top of the photo the Windmill Lane estate has been developed and is continuing its development up Slate Fell. On the top right the line of the old railway closed in 1966 with the track remove in 1968 but the route of the line snaking up to Embleton then Bassenthwaite Lake Station and on to Keswick and Penrith. On the bottom right is Thomas Armstrong’s concrete yard which is now Horsman Court flats and just below, out of picture is the site of the current Aldi. On the far right are the gas holders that still hold gas that was produced from coal but the railway bringing the coal had closed in 1966 so by 1970s the holders were converted to hold natural gas. At the top right corner is the straight line of Strawberry How road that relatively recently has the Strawberry How estate houses. At the top, in the middle of a field is grey building on its own that was the Drill Hall that was later developed into the Sports Centre. Middle right, can you identify the long rooves of the Mitchells auction company that later became Sainsbury.
1969 Aerial Cockermouth Derwent Cocker rivers meet. Note the flow of the Derwent is obstructed by a (likely) natural island where the mill race starts for the Gote mills and flows past the Derwent Mills. Note the large bed of gravel after the Derwent meets the Cocker.
1969 Bottom left is the line of the old Cockermouth Keswick Penrith railway that closed in 1966. In this photo, the rails have been removed in by 1968 and it is left derelict; it was a lot of years before the greenway was established. Note at the extreme right in the middle of the picture the railway line is in a cutting that goes under the Lamplugh road. This was all filled in underneath the bridge and the railway line was filled in to the level of the bottom of the wall beside the white flats, thus making the current council car park with its recycling bins at the far end. To the right of this point is St Joseph’s School, now a college. Note the obvious gas works storage tanks, the smaller tank was seen in the 1901 photo. Cockermouth gas works was built beside the railway so that a siding brought wagons of coal to the side of the gasworks and the coal was “cooked” to extract the gas from the coal. The resulting coke was sold locally but coke for the steel mills of West Cumbria came from the North East coal fields by rail wagons. Eventually the gasometers stored natural gas, not coal gas, and were demolished in 1970s. The area of the gasworks site in this photo has been taken over as a County Council works depot, which later ceased and the land was developed to became the Woodville Park housing estate. Bottom left the white buildings and yard is the Thomas Armstrong concrete products works, making concrete blocks, paving slabs, kerb stone etc as well as storing other building blocks. Thomas Armstrong concrete works is now the location of Aldi and Horsman Court (which was named to commemorate a former MP’s name) and Lloyds garage. On the Derwent under the bridge you can see one of the square relief arches built in 1936, but the gravel banks are still above and below the bridge. Centre left edge is Derwent Mill and its factory outbuildings, note the bend in the Derwent and note the line of the mill race that starts on the far left and cuts the corner of the bend of the Derwent. The washerwoman’s house is still below the castle walls in this 1969 photo. At the top of the photo is Isel Road to the left with Castlegate Drive going to the top. Between them is the new housing estate, started in the late 1950s with the original cottage hospital with the land to its right that will eventually be developed into the community hospital. Top of the photo in the centre is the Drill Hall, set in a field and not yet developed into the Sports Centre. To its top right is the further development of the Windmill Lane estate, the first part built in the 1930s, from 1947 the council estate was built up Slate Fell. Eventually the fields above became Gable Avenue. Centre of the photo shows Mitchells auction company and car park (now Sainsbury) and to the left is Thomas Armstrong woodyard leading to Main Street.
