Chapter 32

Industrial Sites along the Derwent

The highest link with industry on the Derwent was the weir at Ladyboat, to which we shall refer presently. There was a proposal in 1797 for a thread mill in this area below the castle and a draft agreement [1] was drawn up between Thomas Benson, the Earl’s agent, and Daniel Mowbray and James Davenport, both Newcastle merchants, with John and Joseph Bank, linen manufacturers of Cockermouth. The four men were promised

• “a good and sufficient lease of a certain piece or parcel of land part of the Earl’s lands at Cockermouth aforesaid called the Little Horse Close and the Lands, not exceeding in the whole thirty yards square, at the south end of the said Closes. With liberty to erect and build thereon Houses Mills and other works for the Dressing and Spinning of flax and tow …. with liberty to erect and make a Water Wear in the sd. River Derwent and cut and make a sufficient Water Race or Watercourse therefrom …. “

and then a channel as near the south end as possible to convey the water back to the Derwent. The scheme was never implemented.

Next was the tannery on the Derwent bank below the castle. Beyond the Cocker outlet the angled building of what was originally Wharton’s linen mill still stands, facing on to Waterloo Street and backing on to the Derwent whence it was powered. Wharton and Banks later went to Simonscales Mill At the far end of Waterloo Street was the former Graves’s woollen mill. Both mills were built in the 1820s and had wheels,in a race which ran along this bank of the river, culverted in places as shown in old photographs and paintings (Plate 12). Graves’s building had a feature common to industrial buildings in the town of this period – a small pointed window high in the gable end, seen in both gables of this mill, in the ‘hospice’ of Spittle lng, in Croft Mill until its recent conversion into flats and elsewhere in the town.

On the other side of the Derwent is an industrial area which has developed in recent times from the first mill building of 1834. The Quaker family of Harris began linen manufacture in Cockermouth in Low Gote Mill early last century and built Derwent Mill for their expanding business in 1834, enlarging it considerably in 1847 and 1855. (Plate 15) The ‘hospice’ building near Low Gote was erected in the firm’s early days for drying flax (it appears on the 1832 map) and a compulsory purchase order made by the County Council in 1975 has ensured its preservation. Harris embroidery thread, produced in over 200 different shades, became famous. The firm also wove linen and at times employed 800 people. Bolton’s book of 1912 carries an advertisement for Harris Linen, Harris Flax and Silk Cloth, Harris Cumbrian Embroidery Silks, Harris Flax Embroidery Thread and Harris Art Embroideries. An advertisement on the back of Mate’s Guide reads

• “Visitors to Cockermouth should inspect the Art Embroidery Show Rooms at Jno. Harris and Sons, Ltd., Derwent Mills. Admission is free to Showrooms. Visitors can be shown through the Flax Spinning and Weaving Mill at a charge of 6d. [2 Ylp1each. Specimens of the beautiful embroidery made in the workrooms may be seen and purchased . nobody should omit this item on a visit to the town.”

The fast dyes won a wide reputation. A stall of Harris Art Linens embroidered in thin flax threads won a gold medal in Manchester and ‘Derwent’ shot dress linens were included in the trouseau of Princess Maud of Wales. There were showrooms in Old Bond Street in London, King Street in Manchester, Corporation Street in Birmingham and also in Paris. [2]

Unfortunately the firm closed following the depression of the early 1930s. They are said to have solved the problem of mixing artificial silk with other materials in weaving fabrics [3] and could probably have weathered the difficulties. In 1934 a new company ‘Jonathan Harris and Sons (Cockermouth) Ltd.’ was formed to manufacture linen in part of the mill and the thread business sold to Henry Campbell and Co. of Belfast. [4] However, the firm ended a little later, paying about 18s. in the £ and selling the factory for £ 1000. [5]

There is mention of a new industry in the building in 1937, employing some 60 girls, [6] but it was early in the war that the premises were fully used again when Millers (Great Yarmouth) Ltd. brought their footwear machinery and about 200 key operatives from the east coast. This evacuation became permanent, and the firm once employed 1100 in the Cockermouth factory and the branches it opened in Workington, Frizington and Egremont. About 40,000 pairs of sandals, boots and ladies’ and children’s shoes were produced each week, being sold in bulk to many of the well-known retailers. Manufacture was very labour intensive, a pair of shoes passing through as many as 150 processes. The firm catered for majority needs, not for specialised fittings, and had its own design section and pattern department, the former in close contact with leading fashion centres on the continent. [7]

A number of smaller concerns developed in the vicinity of Derwent Mill.

After swinging round the Sandair field the Derwent comes back to just below Low Gote Mills. William Jackson wrote in 1878

• “It may well be that the well-known mill called ‘Goat Mill’ dates from this period a very respectable age of seven centuries, but I am much disposed to ascribe it to an origin eight centuries earlier, and to believe that we have here a mill occupying the very site of a predecessor, which ground corn for the garrison of the neighbouring Roman fort The name of Goat… is. it seems, the equivalent of the Icelandic ‘gioto’, a drain; technically ‘goit’, the channel which takes the water from the mill wheel back to the parent stream.” [8]

The term may have a wider meaning covering the whole of a mill race. Its use in Cockermouth is variously spelt ‘goat’ and ‘gote’.

A half mile leat left the Derwent at Ladyboat above the castle and passed along the river side of Derwent Mills. Portions of its stone-lined channel and sluice gates may still be seen. Elizabeth I is said to have granted permission for its width to be doubled and certainly it existed before 1700. [9] If there was a water mill at Low Gote in pre-Norman times it may have been powered directly from the Derwent if the tradition is correct that the river once followed a course along the foot of Mickle Brow to the present channel west of this mill.

Low Gote comprised two mills. The lower one was demolished and the upper converted into dwellings in 1978. [10). The restored water wheel of the upper mill remains and until demolition the axle of the lower mill wheel projected through the wall and the derelict building still contained bevelled cogs and connecting shafts.

A mill was built here for corn in 1609, rebuilt for textiles in 1779 and reverted to corn in 1858. The two mills were probably of different dates. A map dated 1727 [11] labels them ‘Logwood mill. Wheat mill. Corn mill.’ Wood shows them both as flax mills in 1832, the upper one belonging to Thos. Mawson and the lower to Jona. Harris, who was here until 1847. The first OS map (1863) labels the whole area, including High Gote across the main road, as ‘Goat Mills (Corn)’.

High Gote, often referred to as “Harkness’s”, spans the race, the course of which may be seen between the mill and the main road. At times it was a textile mill, but corn was usually the business here and the Harkness family were millers of flour and grain, roasters of barley for brewing, and suppliers of feeding stuffs for cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. [12] There is a reference to the mill in 1786 and it worked until 1969. Most of the premises here are now used by a road haulage firm.

The hamlet of ‘The Gote’ which grew in this area from the early 19th century was an isolated community separated from the town by fields, in one of which flax was spread to dry. ‘Bleach House’ near High Gote Mill is a reminder of this practice. The inhabitants of the Gote found work not only in the various Gote mills but also in the Fitz Mill complex across the Derwent. A variety of activities took place in the Fitz Mills, which belonged to the Senhouse family. Wood gives nothing beyond ‘Fitz Mill. Capt. Senhouse’ in 1832 and the first OS map 30 years later marks it ‘Flax’. A map shows a corn mill in 1774. [13]

In 1883 Richard Senhouse leased [14] to Allan Banks of Cockermouth the cottage, garden, dye house, drying loft, bleaching house, bleaching green and out offices at Fitz Thread Mill for £1-4s 8d. a month. The mill and engine house were not included. In March 1893 Banks was given notice to quit and the following year the premises were leased to a syndicate for “manufacturing woollen goods and the spinning of carpet and other yams”. In the agreement (which did not include the bed of the Derwent and its fish and gravel) everything was listed in the greatest detail, even the number of wooden props supporting the floors. The document refers to the old mill, new mill, boiler house, engine house, dye house, store room, thread shop, old store room and old cottage. [15]

The syndicate, the Fitz Mill Co. Woollen Spinners, insured their part of the premises (some parts were empty) for £1100, paying a premium of £18-2s-0d. The policy mentions two and three storey buildings containing a willying house (one willy machine and one testing machine); rooms for carding, scribbling, mule spinning, reeling and twisting; wool, shoddy and cow hair stores; a dwelling house; a gearing house; a steam engine house; water wheel; etc. [16]

The venture was apparently very short-lived, the insurance premiums telling the story. In July 1895 the policy described the mill as “silent and at rest”, the premium being reduced to £2-15s-0d. In August 1896 the policy stated the “mill being silent it is also empty” and the premium was down to £1-7s-6d. On a map of 1900 it was labelled ‘disused’ and three years later part of the upper floor was being used by Wilkinson Jennings as a paper store. [17]

The salmon pass at the Fitz was designed by Thomas Rook, who became an important man in the fisheries office on Cocker Bridge. [18] The mill is said to have made an interesting contribution to town life when, for a special occasion, one of the wheels generated electricity which lit fairy lights in Main Street. [19]

The new factory of James Walker and Company Limited manufactures seals and gaskets for liquids and gases under pressure, used in industry, shipping and domestic appliances, and also produces insulators for transformers. The products are basically of rubber and rubber-proofed fabric, but several other components are used. James Walker began his business in a London railway arch about 1880, mainly concerned with marine steam engines, and moved to Woking after the first world war. Marine work predominated during the wars, but the water, gas, oil and electricity services are now the firm’s main concern. The Cockermouth branch was opened in mid-1969, in a building designed for another firm which withdrew before completion of the premises. It is interesting to note that the angle at which the building stands was decided with a view to frontage on to the Cockermouth bypass, which at that time was expected to run north of the town instead of along the present A66 line.

There have been several extensions of the factory from 1974 onwards, including new offices in 1975. In 1979 the work-force was about 300, only six of whom had come with the firm from the south of England. This was made up of 250 in the factory and 50 in the offices, 200 men and 100 women, of whom 60% lived in Cockermouth. In 1995 there are about 350 employees. The firm is currently installing new machinery with new technology. It celebrated its centenary in 1982, the official opening of the new building by Harold Wilson, M.P., being a far cry from the founder’s first efforts in a railway arch. ‘James Walker’ now has factories in Australia, America, France, Belgium, Holland and Spain. On the Cockermouth site particular interest has been shown in maintaining the background of trees and in preserving a rich natural flora found in the factory grounds. [20].