Chapter 33

Industry and commerce away from the rivers

There were a number of industrial and commercial concerns in the heart of the town away from the river banks. One of the largest was the timber firm of Thomas Armstrong Limited. The first Thomas Armstrong set up as a joiner, cabinet maker, etc., at 18 Main Street about 1800. When he died in 1853 his son John carried on until accidentally killed on the Moota road in 1873, when John’s son, another Thomas, inherited the business. It was now in South Street. An 1885 advertisement describes the firm as sawmillers, timber and saw merchants, explosives agents and undertakers, and they had at that time about 60 employees, some of whom lived in Sawmill Cottages which stood in the South Street yard. At one time 40 to 50 horses were stabled in various places in the town, used for dragging timber in the woods or in teams of four hauling the log lorries. In 1930 the firm was reconstructed as Thomas Armstrong Ltd., a private company with a share capital of £250,000.

In 1860 the South Street premises had a chimney for the steam engine. This engine was replaced by a Tangye gas engine in 1914 which in turn gave place to electrical power about 40 years later. In Cockermouth the firm also used the Low Road Station and a number of other sites in the town.

Although most of the timber formerly went to the pits or the railway, Armstrong’s has played a more intimate part in the life of the town. Elm and oak were used for coffins; alder and birch were favoured for clog soles by the town’s cloggers; firewood could be collected on Saturdays; and a boy could always have a cricket bat cut to size, known, from its lack of same, as a ‘spring ante’.

Because of its growth the firm was divided into six subsidiary companies which cover joinery, plumbing, central heating, timber, heavy goods vehicles and related equipment, concrete and building blocks- this last mainly in the north-east of the country where house building was developed by Armstrong’s after the second war but later discontinued. [1]

There are, and have been, a number of joinery and building firms in the town. They are too many to list but we may note in particular the various members of the Mackreth family who were also brickmakers. They are commemorated in Mackreth Row off Kirkgate. An interesting development was the co-operation of Bolton (stonework), Robinson (joinery) and Hesketh Fletcher (plumbing) in keeping their men occupied during severe frosts, when it had been customary for all building work to stop. Bolton set his men to dressing stone at the Brigham quarries and Palmer Robinson’s joiners made window frames and doors which were stored for later use. [2] Brick and stone were at first used only around windows and doors, until dressed stone from Brigham and other quarries became more readily available. The expert can tell from the grain and colour from which sources the stone of Cockermouth buildings was procured.

The first brick houses were in Walker Street, followed after the first war by Kirkbank and Castlegate Drive. There have been other timber-based activities in the town. Swill baskets were made in Butts Fold [3] early this century and chairs, mangle rollers and barrels were manufactured by different firms in High Sand Lane.

Within a short distance from the town are the various plantations of Thornthwaite Forest, one of the earliest of state forests, dating from the first planting on Whinlatter in 1920. In addition to large areas in Thomthwaite and Whinlatter, this forest also has plantations along the west side of Bassenthwaite Lake, on Dodd Fell to the east of the lake, and further north in the Watch Hill, Setmurthy and Castle Inn areas.

There has been a considerable number of blacksmiths in the town – South Street, Challoner Street, Si. Helen’s Street, Main Street (the Conservative Club site), two in Crown Street, etc. Alongside No. 27 Crown Street may still be seen the metal saucer on which wooden cart wheels were laid while the heated metal rims were placed round them and then doused with cold water to contract the rims on to the wheels. (Fig. 50).

Most villages had their own blacksmith and Fisher and Co. of Station street (now Firn’s) was one of the firms supplying their requirements – bars of iron, nails, etc. [4] Horse traders supplied farmers, shopkeepers and families with their needs and Joseph Tolson of New Street was a coach builder who could supply all types of conveyance, or second-hand carts, hand-carts, dog carts, gigs, waggonets, and elegant traps and digbies for the aristocrats could all be obtained here, together with accessories such as carriage lamps and waterproof aprons, and the firm advertised an anti-candle burner using paraffin which would fit any carriage lamp. [5]

Self-sufficiency extended to the clothes of the townspeople and their neighbours in the surrounding villages. We have referred to footwear being hand made in the town. Most people wore clogs and a number of clog shops were kept busy making and repairing, that near the Mayo statue of John Huddleston, a pleasant-natured member of the council as well as a good clogger, being recognised as a meeting place for collecting and dispensing news. [6]

There were at one time as many as 60 tailors in the town, attached to such firms as 1. W. Bowe, W. Clarke, J. Cooper, 1. C. W. Drummond, W. Elliott, P. W. Fletcher, Renwick and T. Smailes. [7] The tailors of each firm not only worked in the tailor workshops (that belonging to Fletcher still stands behind what was the shop, on the bank of the Cocker) but went round the villages and farms taking orders or doing work on the spot. A man could spend a whole morning at a house such as Ise1 Hall taking orders and measurements for the family and staff. [8] Clothes were often ‘turned’ to get further wear from the materiaL Tailoring was very varied, ranging from working clothes to coachmen’s liveries and the suits of the gentry, and in an effort to raise their standard of living the Cockermouth tailors went on strike in 1877 for a rise of 3s.(l5p) a week. [9]

There were in the town a number of major concerns which have disappeared, such as John Robinson’s mill off Challoner Street where he made blankets, duffles, plaidings, druggets, trimmings, checks, etc.; hat manufacture in Birkett’s Buildings; [10] and the making of ropes in the ‘walk’ leading off the bottom corner of Kirkgate square and now a right-of-way to St Helen s Street or the ropewalk which extended along the backs of the Station Street shops on the west side.

On the other hand there has developed in the town the West Cumberland Farmers’ Trading Society Ltd., started early in the century by a group of farmers joining together to buy feeding stuffs in bulk. The first branch was opened in Cockermouth in 1922 (plans for the present building were approved in 1938) and by 1932 the Society had nine branches. Various other societies have since been absorbed. In 1976 sales passed the £100 million mark at over £114 million, more than a million pounds being paid to members in interest and trading bonus, bringing the total paid back to members in the firm’s 65 years to some £14 million. [11]

Not only was there much more noise and smoke in Cockermouth in comparatively recent times, but some trades produced distinctive and pervading smells. On certain days the town was flooded with the aroma of roasting coffee or smoking hams, farmers bringing in their bacon for curing either to full-time bacon curers or to grocers who cured as a side-line. [12] Not all smells were so pleasant. Knackers, bone boilers and gut scrapers were scattered throughout the town, licences being issued for premises in Strickett’s Yard off Main Street, Waterloo Street, S1. Helen’s Street, etc., as recently as the 1910’s. [13]

Candles were made by some of the grocers, such as Chris Mayson in the Market Place and Josiah Hall at 22 Main Street, where there was a candle factory behind the shop. The wicks were dipped in tallow and hung on a three-tiered revolving frame, similar to a modern postcard rack. They were sold by Josiah Hall in 3 pound bundles, many of them going to iron ore miners in Frizington, who used nuts off railway wagons as holders. [14] Isaac Fletcher (later Mounseys) sold candles to the castle. If a candle went out it was sold back to the shop, it being considered unlucky to relight it. [15]

Another trade which has left the town is clock-making. Lott Barwise was well known for his clocks in the latter half of the 18th century and in 1847 the directory lists four makers – Anthony Fumess in 38 Main Street, George Graham at 85 Main Street, M. Mitchell at 44 Market Place and Joseph Thompson at 112 Main Street. [16]

Hidden away in the yards and lanes of the town were many other activities important in their day. Mrs. Burgess starched collars in Crown Yard. [17] There were two communal bakehouses, heated by wood, where the family loaves, with their distinguishing marks, could be baked in long ovens for prices from 2Y2d. to 4Y2d. according to the quantity. Mrs. Johns.on managed one bakehouse early in the 20th century at the top of the Crown Inn yard and Mrs Tinniswood had the other half way up Mark’s Lane by Barclay’s Bank. [18] In a passage which ran down to the river near St. Joseph’s School, Alex McAdam employed more than 20 men on hand looms making ‘carpets’ from discarded garments cut into lengths. [19] Also somewhere in the town a six-week training course could be taken, qualifying for domestic service. At the end of the course the girls were given a black dress, black shoes, two aprons and two caps, value one guinea. [20]

It is fascinating to study the advertisements in an old guide book or bazaar programme. Through them one may gain an impression of life in an earlier day or of the enthusiasm with which an invention was received that today we take for granted. H. Fawcett and Son at their Mantle Showrooms guaranteed that all ladies’ garments were fitted with the Patent Princess of Wales Ventilator which effectively prevented the gathering of damp. [21] John B. Banks of Market Place (a firm still there), had in 1895 the latest improvements in Domestic Economy and Comfort – the asbestos curfew [sic], the Bissell carpet sweeper, the Progress potato peeler, the Dorman sewing machine and all the hundred and one things included in General, Furnishing and Builders’ Ironmongery, while their electric bells and speaking tubes incorporated ‘Improved principles’. [22]

Sometimes an advertiser was carried away by enthusiasm for his products, as when J. L. Yeowart of Cocker Bridge described his firm as the largest drapery establishment in Cumberland and exhorted people to see his windows for special value in millinery. “Follow the crowds, for the crowd follows the Cheapest Market. I will not allow anyone to undersell me. Sooner give the goods away.” [23]

We conclude this chapter with a brief reference to banks in the town. The first was the Carlisle City and District Bank on the north side of Market Place, now an angling supplies shop, but in recent times a grocery shop and then ‘The Granary Wholefoods shop‘. The strong-room door at the back of the shop and the steps down to the small room with its racks for deed boxes were fortunately preserved during extensive reconstruction in 1977-8 necessitated by dry rot.

In early days a number of tradesmen acted as bankers in addition to running their normal businesses and issued their own bank notes. [24]

The aim of the ‘Cockermouth Bank for Savings’ was

• “to encourage individuals of the Labouring Class, in Cockermouth, and the neighbourhood, to save a portion of their earnings, and to secure the same at interest, by making small deposits therein from time to time, as may suit the convenience of the parties.”

This could be done at first between 6 and 7 p.m. on Saturdays. The bank was not intended for large deposits. Not more than £30 could be paid in anyone year and the accounts were limited to £150. When interest had raised this to £200 no more was added. Charitable and friendly societies might deposit £100 a year, with a limit of £300 exclusive of interest. Membership was extended to married women and miners and interest was paid at 3%. Various amalgamations with other savings banks have taken place, and the Cockermouth branch is now in the Lloyds TSB Bank.

Late in the 19th century the town also had branches of the Cumberland Union Bank and the Midland Bank. By 1910 there was also the London Joint Stock Bank. The Westminster Bank and the District Bank were in Station Street by 1925 and the National Provincial opened a branch on the corner of High Sand Lane in 1927. The exact titles changed from time to time as amalgamations took place and the most recent groupings have reduced the town’s banks to four – National Westminster, HSBC (ex-Midland), Barclays and Lloyds TSB.