Dates Cockermouth
1598 Percy House in Market Place was at one time the home of the bailiff of the Percy family. In the upstairs room is a carved plaster ceiling with the date 1598. The fireplace upstairs has the arms of the Earl surrounded by a garter. The building is now a shop selling quality items, please if you visit, purchase something.
1709 22 Deeds of ownership 1709 – 1962 for Main Street number 5 currently known as Derwent Conservative Club. Ref: Main Street 5 Ex Club Derwent Conservative Club premises deeds 1709 – 1962
1739 – 1840 Map: Map 01 Waterloo Street Main Street Age of property 1739 to 1840 information from owners
1757 Whit Sunday 29th June John Wesley preached in Cockermouth noting that there were no leaves on the trees and hedges. A violent wind had downed chimneys, barns, walls and scorched everything , as touched with fire and leaves fell off. [KR]
1761 Nov 21st Flood destroys houses mills etc. There was ‘a prodigious flood at Cockermouth which carried away several houses, mills etc.’ (Bradbury 1995 from an edition of the West Cumberland Times)
1768 14th April John Wesley was at Cockermouth but he said there was no room for preaching as the town was in uproar through the election for members of Parliament.
1776 6th May Wesley preached in Cockermouth and noted that the towns trade and population was on the increase. ‘such is the fruit of the entire civil and religious liberty which all England now enjoys’ [KR]
1777 Thursday 29th May Wesley stayed overnight in Cockermouth on his way to Whitehaven for the Isle of Man boat. Returning in June 1777 he preached to a large congregation in Castle Yard.
1780 10th May Wesley preached in Cockermouth Town Hall at 8.00am to the poor only ‘the rich could not rise so soon!’ [WoB]
1781 14th June Wesley preached in the Free Chapel behind the URC on Main Street, there are gravestones and a porch remaining there behind the URC in 2024.
1796 George Robinson, a cooper, bought some old malt kilns in Sand Went (High Sand Lane). The derelict buildings were demolished and Mr Robinson built a meeting house which he sold to Methodist Trustees for the sum of £70. This property still exists and is owned by the Town Council and used as a business centre. Once known as the Victoria Gospel Hall – once the meeting-place of the local society of the Plymouth Brethren, now known as The Vicky and is a business centre. [WoB] [KR]
1800
1810-1820 Gote Road Hospice built, now a private house called St Leonard’s House. It was a flax drying shed for Harris linen before Harris built Harris Mill (now Derwent Mill).
1820s Waterloo Street Graves Mill, Whartons Mill powered by Derwent river. See: Waterloo Street Whartons Mill frontage to Derwent an 1820s linen mill served by a culverted mill race 1989 drawing
1822 Flood Gote Bridge (Derwent Bridge) was rebuilt from a narrow stone bridge to the current two lane wide bridge, but only had two arches. The arches of the new bridge (the two-arch stone Derwent bridge probably completed within the previous two years) at Cockermouth were not found large enough and the road in consequence was completely impassable.
1828 Cocker road bridge was rebuilt for £2,600 which included the expense of removing houses to widen the approaches. The old bridge was15ft wide with low parapets and so steeply built that it was impossible to build the present one underneath it. When ready for completion by the insertion of the key stone, the Cocker rose and brought down the new masonry, but after a further attempt the bridge was completed and the old one, on top, was blown up to remove it! [Bradbury History of Cockermouth p208]
1832 Map 03 1832 Cockermouth Waterloo Street area see STREETS\Waterloo Street Conservation proposal 1989\Waterloo St MAPS\Map 03 1832 Cockermouth Waterloo Street area.jpg
1833 Bernard Burns murdered in Cockermouth by the river Derwent, five men acquitted because of false testimony from five false witnesses four of whom were later charged, convicted and transported to penal colonies in Australia and Van Diemen’s Land later called Tasmania. See research and fact based novel The Cockermouth Verdict by John Little.
1834 Gas works built above Derwent Street and Horsman Street and received coal delivered by local horse and cart from local coalfields. There was no railway to the gas works at this time. The railway above the town was completed in 1864.
1834 Derwent Mill built by the Harris family (who had been at Low Gote Mill) enlarged in 1847 and 1855. The mill on the Derwent, now known as Derwent Mills, was known as Harris Mill until closure in 1934 and subsequent purchase and use by Millers of Yarmouth who moved to avoid bombing in Great Yarmouth in World War 2.
1835 Derwent Mills – Harris family commit investment and new ideas install a steam engine into Harris Mill (and another in 1849)
1841 The building and opening of the Methodist Market Street Chapel in Cockermouth. [This building became the Town Hall after the Methodists built and moved to the current church and hall in Lorton Street in 1932.] The whole Methodist society marched from the Methodist chapel in High Sand Lane [now the Vicky business centre] to Market Street. where the opening services were conducted by the Rev. Joseph Beaumont. M.D. – one of very few Methodist ministers ever to become also Doctor of Medicine, and thus able to tend both the souls and bodies of his people. [WoB p10]. High Sand Lane was rented to the Primitives for £10 a year later reduced to £5 a year and then they bought the building in 1841 for £95.
1844 – 1847 Railway Cockermouth Workington line & Cockermouth railway station built at Low Road approximately where Lakes Home Centre is now.
1844 Main Street building to the left of the Brown Cow pub is demolished so that a new road could be built to the new passenger station and the new road from Main Street was called Station Street, but part way along it became Station Road. Before Station Road was built Kittyson Lane went from South Street to The Level but when Station Road was built this lane was no longer used, but still exists outside Sainsbury to the side of the Coroners Court building.
1846 Main Street 4 Savings Bank building built. A distinctive feature of the building is the clock, made by Christopher Tatham, a Cockermouth clock maker. The clock was lit at the town’s expense until the erection of the Waugh Memorial Clock at the bottom of Station Street made this unnecessary. The Savings Bank became part of the Trustee Savings Bank and later moved further down Main Street. The building has been used as offices. The building adjoins the Courthouse at 2 Main Street which has significant structural and future uncertainty in July 2024.
1847 Grecian Villa in Crown Street built as a private house for Thomas Wilson whose hat manufacturing business was in Market Place beside the Cocker. After Wilson died in 1910 it was left empty until Cockermouth Rural District Council moved in there for 20 years. The inspector of weights and measures and the registry office of births and deaths were there. Then the Cumbrian Fire Service used the building until 1986 after which is has been a hotel; first the Grecian Villa, now the Manor Court Hotel.
1849 Derwent Mills – Harris family install a second steam engine into Harris Mill
1850
1851 The Primitive Methodists society in Cockermouth bought High Sand Lane Chapel from the Wesleyans; a slightly vernaculous entry in the Trust account book of the Wesleyan society shows the sum of £95 being received from the sale of the old Chapel to “The Ranters.” [WoB p13]
1852 Harris Mill at Derwent Mills. Solicitors documents in Whitehaven archives listed a licence taken out in 1852 to use an invention which improved the manufacture of thread and yarn.
1852 Dec 12th Flood Main Street and Goat factories flooded
1855 Cockermouth Cemetery. Five acres of land were purchased from General Wyndham to make a cemetery and two chapels. The cost of the land, landscaping, chapels and the curator’s house were £2,800
1856 Dec 7th Flood the Goat 2 to 3 feet deep so ferry in carts
1861 Nov 26th Main Street flood nearly washed off horseback
1862 Kirkgate. See Lorton Road with Skinner Street on left before the new houses on left built.jpg
1861 The population of Cockermouth by the census of 1861 was 5,387 and the number of males being 2,493 and females 2,894. From 1861 Gazetteer of Cumberland
1861-64 Railway extended from Workington by an incline that started approximately where the storage units are between the Laureates estate and Lakes Home Store. This line ascended slowly and crossed the Cockermouth to Workington road to the rear of Aldi car park (where an old rail bridge can still be seen) then continues as the greenway path behind Woodville Park, continues under the current level of the Sullart Street, under the traffic light junction, past the appropriately named Sidings. A new passenger railway station was built above the town for this new line, accessed via Station Road, the site is now The Sidings housing with the track now a footpath.
This new line resulted in the original station being used as a goods station and coal yard until August 1964 but the coal yard continued to supply the town with household coal. This area is now Lakes Home Centre building and car park.
1863 OS map shows part of Mountain View, Cromwell Terrace on Fitz Road, Derwent View (Harrot House) and Evening Hill Farm. Fern Bank dates from the 1860s and parts of Brigham Road, Mayo Street and Henry Street (named after Henry Norman who owned the land) were developed before the end of the century. [Bradbury p192]
1867 Harris Park where the 1867 cannon from the Crimean war used to be
1868? Flood at Cockermouth in this year was mentioned during a subsequent event in 1898 but no documentary evidence was found.
1873 Weavers Arms on Main Street demolished to make a gap in the row buildings for a new road to the new bridge over the Derwent. It was built by the Harris family to save their employees walking over Gote Bridge; the new road was called Bridge Street. The bridge was built in 1875 and called Harris Bridge (until Millers took over the factory in 1940 and it is now known as Millers Bridge). The bridge was only for Harris workers and opened at the start and end of shifts. The original iron and wooden planked bridge was renewed in 1981.
1872-1874 Tweedmill built for £36,000 and had a 120ft high chimney that was sited off Victoria Road in Tweedmill estate. Walking along the greenway, over the Cocker it would have been on the left side.
1874 Oct 7th Flood: Derwent at Cockermouth seven feet above normal
1875 Harris Park All Saints church Methodist church Mount Pleasant row of houses demolished c1875
1883 Tweedmill ceased producing rugs and blankets and was sold to a Selkirk firm who made sweets, now renamed Atlas Works. In 1913 it was leased to a newly formed syndicate to manufacture three wheeled cycle-cars but WW1 killed this industry and in 1918 the mill was demolished.
1874 – 1974 Station Street Public Hall built 1874-1876 was used for lectures, meetings, dances and cinema shows – no intoxicants were allowed to be sold. Shops on either side of the entrance, Mrs Banks coffee house and Fletcher optician. The Hall was modernised in 1931 but ceased to be used by the 1950s. It was demolished in 1974 to make way for National Westminster Bank, which has since closed and the building converted into two fast food outlets.
1875 August Mayo statue erected in Main Street, protected by railings and illuminated by gas lights at it four corners. The railings were removed for recycling for the war effort in WW2. On a foggy morning In 1964 a lorry crashed into the statue and knocked Mayo from his pedestal. He was re-erected but you may note the neck is slightly marked. Mayo was born in Ireland, VI Earl of Mayo, married daughter of Lord Leconfield (Cockermouth Castle) became MP for Cockermouth in 1857-1868 and eventually was Viceroy and Governor General of India 1869 before being assassinated in the Andeman Islands in 1872.
1880 Harris Free School The Harris family were reputed to have their own fire service and during the 1880s started up a free school for their work people aged between 16 and 40 years. [Cmth.org]
1881 The Great Switch On for electric lighting of the town, 4000 came by train alone to see the switch on, but electric lighting did not last, and the town reverted to gas. In 1927 a contract was made to supply electricity to the town and electric town lighting spread, but the town gas lamp lighter continued until after WW2 and the last gas lamp disappeared in the 1970s
1887 June 18th Waterloo Bridge joins Waterloo Street with the brewery, it was also known as Barrel Bridge because beer barrels were rolled over the bridge to the brewery. This was three days before Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
1887 June 21st Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee marks the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession on 20 June 1837 at Westminster Abbey to which 50 European kings and princes were invited. [Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria – Wikipedia]
A committee of ratepayers arranged church services, processions, bands, food and games, a concert in the Public Hall [at that time in Station Street later demolished, a bank built but now fast food] Add to these the firing of a salute, speeches and toasts, bellringing, nuts, Jubilee mugs and medals, bunting and flags and Cockermouth’s celebration was complete.
Over the signature of Isaac Mitchell, chairman of the committee, a telegram was sent to the Queen: “The inhabitants of Cockermouth in public meeting assembled, congratulates her Majesty on this day, and wish her a long life and happiness”. Also a Jubilee Anthem, set to the tune of the National Anthem, was written by Rev J T Pollock. [Bradbury 133]
1887 June 21st Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrated by 100 Lime Trees planted in Main Street, Station Street and Market Place, paid for by public subscription.
1887 June 21st Quaker Footbridge opened on Jubilee Day. This was also known as Cocker Lane Footbridge, Jubilee Footbridge. It was opened only three weeks after the laying of the foundation stone on 2nd June. The cost was £129-6s-3d. Josiah Hall, one of the Quakers largely responsible for the bridge, opened it immediately after the laying of the foundation stone of Victoria Bridge, pointing out that the Local Board had turned down the plans two years earlier but had since changed that decision. The bridge was replaced by a later bridge in 1984. The bridge replaced a ford which was only closed in the 1930s. [Bradbury 209] Joshia Hall who had a grocer and warehouse on Main Street (now Tarantella) and was a Quaker and wanted to make it easier for Quakers to go to the Meeting House at the top of Kirkgate instead of wading over the ford (see a photo of the ford)
1887 Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrated by the foundation stone laid for the building of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Bridge that links Lorton Street with Victoria Road. A commemorative wooden mallet was Presented to Mrs Waugh laying the foundation for Jubilee Bridge 1887 [see picture]. After the bridge was completed and after some houses at the top of Kirkgate were demolished, Victoria Road connected to the top of Kirkgate round the bend giving access to Lorton Road.
1887 Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrated by building the Waterloo Road Bridge over the Cocker that joined Brewery Lane with High Sand Lane, also known as the Barrel Bridge because the barrels were produced in High Sand Lane and were rolled across the bridge to Brewery Lane. The bridge was named in honour of the 72nd anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and this replaced a ford. There was a central supporting pillar and beer wagons delivered from the brewery and Cumberland Motor Service buses went over the bridge to their garage by the brewery.
1887 Cumberland roads and bridges under responsibility of a Surveyor [Bradbury 132]
1888 Cockermouth Gas Light and Coke Company took over the gasworks and then were taken over in 1947 by Northern Gas ie nationalised, and in 1970 the town supply was converted to North Sea gas and the gas holders were used for North Sea gas.
1889 Ashgrove Terrace built beside Jubilee Bridge which gave a new access to Lorton.
1890 Harris Park unveiling of Wordsworth fountain c 1890 (5)
1891 Aug 25th Cocker damages 1887 Waterloo (Barrel) Bridge
1895 Harris Park was created as a result of a donation of £2,000 from Mrs Joseph Harris who was the wife of the founder of Harris Mill and Harris Bridge over the Derwent (later called Millers Bridge). The donation allowed 13 acres of land to be purchased above Rubbybanks that was developed into Harris Park.
1895 Harris Park opened 1895 with a canon from the Crimea war at the entrance to the park. The canon was removed and melted to make more modern munitions in WW2.
1896 April 7th Unveiling the granite drinking fountain, surmounted by the bronze figure of a child, a memorial to the poet Wordsworth and his sister, in Harris Park. [Bradbury 133] This has been moved to Sullart Street opposite Wordsworth House.
1895 Edward Waugh Memorial Clock tower built at the junction of Main Street and Station Road; he was the last member of the Parliamentary constituency for Cockermouth. Earlier there had been two MPs for Cockermouth, but this was reduced to one and eventually in 1895 Cockermouth became part of the Workington constituency. The clock tower was offset in the road and was acceptable for horses and carts to negotiate, but in the age of the motor car in early 1900s it was a traffic hazard and was demolished in August 1932. It was known locally as the Neddy clock.
1897 June 22nd Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee marks the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession on 20 June 1837 [Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria – Wikipedia] Jubilee Arch in Crown Street erected to commemorate the event. [Bradbury 133]
1898 Nov 2nd Flood in Goat to height of lower window sills; one house destroyed
1900
1900 Wordsworth Terrace and Fell View terraces were the first development off the top of Kirkgate, in about 1900. [Bradbury 192 Chapter 36 Houses and public buildings]
1900 Oct 6th Flood Bitter Beck St Helens Street.
1901 Cousin Charley festival at Sandair (the cricket ground) an added attraction was a [hot air?] balloon
1913 Tweedmill Atlas Works was leased to a newly formed syndicate to manufacture three wheeled cyclecars but WW1 killed this industry and in 1918 the mill was demolished.
1918 Oct 16th Cocker floods over Waterloo (Barrel) (road) Bridge which is repaired
1919 During World War 1 Jonathan Harris and Sons of Cockermouth had produced vast quantities of high – grade linen for the aircraft industry. 26 year old Thomas William Harris of Sunnyside, Papcastle acquired a war – surplus Renault aero engine, and also purchased a tank which he presented to Cockermouth.. He made a twin cockpit high wing monoplane in the works engineering department under the direction of Robert Wild (later to found a garage business). Harris Mills linen was used in the construction of aeroplane wings and parachutes. The article then goes on to mention that the monoplane was modified into a sand plane and that during 1920/21 Will Harris was a familiar figure at Allonby, racing his machine at low tide on the flat sands between Dubmill Point and Saltpans. See About & Refs.
1920s Castlegate Drive houses built. Kirkbank houses built by a Burnley firm for £816 per house. [Bradbury 192 Chapter 36 Houses and public buildings]
1924 Dec 23rd to Dec 29th Goat and Waterloo Street flooded
1927 a contract was made to supply electricity to the town and electric town lighting spread, but the town gas lamp lighter continued until after WW2 and the last gas lamp disappeared in the 1970s
1930s The North Eastern Housing Association built (new) Henry Street, the continuation of old Henry Street, note the difference between the old terraces and the new semi detached houses. At this time they build Harrot Road linking Henry Street with Fitz Road, and also Princes Road linking Henry Street with Fitz Road. They also built Kirkbank at this time. The council built the Windmill Lane estate, as far as Waste Lane in the late 1930s. Most of these houses were built as Council houses. [EC BB]
1930s North side of Vicarage Lane built.
1931 Nov 3rd Flood of Main Street High Sand Lane Waterloo Street Goat
1932 Dec 18th Flood Waterloo (Barrel) Bridge, High Sand Lane, Main Street ‘a foot from ceilings’
1932 Lorton Street Methodist church and hall built for £7,000, Methodists church in Market Street that had been built in 1841 was sold to Cockermouth Urban District Council for £325 and became the Town Hall. In September 1937 Keswick and Cockermouth Wesleyan Circuit and the Cockermouth Primitive Methodist Circuit became merged into one. [WoB p20]
1932 Demolition of Edward Waugh Memorial Clock tower (locally known as the Neddy clock) at the junction of Main Street and Station Road; was offset in the road and was acceptable for horses and carts, but in the age of the motor car in early 1900s it was a traffic hazard and was demolished in August 1932.
1934 The Wall Street Crash in New York in October 1929 caused world wide depression during the early 1930s. British exports declined by more than a third and unemployment rose to over 3 million. Tariff protection was brought in, in 1932 to relieve the situation, but recovery was slow and many British industries did not survive this period. Jonathan Harris and Sons was one of those industries and a small paragraph in the West Cumberland Times and Star dated June 9th 1934 depicts the closure of the once famous Derwent mills. [About & Refs Cockermouth.org.uk]
1936 Gote Bridge (Derwent Bridge) Two flood relief arches were built on the north side of the Gote Bridge with the intention of relieving flooding.
1938 July 29th Cocker destroys Waterloo (Barrel) bridge. Flood 3ft in Main Street. Quaker Bridge cracked. The Rotarians of Cockermouth opened a Flood Relief Fund and many houses were supplied with coal.
1940 Harris Park Crimea cannon re-melted for war 1940. Railings around Mayo removed for war effort.
1947 The North Eastern Housing Association built Dalton Street linking Henry Street with Brigham Road for Cockermouth Urban District Council.
1950
1950s Parkside Avenue houses north side completed. Slate Fell houses built and later expanded. [Bradbury 192] Isel Road used to be known as Park Lane because it led to the park land of Cockermouth Castle, but Park Lane was easily confused with Parkside Avenue so Park Lane was renamed Isel Road.
Park Lane was the old name for Isel Road but the name was changed to Isel Road because there were complaints
1954 Oct 29th Flood Waterloo Street, Goat. Flood prevention work particularly the increased bridge capacity, done just before World War II was believed to have prevented damage of the 1932 proportions above the Goat Bridge.
1954 Dec 2nd Flood of Derwent; Goat suffers
1960s Riverdale estate including Rose Lane, Low Scales Drive, Sunscales Avenue, Towers Lane built and Evening Hill estate built
1960 The Wordsworth Tavern and adjacent house demolished at Crown Street Sullart Street junction by Main Street to make Sullart Street wider.
1963 March Flood of Cocker damages the newly erected Waterloo (Barrel) Bridge
1964 Lorry demolished Mayo statue. Appletree Hotel not yet renamed Wordsworth Hotel
1964 Low Road railway goods station ceased operation but the local need for coal still required it to be delivered by lorry.
1966 August Tom Rudd Beck and Bitter Beck flood 50 houses
1966 April railway traffic ceased between Workington and Keswick but the line was not lifted until 1968.
1970 Highfield estate built above Windmill Lane estate [B192]
1974 Station Street Public Hall that had been built 1874-1876 was modernised in 1931 but ceased to be used by the 1950s. It was demolished in 1974 to make way for National Westminster Bank, which has since closed and the building converted into two fast food outlets.
1981 the bridge over the Derwent built by the Harris family to save their employees walking over Gote Bridge built in 1875 and called Harris Bridge (until Millers took over the factory in 1940 and it is now known as Millers Bridge). The original iron and wooden planked bridge was renewed in 1981.
1986 Manor Court Hotel ex Grecian Villa in Crown Street had been the private house of Thomas Wilson then Cockermouth Rural District Council for 20 years; Then the Cumbrian Fire Service used the building until 1986 for the Grecian Villa, now the Manor Court Hotel.
1988 Cockton’s Yard renovated and won Civic Trust House and Cottage Award
1990 Gable Avenue estate built in 1980-1990s. [B192]
2000
2005 January Flood of 261 properties
2008 October Flood of 45 properties
2009 November 9th Flood of 537 properties.
2013 June Flood Risk Management Scheme completed …
2015 December 5-6th 594 properties flooded
Main Street 46 Bank clock tower pre 1932 horse cart drivers stare at horseless vehicle c 1899 p1 note the 3 storey building later demolished for Lloyds
2021 November Cocker flood. Floating barrier saves Rubbybanks. Old Court House wall on verge of collapse.
2022 January 12th Environment Agency Completes Emergency Flood Works in Cockermouth
2024 October 4th Old Court House continues to fall into river Cocker, see update from Cockermouth.org.uk. Various explanations of possible reasons why nothing seems to have been done. Main Street closed to all traffic because an authority considered that Court House debris may fall into Main Street, so a covered walkway was constructed for pedestrians. Later the pedestrian tunnel was removed and one way traffic lights were installed but the pavement nearest to the Court House was blocked from pedestrians.
2025 April. All restrictions to traffic and pedestrians removed over Cocker Bridge. The rear of the building has mostly fallen into the river and debris obstructs the Cocker. A tree trunk is under the road bridge, obstruction to the flow of the Cocker is obvious. We await the next flood.
