Gote Road Cricket Ground Sandair Cousin Charley Carnival Festival
Gote Road Menu
Gote Road descends down Gote Brow at the top of the map, passes the turning to Papcastle at Goat Mills where today on the right side is James Walker factory, and Goat Mills on the right is Lawsons Haulage yard.
Sandair is the local name for the land enclosed by the curve of the Derwent river and today includes the land shown here as a tree nursery; this area is now Cockermouth Cricket ground. Carnivals and public events once took place here, as these accompanying photos show. A hydrogen filled balloon took off from here, I think that there may be an aerial photo on this website that was taken from the balloon.
The Lowther Arms Inn is not a private house and retains the attractive panel on the front of the house that once had the name painted on it. Goat Well and the stream Goat Dub are no longer evident. The road to Papcastle and buildings by the junction were demolished to widen the junction and a new bungalow built there. The building beside the word Spital of Spital Ing Lane had window openings without glass so the air could pass over the newly woven linen that was manufactured in Goat Mills by the Harris family before they built the Derwent Mills. On the bottom right corner is Bleach House naming unknown, though when the Derwent Mills was built by the Harris family, they continued to make linen from flax plant fibres and this cloth retains water from its manufacture so requires drying and photos on this site show the linen spread out on adjacent greens, to dry in the sun and perhaps to be bleached in the sun, perhaps thus giving the name of Bleach House to the building.
On the left bank of the Derwent is Fitz Mill that can be seen in the background of festivities on Sandair. This once had a weir with a fish pass but it was all demolished, though some of the large stone blocks can still be seen on the right bank in the undergrowth, past today’s fishing shed. This area used to be one of Cockermouth’s refuse disposal places, even though the river regularly washes over the surface. Photos of Fitz Mill show a chimney and further research may explain if the weir was for water supply rather than water power.
After one of the major floods of Cockermouth in recent times some “flood attenuation tanks” were built, one in Main Street at the cross road with Station Street and High Sand Lane, and another at the bottom of the Goat, approximately where the word Goat is printed in bold. One of the engineers working on this said the intention is to keep the tanks empty and catch a sudden increase so the water drainage system is not overwhelmed.
This map is from National Library of Scotland NLS 121144250 https://maps.nls.uk/view/121144250
1901 Cousin Charley’s Day.
Each year the Cockermouth town has a carnival. At the beginning of the century this was Cousin Charley’s Day. There was dancing and sports, and the day was rounded off with evening entertainments in the Drill Hall and the Public Hall. [Bradbury 31]
In 1901 an added attraction was a balloon. In this picture the hydrogen filled balloon (what could possibly go wrong!) floats above the crowd standing in what is now Cockermouth Cricket grounds. The factory behind is Fitz Mill on the left bank of the Derwent, originally water powered from a dam across the Derwent (see photos on this site) and later by a chimney. The factory and dam have been demolished but if you go through the overgrowth on the right bank you will see the large stone blocks that were removed.
Sandair (now Cockermouth Cricket ground) was the location. The significance which this carnival held in the life of a Cockermouth child is illustrated by the reply given to a schools inspector who asked which were the principal towns and what they were celebrated for, to receive the reply: “Carlisle was noted for its mills, Workington for its ironworks, Whitehaven for its collieries, Cleator Moor for its ore mines and Cockermouth for Cousin Charley’s Day.” [Bradbury chpt 25][32]
The Cockermouth Cricket Club leased Sandair from 1823 until 1989, when the club was able to purchase the 5-acre field for £25,000. [Bradbury chpt 40]
‘Cousin Charley’s Magazine’. The editor of ‘The Times’ around the turn of the century was Mr. Bleasdale, who included in the paper a children’s section written by him using the name ‘Cousin Charley’. The magazine was quite a bold venture, with stories, puzzles, jokes, anecdotes, how-to-make items, poems, etc., and was well illustrated with photographs of local children, festival queens, etc. Five shilling books were awarded as prizes for various types of contribution. In its Santa Claus Scheme the magazine made a positive effort to help poor children, organising collections of money and clothing to give Christmas parcels to poor and deserving children throughout West Cumberland, from Egremont to Wigton – new stockings, apple, orange, sweets, a Christmas card, to some a complete outfit of clothes. Cousin Charley arranged an annual concert in the Congregational Schoolroom after which the names of the children were called and they received their parcels. In 1900 over 830 pairs of stockings and more than 1000 articles of clothing were distributed, and also in this year tea was provided for 380 poor children in Workington, 260 in Cockermouth, 118 in Maryport and 140 in Whitehaven. [12]
The magazine first appeared in April 1899 and unfortunately had a short life. It cost little (a penny a month for 16 pages) and the regular feature ‘Cousin Charley’s Chat’ dealt continually with the magazine’s financial difficulties and small sales. Incentives were offered to those who gained new readers, but to no avail. Without increased sales it was not viable and to its producer’s great regret it finally’ disappeared with the issue of December 1901.
Bradbury chapter 23
Cockermouth Cricket ground on Gote Road is called Sandair. In 1901 a carnival locally known as Cousin Charley’s carnival has crowds attending for festivities, competitions and a hydrogen balloon flight.
The factory behind is Fitz Mill on the left bank of the Derwent, originally water powered from a dam across the Derwent (see photos on this site) and later by a chimney. The factory and dam have been demolished but if you go through the overgrowth on the right bank you will see the large stone blocks that were removed.
Sandair (now the Cockermouth Cricket ground) Cousin Charley’s Day with horses and riders held back by a rope – what was about to happen? Zooming into the original plate glass photo shows:
Children are in best uniform standing on raised tiers of platforms. The boys on the right seem to be in a uniform. The girls on the left under the bunting are all in white, seemingly holding posies of flowers.
In the centre is a large flag pole, but what is the flag, and is it a C or a G on the flag. This is likely Cousin Charley’s Carnival, the forerunner of Cockermouth Carnival.
The horses and their riders seem to be posing for the camera, with the centre two animals lying on their chest, not on their side, what are they? On the right is a boy on the pinto looking like a wild west rider. The bell tent at the back reminds me of Boy Scouts camps, and this one has a white horse with blinkers in front of it.
Observe the chimney on the right that was Fitz Mill on the inner bend of the Derwent, now demolished, the site accessed down the lane at the side of Lakes Home Centre car park.
Maypole dancing.
May Day was originally a festival to celebrate the arrival of spring. One of the traditional dances of this festival is the maypole dance, which involves a group of dancers circling a large pole with ribbons, and then wrapping these ribbons around it in different directions and patterns.
I remember doing this in Currock as a young lad, and the discipline and organisation is not to be under-rated. There were two teams around the maypole, facing in opposite directions, everyone holding a ribbon attached to the top of the maypole. When the music starts, we face the other team, then weave to the left then right of the other team, eventually back to where we started. The different coloured ribbons were thus intertwined and formed a pattern on the pole.
Now for the tricky bit, we turn around and reverse the dance, and if we all manage it correctly then we all end up with each of our ribbons fluttering from the top. However, if someone gets one left to right wrong, then there is a knotty problem to sort out! PN
Cockermouth festival. The stage is made of boards on beer barrels and the setting seems to be Harris Park with the slope of Grasmoor and Lorton valley behind. Perhaps the lady wearing the helmet is Boadicea and her attendants are on the stage, with the young children waiting on the grass perhaps wearing ballerina tutu costumes preparing to mount the stage to dance for Boadicea.
Another early festival was Cousin Charley’s parade that ended at Sandair, now the cricket ground.
Cockermouth festival at Sandair, now the cricket ground. Children perform on a stage made of boards on the grass.
Thank you, unknown person who donated this family photograph. A procession down Gote Road is easy to place – the terraced house on the right ends where the entrance to Sandair cricket ground is, perhaps this procession is either going to Sandair by a different entrance.
The children are in fancy dress and behind them, elevated above the processions, is the Queen of the festival sitting on her throne on the horse drawn wagon.
Note the pavement on the right is rounded cobbles, not the tarmac of today.
Gote Road, Cockermouth carnival or festival advertises Harris linen as it was made.
Linen was made from flax, not cotton, and other photos show the sheets of flax laid on the field beside Derwent Mills to dry and bleach in the sun.
A spinning wheel is beside the lady at the front of the horse drawn wagon, a quaint reminder of the process before the steam power and machines of Derwent Mill.
The vehicle (with its oil lamps for lights) carries a machine that processes rolls of linen. This early motor vehicle has registration N3772, surely one of the first commercial vehicles in Cockermouth.
On the left edge you can see the protruding roof of High Gote Mill, now Lawsons Haulage yard.
Gote Road Sandair Horse and cart with advert for JW Brandwood grocers of Main Street where Cockermouth Travel is now. In the background is the hill going left to Papcastle. One of the chimneys powered Fitz Mill on the left bank of the Derwent. The other chimney powered the pumping engine that forced water to the top of Tallentire Hill header tank and thus supply a head of water to Maryport.
