Gote Road Spital Ing Lane The Hospice

Streets Menu

The Gote area.

Spital Ing Lane leads to (Low) Gote Mills (corn) which powered the Harris family flax and corn mill. Where the word Spital is, the house on the right was built as a drying shed by the Harris family who started their business in Low Goat Mill (on the left).

The Harris family came from Ireland and their business was in the production of linen, converting flax into linen and they dried it in what we know as the Hospice. Linen was the common clothing material. Eventually the Harris family built Harris Mill, which was powered by coal and steam and built a bridge across the Derwent for their workers. Later a firm from Yarmouth called Millers took over the buildings so the building and bridge became known as Millers.

Low Goat Mills (corn) and is now where Lawsons Haulage operate from. At the entrance to their haulage yard is the three storey mill building and a protruding upper shed where pulleys brought the sacks of grain. This was powered by the mill race that ran from the Derwent past the bend opposite the castle, the remains can still be seen with an explanatory display board.

On the Papcastle Road is Low Goat Mill, powered by the same mill race from opposite the castle. The water wheel at the Low Goat Mill on the Papcastle road has been refurbished and is displayed outside the mill building which is now dwellings.

Back Lane leads to Derwentside Gardens housing.

A sketch from Bradbury is based on a map of “Land belonging to Goathouse” 1727, shows High Gote Mill and Low Gote Mill and the leat water channel supplying them.

Click for zoomable map from the National Library of Scotland: https://maps.nls.uk/view/229913841

At the bottom of Gote Brow, opposite today’s James Walker factory, is this lane called Spital Ing Lane. The lane leads to Low Gote Mill, once powered by a water wheel that is now embedded at the side of the renovated building.

The channel of the mill race started opposite and further round the bend from Cockermouth Castle, along the riverside path from the footbridge over the Derwent. The sluice gate that allowed the water to flow down the channel remains and has an explanation board beside it. Another explanation board opposite the outflow of river Cocker explains about controlling the flow that powered High Gote Mill (now Lawsons Haulage) and Low Gote Mill which was owned by the Harris family.

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. 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. [chpt 32 p257]

Was it a Hospice?

By the early 1200s there were at least 11 monasteries and nunneries in Cumbria, whose story must be sought elsewhere. In 1233 the Dominican or Black Friars settled in Carlisle and there is a tradition that they founded in Cockermouth the hospice of St. Leonard about 1285, hence the reference “add caput ville versus capeUa sancti Leonardi.” [1]. A hospice was a rest house and place of prayer for travellers, especially before undertaking a dangerous part of a journey. The small building in Spittal Ings referred to as ‘the hospice’ was in fact an early 19th century industrial building, but it may indicate that the hospice was close by, especially as just south of this site a beck was once crossed by ‘Black Friars Bridge’ (Fig. 63). A hospice here would be near the crossing of the Derwent or, if the Derwent did once flow through the site of Walker’s factory, would be between crossings of the Derwent and Cocker. The old station site was called St. Leonard’s and the name is perpetuated in St. Leonard’s Close east of the Gote. [chpt 26 p204]

The “Hospice”

In 1975, Cumbria County Council issued the St Leonards Hospice Compulsory Purchase Order and took over the property for preservation. This small building, 33½ feet by 17 feet, thus became public property.

Of two storeys, it is built of rough squared sandstone with dressed quoins and surrounds to the openings. [38] The fact that the ‘windows’ appear to have been shuttered rather than glazed supports the opinion that it dates from 1810-1820 as a flax drying shed – “an interesting piece of industrial archaeology and relating to the former textile industry of Cockermouth”. [39] It was used as a joinery store in 1971 and when taken over was in a very bad condition. The Council partially restored the building and temporarily blocked the openings to ensure preservation. (Fig. 63). In 1985, with the addition of some adjacent land and a better approach, it was converted into St Leonards House. [Chpt 36 p299]

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]

Bradbury chapter 32 Industrial sites

Gote Road Spittle Inn Lane “The Hospice” built by the Harris family as a drying place for their linen.

Gote Road Spital Ing Lane.