1863 Lorton Road Vicarage Lane Cemetery Tannery Little Mill

Click for zoomable map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/229913838

Start at the top left of the map in 1863. The only road out of Cockermouth was the one at the top left corner marked Skinner Street that went over Tom Rudd Beck at Poorhouse Bridge, and then gave access to the Tannery and to Little Mill and the much bigger Tannery with the Aqueduct and Weir and Foot Bridges and Mill Dam obviously a significant area of industrial activity (and pollution of Tom Rudd Beck by the tannery effluent).

But Cockermouth was growing, a railway line with its telegraph appeared and the growing town needed a new Cemetery. So a new road was built that was elevated not only above Tom Rudd Beck but carried on over the new railway and along what is now known as Lorton Road. If you drive down Lorton Street, cross the Cocker, you are now on Victoria Road and at the top of the incline, before the road bends sharp right, you will notice Skinner Street on the right; go down it and you will see the archway under Lorton Road that would lead to the old tanneries. Continue to where Skinner Street meets Lorton Road look to the right to Tweed Mill Lane, the name is a clue for the little that remains, a warehouse that is difficult to identify.  Continue on Lorton Road and you will soon cross the line of the old railway, now a footpath greenway. On the left is the Cemetery and on the right is now called Vicarage Lane but on this map in 1863 it was called Papermill Lane. The Parsonage is now named The Old Vicarage, a new All Saints Vicarage was built in the grounds.

Mill Dam powered Little Mill, off Skinner Street, marked as a corn mill but later a wood mill.  Little Mill may be the one referred to in the St Bees records of the 12^th C

Poorhouse Bridge was the site of the first workhouse, the later one being between Sullart Street and Gallowbarrow.

Note that at the top of map below Railway text is Electric Telegraph; was there a manual semaphore system before the electric version?