Stott Park Bobbin Mill - 15395-31087

Stott Park Bobbin Mill is a 19th-century bobbin mill and now a working museum located near Newby Bridge, Cumbria, England. Built in 1835 the mill was one of over 65 such buildings in the Lake District, which provided wooden bobbins to the weaving and spinning industry primarily in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The building is today owned and run by English Heritage.HistoryThe earliest part of the mill was built in 1835 by John Harrison, a local landowner who had earlier inherited Low Stott Park Farm including the land on which the mill was built. It is believed to be one of the few mills to have been specifically built for bobbin production as many other mills were converted from earlier structures. At that time there was a great demand for wooden bobbins from the ever-growing cotton and textile industry and the Lake District provided a perfect place for bobbin-making owing to its abundant natural resources: water for power and coppiced woodlands for the bobbins. Having built the mill as a speculative venture, Harrison and his successors let it out to a string of trustees.In the 1850s the mill was leased to members of the Coward family, who owned property at Skelwith Bridge near Ambleside and a bobbin mill at Crooklands near Kendal. The family expanded the mill, even when the bobbin industry was threatened by changes in technology and the Cotton Famine of the 1860s and many other Lakeland mills were closing. The construction of the Lakeside to Haverthwaite Railway in 1869, with a station less than a mile away, no doubt made Stott Park a more viable location than others.

Tags: History Museum