Stott Park Bobbin Mill

Stott Park Bobbin Mill stands beside a beck in the southern Lake District, near Newby Bridge. Built in 1835 by John Harrison on land once part of Low Stott Park Farm, it was designed from the start for making wooden bobbins. The mill once belonged to a network of over sixty Lake District workshops supplying Lancashire and Yorkshire’s weaving trade. Water from the beck turned a large wheel, while nearby coppiced woods supplied the raw material. After Harrison’s speculative venture, the Coward family leased the mill in the 1850s and kept it running through hard times. They bought it outright in the 1920s and ran it until 1971, when plastic bobbins ended the trade. The mill’s survival owes much to its power systems. A 24-foot water wheel drove the machinery until a turbine replaced it. In summer, a Bradley’s steam engine took over, burning waste wood from the workshop floor. Electricity arrived in 1941, but the original electric motor still powers the machines today. On selected weekends, the steam engine is fired up for visitors to see. High Dam reservoir, built to store water, is now a popular beauty spot in the national park. The mill’s industrial past is preserved as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, safeguarded since 1973. Inside, the workshop floors hold lathes and saws used to turn birch and sycamore into bobbins. Original hoppers and chutes guide the offcuts to the steam engine’s furnace. The site includes the manager’s office and the engine house, with its tall brick chimney. Outside, the beck still flows past the mill pond, and the surrounding woodland shows how the industry relied on local timber. The mill now belongs to English Heritage and runs as a museum, telling the story of Cumbria’s once-thriving bobbin trade.