A mile to the east of the village of Lindale along the B5277 lies a group of houses and a farm known as Wilson House. Nearly 250 years ago this was the site of one of Cumbria's  ironworks, owned by some of the country's most well known figures in the development of the iron industry. It is now almost forgotten.

From Ordanance Survey 6" map, 1st Edition c.1851

In 1752 land tax returns for the township of Broughton East mention Isaac Wilkinson for the first time. This cooincides with his moving from the nearby Backbarrow Ironworks to Wilson House where he set up a works of his own. He also took on a water mill in Lindale and converted this to smooth the lower surfaces of the box irons he was manufacturing.

Articles on Isaac Wilkinson I've come across suggest he moved from Wilson House in 1853 or thereabouts to buy the Bersham Ironworks near Wrexham, later being joined by his sons John and William. However, in the 1770s James Watt acknowledged that John Wilkinson had built a Blowing Engine for Wilson House, based on a Watt steam engine, as well as for his more well known works at Bersham, Bradley and Willey. I can suggest two explainations - first the works at Wilson House were at work, with a blast furnace. Alternatively Wilkinson had actually installed the engine alsewhere but mislead Watt. The latter seems unlikely given that Watt had loose business connections in the area - certainly in the 1780s onwards.

Another, disputed, reference is given in Stockdale's Annals of Cartmel. Stockdale mentions that John wilkinson built his first iron boat at Wilson House and used it on the River Winster to bring peat to (unsuccesfully) fuel the works. No date is given although Stockdale claims it predated the 'accepted' first boat (a narrowboat). It was said to be sunk in nearby Helton Tarn, although attempts to find it have failed. Stockdale is written of by the 'experts' as a typical Victorian amateur antiquarian. However he did have access to much primary evidence. Amongst his family papers are letters from John Wilkinson describing the launch of the barge on the Severn. He was related by marriage to the Wilkinsons (William Wilkinson had married a cousin). Whilst a some of his writing is inaccurate - fanciful even - a lot is actually verifiable. And his inaccuracies tend to be due to misinterpretation or misunderstanding of events rather than the events being totally made up. I suspect that a pontoon, or similar, could have been built at Wilson House even if it was only used to bring peat for domestic fires!

John Wilkinson was later to acquire the nearby Castlehead estate and build the mansion still standing. He was of course later to be buried there - after several unsuccessful attempts, and then only for a while - before good taste had him moved to the churchyard in Lindale.

I've been unable to find any useful references to what went on at Wilson House, what the works looked like, how it was laid out etc. If you can point me to new information then please email me at l.gilpin@btinternet.com.