The Cotton Mill at Cark in Cartmel and its Steam Engines.

The village of Cark in Cartmel lies at the southern tip of Cumbria, close to the shores of Morecambe Bay. Over the years - up until the 1960s, this was an industrial village: starting with a Corn Mill owned by nearby Cartmel Priory together with a fulling mill which was probably privately owned.

Over the centuries various other water-powered enterprises were sited in the village on the site of, or adjacent to one of these original mills. Paper mills, a Hemp Mill, a forge and a Cotton Mill had their role in the history of the village. This mill was actually built on the site of an ancient mill dam, formerly proving water for the lower of Cark's two ancient mills. The river feeding into the dam was lowered to its current course, not only allowing the dam to be drained but also to give a greater head of water for the new mill waterwheel, which took its water from the tail race of the upper of the old mills (that still standing as a private house). Lowering the river also allowed the building of the 'Low Row' of mill-workers cottages on the flat former course of the river.

The Old Cotton Mill at Cark, circa 1885: from J C Dickinson, The Land of Cartmel

Between 1785 and about 1815 a Cotton Mill, belonging to Messrs. Thackeray Stockdale and Company operated in the village. This water-powered mill was one of the first in the country to be erected following the ending of Arkwright's patent on the 'Water Frame'. It was also one of the first Cotton Mills to use a Boulton and Watt steam engine, erected in 1786-7. This engine, as was typical in Cotton mills at the time, was used to pump water from the tailrace back into the mill dam, above the waterwheel.

The need for the Steam Engine (or Fire Engine as it was known at the time) was recognised early on. Joseph Thackeray and Joseph Ryder, the Manchester partners in the firm, wanted an inexpensive engine. Thackeray was long established in the Cotton trade and from 1783 had been spinning Cotton at his mill at Garret, on the River Medlock, in Manchester. In 1783 a Savery steam engine had been erected (by Wrigley of Manchester) to raise water from below the waterwheel at Garret to the headrace. in 1786 a further engine was erected there, this time an enormous Newcomen engine, by Bateman & Sherratt of Manchester, again to backfeed water. Previous authorities have suggested that Thackeray had intended a Newcomen engine for Cark. However, given the above evidence, I would suggest that he may have been proposing a much cheaper Savery engine.In the event James Stockdale I, the Cark partner ordered an engine from Boulton & Watt of Birmingham. Stockdale was a Merchant with many interests (shipping and iron being just two) and had had dealings with both Boulton and Watt over the years. Also he was a business partner in several ventures with his neighbour John Wilkinson, who was building B&W engines at the time.

In 1785, at the request of Watt, James Stockdale II sent this sketch to the Soho Foundry. It shows the proposed location of the steam engine in relation to the mill. It also indicates some of the cottages associated with the mill, proving them to have been built at this time.

Birmingham Central Library, Boulton & Watt Collection

In fact two further steam engines were erected, firstly in 1789 (following encouragement by James Stockdale I's friend John Wilkinson: it proved to be a failure) and then in 1790. This latter engine to the designs of Richard Bradley, engineer to Joseph Thackeray's Manchester Cotton mill (the Garret mill) was built by Messrs Bateman and Sherratt of Manchester. It drove the mill machinery directly and included several features still protected by a Watt patent. In 1796 Thackeray, together with several other patent 'pirates' were taken to law by Boulton and Watt and, for a while, this engine was stopped. Through family and personal connections the Stockdale family, who lived in Cark, were kept out of the case. Incidentally, similar engines were at work at the Garret mill and at the Minera mine of Messrs Wilkinson, Stockdale and Thackeray.

The engines remained at work for some years more, until the Cotton Company got itself into difficulties. Attempts were made to sell the Boulton & Watt engine in 1800 but it was still in situ when the mill was put up for sale in 1811. The Bateman & Sherratt engine appears to have been sold in a sale 1808. It was about this time that the mill was closed, probably due to one of the many depressions in the cotton trade at that time.

The mill remained unused until 1816 when a local farmer and miller, Edward Hall, purchased the buildings, together with several of the workers cottages. It was then used as a water-powered Corn Mill. In about 1912 it was sold to Messrs Dickinson who carried on the business (as well as training horses from stables at the mill) until a disastrous fire in 1935.

The steam engines gave their name to the nearby inn, originally the Steam Engine and now The Engine Inn. Ironically, it was here that Boulton and Watt's spy stayed when he came to see the Bateman & Sherratt engine. The mill itself is remembered in the houses standing on its site - Mill Close. Two of the five rows of mill-workers cottages and the Manager's house stand nearby. Also still standing, and recently restored as flats, is Cark House, home of the Stockdales.

Photo: L R Gilpin, 1998

This photograph shows what I believe to be the remains of the engine house for the Bateman and Sherratt engine, now much overgrown with ivy. Possibly one of the oldest surviving engine houses in Cumbria.

Photo: Grange Photograhic Society, Dodgson Collection

This photograph was taken by the Misses Slingsby of Grange following the fire at the mill building in 1935. It is an enlargement showing this building before the ivy had grown, when the chimney was a few feet higher than now.

The following photographs show the other side of the Bateman & Sherratt engine house and were taken from a point in front of the house in background of the above photograph.

Photo: L R Gilpin Collection

This photograph was taken on the day of the fire which destroyed the Mill in 1935. Note the fire hoses in the left foreground. The next photograph was taken in 1998 from almost the same viewpoint.

Photo: L R Gilpin, 1998

Note the engine house has been opened out to form a garage for agricultural machinery whilst the buildings to its immediate right have been replaced by a lean-too shelter for machinery. The chimney is about 5 feet shorter, having lost a brick extension. The building to the left, the tack room of Messrs Dickinsons in 1935, later became a cottage but didn't receive its second storey until the late 1990s.

The equipment within the mill was probably similar to that now preserved at the Helmshore Textile Museum in Lancashire.

Photo: L R Gilpin, 1999

This photograph showes half of a pair of Water Frames, with central drive wheel. The Helmshore pair are from Arkwright's Cromford mill and are probably contemporary with those used at Cark. These machines were probably built on site and therefore there would be detail differences in the construction. The example shown has 48 spindles whereas the Cark frames probably had 72 spindles each. There were in the order of 60 frames at Cark by 1808.

Photo: L R Gilpin, 1999

This carding engine is, again from Helmshore and originates from Arkwright's Cromford mill. There were 55 similar examples at Cark.

Photo: L R Gilpin, 1999

Cark had 12 drawing frames, probably similar to these contemporary examples at Helmshore, again from Arkwright's Cromford mill.

Photo: L R Gilpin, 1999

Newspaper records for the attempted sale of the mill from 1808 onward indicate equipment at Cark for the printing of cloth. If this was the case and some cloth was made at Cark then in all likelihood there would have been some hand-powered Spinning Jennies, similar to this example at Helmshore. Jennies were used to produce Cotton Weft whilst the Water frames were used to produce Warps.