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Howk Mill, Caldbeck
Howk Mill
site name:-   Whelpo Beck
locality:-   Howk
civil parish:-   Caldbeck (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   water mill
locality type:-   mill
locality type:-   bobbin mill
coordinates:-   NY31923976
1Km square:-   NY3139
10Km square:-   NY33


photograph
BOS80.jpg (taken 1.3.2008)  
photograph
BOS89.jpg (taken 1.3.2008)  

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 37 12) 
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
"Bobbin Mill"


photograph
BOS90.jpg  Plaque:-
"AD / 1857" (taken 1.3.2008)  
photograph
BOS91.jpg (taken 1.3.2008)  
photograph
BOS92.jpg  Coppice shed.
(taken 1.3.2008)  
photograph
BOS81.jpg  Weir, above the Fairy Bridge.
(taken 1.3.2008)  


photograph
BOS95.jpg  The mill lade was a wooden trough feeding a backshot waterwheel.
 

hearsay:-  
Howk Mill operated as a bobbin mill from 1857 to 1924. Hardwood felled round about was seasoned in the coppice shed. it was then debarked and sawn into bobbin roughs called 'cakes' which were turned into bobbins on a lathe. Wood came from woodland which had been coppiced earlier for charcoal making. As well as bobbins the mill produced other turnery - egg cups, handles for tools, washing dollies, etc.

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