- Details
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 08 December 2020 19:36
- Written by GRAHAM BROOKS
INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
BRIDGES These have date stones either commemorating the building of the original bridge or alterations. They tend to list the Architects, Engineers, and builders along with the local diginitaries of the time if in an urban setting.
INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS. hese usually show the date of building along with the original owners and occasionally also local dignitaries if it is associated with a local council.
BANKS. Most banks like to make a statement. It was usually one of the most impressive buildings in the High Street and were usually architect designed.
SHOPS. Many shops have a date stone on them telling when the original building was built.
HOUGHTON
SOUTHWAITE BRIDGE, COCKERMOUTH
The main road over the railway in central carlisle. Red Granite.
Viaduct on the Newcastle to Carlisle railway carrying the railway over the River Gelt. The plaque is on the pillars under the bridge. One side (opposite) is in English the other has the same inscription but in victorian latin. The bridge crosses the River Gelt and also two minor roads.
Three tirth foot spans 64 feet high at a 63o skew (said to be an early example of a skew bridge)
The engineer was Francis Giles. (see also Wetheral Viaduct and Warwick Bridge) The builder was John McKay.
See also the small road bridge (Middle Gelt Bridge)
WETHERAL VIADUCT (CORBY BRIDGE)
This viaduct carries the Newcastle to Carlisle railway over the River Eden between Great Corby and Wetheral.
On the walls at the Wetheral station end of the deck are the above two stones commemorating the laying of the foundation stone by Henry Howard of Corby. There appears to be a need for putting a stone up with the inscription in victorian latin.
This stone in the middle of the viaduct opposite the attached footpath commemorates both the engineer Francis Giles (see also Warwick Bridge) and the builder William Denton.
stones set into the parapets of this road bridge. Again the victorian latin version is present.
The Carlisle Journal 7th January 1832 carried a report on the Cumberland Quarter sessions held earlier in Carlisle during which the subject of the condition of the bridge at Warwick Bridge came up. It was reported that part of the foundations had given away and the bridge was dangerous to cross. The old bridge had such a steep incline on it that it was impossible to see across the bridge from either side and that due to its narrowness that it was difficult for two coaches to pass without damaging the parapets. Mr Howard of Corby Castle had written to suggest a new bridge should be built as this was not the first time the old bridge had needed repair and a considerable sum of money had been spent over the years. Mr Giles the railway engineer had also been asked by Mr Dixon to inspect the bridge and he considered it unsafe and unlikely to withstand ice formation on the river. The justices decided to get designs for a new bridge.
The Carlisle Journal carried and advert for stone masons to build a new bridge of 3 segmental arches, the centre was to be 80ft span and the 2 side ones 75 feet. the roadway was to be 25ft.
The Journal of the 30th June 1832 carried a letter from A Friend to the Economy complaining that the magistrates had no right to replace a bridge because it was to narrow and he declared that although the route was at present busy as soon as the railway (Newcastle to Carlisle) opened it would revert to a local byway if the claims of the railway company were true. He stated that the bridge could be repaired for £450 and would last 30 to 40 years if no accidents occurred. this was in comparsion to the estimated cost of a new bridge of £6 - 7000 an unnecessary expense on the rate payers of the county.
COWGILL BRIDGE DENTDALE
A stone to commemorate the repair to this bridge and more importantly who paid for the repairs. This was often a fraught subject in the 16th to 20th century when counties were responsible for some bridges and individual parishes were resonsponsible for others. This one was obviously the responsiblity of the county.
Stone in West Parapet. Stone in East Parapet.
Date of 1855. Unfortuneately it appears on the river side of the north parapet and is therefore not easly seen. Has the stone been repalced the wrong way round at some time?
A tablet to commemorate the widening and rebuilding of the bridge 1907/08.
A tablet commemorating the re-building in 1898.
HOUGHTON BRIDGE.
A tablet commemorating in 1890 mason R Armstrong from Gilsland.
A tablet showing Threlkeld Fieldhead bridge built in 1906. A single arch bridge'
WHITEHAVEN HARBOUR WATCH TOWER.
WILLOWHOLME POWER STATION, CARLISLE
CARLISLE, WILLOWHOLME POWER STATION
COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE ON THE REMAINING BUILDING OF CARLISLE POWER STATION AT WILLOWHOLME CARLISLE.
return to list
CARLISLE CITY WATER WORKS VALVE HOUSE UPPER GELTSDALE
Inscription reads CC 1906 (CC = Carlisle City)
NY 52388 14662.
West Ward is part of Cumbria so this plant must have been for local use, although. it is near to the Haweswater system that provided water to Manchester
The door lintel on a small building at this cotton mill in Dalston.
This stone is on the miller's house at Warwick Bridge. The Lion is for the Howard family. the mill was part of the Howard of Corby Castle estate.
In 1790 the three brothers John, Richard and George Ferguson leased from Philip Howard of Corby Castle land at Langthwaite farm with the right to build a mill, waterwheel, mill race, sluice and weir with exclusive right on the Cairn Beck and also use of the Trout Beck. The initial rent was £9 for the first 21 years and then £24.
They built a 700yd mill race from the Cairn Beck and the mill opened in 1793 and the mill had 443 spindles and was producing 800lds of yarn. The site also had dyehouses and warehouses. Unfortunately on the 8th of August 1793 the mill was destroyed by fire. Luckily it was insured with the Phoenix insurance Co. and it was rebuilt.
The new building was 66ft by 33ft of 3 storeys and an attic with the waterwheel on the south gable.
To protect their water supply and also to obtain further land the brothers took a lease in 1798 of Langthwaite farm. They had the right to construct a reservoir on the land between the mill and farm. A race from the trout beck was eventually built in 1806 with strict control so that the water flow to the Howards corn mill was not interrupted.
In 1809 the Ferguson brothers sold their lease to their brother in law Peter Dixon and his sons John, Peter and George for 7 years. This was extended for another 22 years from 1815. This lead to a rapid development with the building of a 4 storey and attic extension, cottages, and the reservoir was built.
A new water wheel was erected in December 1815. It was mainly cast iron with a diameter of 23 ft and 10ft breadth. Designed by Mr Joseph Hornsby of Bolton and castings were by Messrs Porter. It was situated between the 2 mills and supplied power to both mills.
It is obvious that the water supply to the mill was an on going problem with alterations to the weir and mill race being made and negotiations with the land owners the Howards to secure the supply. However in 1832 a steam engine was installed. This was supplied by Peel, Wiliams and Peel’s Soho Works, Manchester. At the same time the machinery in the mill was improved with the fitting of Danforth Throstle spinning machines from Sharp, Roberts and Co of Manchester. Carding machines and a drawing frame were supplied by Jenkinson and Bros of Salford.
The Dixon Brothers also started building their large mill in Shaddongate, Carlisle and as it was nearing completion in 1836 they tried to dispose of the mill. The sale notice describes the forth coming Newcastle to Carlisle railway. The factory consisted of dyehouses for 130 vats, bleach house, 34 cottages, gas house and accommodation for a steam engine. However this sale failed and the Dixons stayed on.
By 1844 they had built another row of cottages and a school for 150 children.
From time to time the under-lease was renewed, but business suffered with the American Civil War, and in 1872 the partners were declared bankrupt on their own petition.
A joint stock company, Peter Dixon & Sons Ltd, was floated almost at once, and on 20 January 1873 it purchased Langthwaite Mill with all its engines and machinery at a cost of £13,000. Although the mill itself stayed idle, the adjoining dye and bleach works, containing over 300 iron dyeing vats and 17 indigo mills, driven by a condensing engine, a waterwheel and two turbines, were fully employed on finishing work for the firm’s Carlisle factories which the company had also acquired. The company surrendered the lease in 1885, having ceased to trade two years earlier, and in 1888 the property was sold to Messrs William Waddell & Son, woollen manufacturers from Otterburn who had a mill close by at Heads Nook. They were succeeded by William Wadell & Son until 1970.
Squared red sandstone rubble walls, slate roof and slated wooden bellcote. 3 storeys, plus attic and 9 bays to original mill (1790 and 1793) and spinning mill (1814) of 4 storeys, plus attic and 11 bays: straightforward factory building of the Industrial Revolution, originally water powered. Plain surrounds to windows with C19 cast iron frames and glazing bars: 20th Century loading bays cut through 2 windows in spinning mill and end bay covered by 4 storey projecting lift shaft. Arch under spinning mill gives water access to original wheel position. Converted to steam in 1832. Walls secured by plates and ties. Bell still in bellcote, surmounted by weather-vane with initial F (Ferguson) and 1791 cut through. Internal cast-iron columns between floors. Although completed in 1791, Langthwaite Mill was gutted by fire on 8 August 1793 and had to be rebuilt: ceased production in 1883 and reopened as a woollen mill, re-named Otterburn Mill in 1888: continued as such until the late 1970's, when it was sold to be split into separate units.
Date stone on the buildings at Lowood Gunpowder works.
Dated sundial on watch tower whitehaven harbour.
Rock carved date and the more offical plaque commemorating the opening of Thirlmere dam.
Jane Pit, Workington. Date stones on engine house and chimney.
Titus Wilson printing works Kendal.
Part of the 2nd world War effort. foundry to produce munitions away from German attack. Now a scrap yard.
A smithy is shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map, 1898. on this site. now part of the more modern garage.
One capital has initials CMH (Howard) other roman numerals for 1833 Built to represent Vulcans forge.
2 short columns with free capitals round moulded arch, considered by Pevsner to have been taken from a 1200 church.
The works of Samuel Gawith & Co. Ltd. 'The Kendal Brown House' specialist snuff and tabacco makers since 1792.
Clints mill in the centre of Penrith initials and date cast into iron door lintel.
Managers house at Milnthorpe Gas works. Only right gable is original. opened in 1860 it was one of the last coal gasworks in the country.
Row of shops High St. Sedbergh
The building is dated 1888, although the Society was formed as an independent Society in 1873. It amalgamated with the Naworth Society in 1897. the store closed in 1965 and was converted to private housing.
There is a seond date stone on the building between the first floor windows. 
Presumably this refers to the building that was on the site prior to the post office.
A row of victorian shops at the end of Stramongate Kendal.
HOTELS
2* Listed building possibly originally a pair of houses. 3 storey and 5 bays date and inscription above window to left of door. wet dashed rubble with plinth and eaves.
Either side of the front door steps are milestones
The third set of railway builldings to be built at Ulverston.
LONDON ROAD GOODS SHED.
The Midland Railway Company built a new goods shed on the site of the original London Road Station from the opening of the Newcastle to Carlisle railway.
It was quite common for new adits etc. to be crowned with a stone with the date on it in which the level was driven.
Adit on river bank below the old plaster mill at Long Meg Gypsum Mines. Dated as 1895.