Sparket Mill, Cumbria
N 54° 37.763 W 002° 52.388
30U E 508190 N 6053557
Sparket Mill is still working but does not produce any goods. The current owner is preserving the workings. The wheel still turns and could drive the stones. Grade 2 listed building.
Waymark Code: WMC59C
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/27/2011
Views: 4
There is a public footpath which takes you across the foot of the garden, and the wheel is plainly visible from the path. A mill has stood on this site since 1311, and there may have been a Roman mill here before that. In its heyday up to 1950, the mill ground cereals. In the final days of its working life (1954 - 1974), the power was used for a saw bench. All trace of the sawing have gone. The wooden mill gears and stones are still inside and the mill could grind cereals but the mess would take too long to clear up. Dust and fine powder everywhere.
The water comes from a weir over a mile away and is held in small pond before release down a modern tube. The valve was replaced recently.
The grain needed to be dried before grinding. There is a coke oven heating a drying floor with ceramic honeycomb tiles which let the heat through but stop grain falling.
Grade 2 listing