Backbarrow Mill Sluice, Backbarrow, Cumbria
N 54° 15.482 W 002° 59.375
30U E 500678 N 6012230
The former mill in Backbarrow is now the Whitewater Hotel and time share. This feeder channel is still in use and the sluice still works. There is no longer a turbine on this feeder.
Waymark Code: WMA8B3
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/01/2010
Views: 3
The mill has an extensive history, some of which is told in nearby Lakeland Motor Museum. In Tudor times there was a corn mill here, run by the monks of Cartmel Priory. A fulling mill and paper mill followed before the structure we see today was built as a cotton mill, which employed child labour. A Parliamentary commission investigated the employment of orphan children in 1816 at this mill. All these mills used the river Leven's power with turbines eventually coming from local Kendal firm Gilkes and Gordon. The last company to use this mill was Reckitt and Coleman.
The mill closed in 1980s and was redeveloped in to time share units and hotel.
Links
Backbarrow's Industrial History
The White Water Holiday Village now