Bobbin Mill, Hawkshead Hill, Cumbria - Water Mills on Waymarking.com

Depending on what product was paying well, meant the mill produced for that market. When cotton was king and demand for bobbins was insatiable, the mill used the wheel's power to turn wooden bobbins. Previously when wool was dominant the mill was a fulling mill.
Thurs Gill, the water source, at this point enters a steep natural ravine, by cascading over a rock band.

In 1914 edition of the Victoria County History, the bobbin mill is stated as "a bobbin factory at Thursgill stopped owing to the bursting of a dam and was not restarted" (visit link)

The wheel could still turn but is tethered.

Grade 2 listed building (visit link)

Holiday Rental (visit link)

1896 photo (visit link)

Mannix & Co., History, Topography and Directory of Westmorland, 1851 mentions a bobbin mill owned and run by Mr W F Walker at Hawkshead Hill.

Published in 1899, "HAWKSHEAD: (THE NORTHERNMOST PARISH OF LANCASHIRE) ITS HISTORY, ARCHEOLOGY, INDUSTRIES, FOLKLORE, DIALECT BY HENRY SWAINSON COWPER, F.S.A. mentions

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runs in a deep ravine a beck, and this was formerly dammed to feed a bobbin mill at Thursgill, below Hawkshead Hill. Years ago, however, the dam burst, flooding the gill below, and causing considerable destruction, and as the dam was never repaired the bobbin industry here came to an end. The mill still stands, however, a most picturesque building, placed at the head of a singularly deep and romantic ravine, bearing the curious name of Thursgill. This extraordinary spot is little known, for the drop is so abrupt, that from a short distance there is but little indication that a ravine exists at all. Thursgill occurs, in the parish register, as the scene of a drowning case, but the entry does not tell us the cause of the occurrence.

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Current Status: Still In Use Current Use: Holiday Rental

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