Stott Park Bobbin Mill

: Newby Bridge

A working mill built in 1835, Stott Park created the wooden bobbins vital to the spinning and weaving industries of Lancashire. It is now a small Visitor Attraction with guided tours, steam weekends and a gift shop selling bobbin related products.

Stott Park Bobbin Mill
image of the exterior of Stott Park Bobbin Mill near Newby Bridge in the South Lakes

Typical of mills across Cumbria, today you can see industry from a bygone age and watch as bobbins are made using the mill’s original machinery. Although Stott Park worked continuously until 1971, it remains almost identical to its Victorian appearance of 100 years ago.

Everything is driven by belts
image of belts which drive machinery in the interior of Stott Park Bobbin Mill near Newby Bridge in the Lake District

With its Victorian machinery originally powered by a waterwheel and steam engine, Stott Park used birch, ash and sycamore to make wooden tool handles as well as bobbins. The mass of belts which fill the building still drive the cutting, boring and finishing machines than turn long thin poles into bobbins.

You can watch a bobbin being made, and take it home as a souvenir.

Lathe for making bobbins at Stott Park Bobbin Mill
image of lathes for making bobbins in Stott Park Bobbin Mill near Newby Bridge in the Lake District
Within the mill grounds is a coppiced ash tree of considerable size, with ten main trunks. Coppicing gives a regular supply of wood, and prolongs the life of the tree, giving new growth at the base rather than the top of the tree. Much of the woodland of the Lake District was once managed in this way.

The site is in the care of English Heritage

The resident curators give guided tours lasting 45 minutes, and demonstrations. Tours start at 10.30 am and are repeated at half past the hour, every 60 minutes.

See Opening Hours and Admission for 2018 (external link)