Hawkshead Mill Stones - Hawkshead, Cumbria
N 54° 22.795 W 003° 00.210
30U E 499772 N 6025792
The old mill, just north of Hawkshead, is now a boat building yard. The stream fed a mill pond which is still extant. There are three stones on display.
Waymark Code: WMGB0T
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/08/2013
Views: 3
Before being used by the current boat builders, the mill was a sawmill. And presumably before that a mill for grinding grain. There are three millstones on view. Two are built in to the walls, one is loose propped up against the barn between the old mill and Sawmill Cottage.
All three are visible from the road.
Walk round the buildings to see them all. Rather than being made of one continuous piece of stone, the grinding stones appear to be several smaller stones held in place by an iron band. The gap between pieces appear to be where the ground grain ran out.
Above the old mill and cottage is the mill pond, fed by a small stream, which becomes Black Beck as it flows past the village, further downstream.
Hawkshead Mill is mentioned in 1687, as the location of a legal proceeding by a couple.
quote:
"In 1687 there was a dispute as to suit to Hawkshead Mill between John Copley and Beatrice his wife on one side and Edward Braithwaite on the other."
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A guide book "A Complete Guide to the English Lakes" by Harriet Martineau of nearby Ambleside, published by John Garnett, Windermere, then in Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-71. On page 220, "Coward, William, miller, Hawkshead Mill" is mentioned.
Patersons Boat Builders (
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