More information : SD 51 87. In 1764 John Wakefield established a Gunpowder Works on the river Kent 5km south of Kendal. The works closed in 1850. The site is now occupied by housing and no traces of the mills remain. (1-1a)
The works was built by John Wakefield and partners on the left bank of the River Kent at SD 509 873, close to Sedgwick village. In the archaeological and historical literature, it is now normally known as the Old Sedgwick Gunpowder Works although it was never called this during its lifetime. Contrary to the dates given by authority 1a, it operated between c 1768 and 1852, when the Wakefield family - who by then owned the business outright - transferred operations to new premises at Gatebeck (SD 58 NW 34) following the expiry of the lease of the Sedgwick site. From 1819 until closure, the works imported most of its raw materials and exported much of its product through a nearby wharf (SD 58 NW 50) on the Lancaster and Kendal Canal (LIN 126), where a possible magazine or store building survives (SD 58 NW 51)
The works was constructed around a hamlet known as Lakerigg Mill, which comprised a watermill and weir (SD 58 NW 44 and 45), several cottages (SD 58 NW 47-9) and a tithe barn (SD 58 NW 46). The partners built a new leat some 400m long down the centre of a narrow river terrace below the weir, and laid out their new works either side of it incorporating the existing cottages and barn which remained standing. However, the site was constricted, and in 1790 the Company could only expand its manufacturing capacity by building extra incorporating mills on a separate site about 0.5km downstream at Basingill (SD 58 NW 35); this outstation continued in use as part of the Gatebeck operation after the Old Sedgwick site closed. Henry Bainbridge made an abortive attempt to re-open Old Sedgwick in 1857, but shortly afterwards most of the buildings seem to have been demolished.
There are few obvious traces of the works surviving today. It is likely that the original steam-boiler house - which provided hot water for the stove house - still survives, incorporated within the modern Garden Cottage (SD 58 NW 48), but all other buildings known from 19th-century plans of the works have either been totally obliterated or only survive as very slight earthworks in the modern pasture fields and gardens of residential properties. Stretches of the leat are also still traceable as a broad shallow depression in the northern half of the site.
Surveyed at 1:1000 scale as part of the EH: Cumbrian Gunpowder Industry Project. See plans and report (2a) in NMR for full details. (2)
Additional information on Old Sedgwick is to be found in the EH survey report on the Gatebeck Low Works. Contra authority 2a, the Old Sedgwick works continued operating alongside Gatebeck for a few years after 1852 until the new factory was complete, and did not finally close until 1854. The Gatebeck report also contains a short appendix discussing a 1796 plan of the Old Sedgwick works recently relocated at Kendal Records Office, and other new information on the works' accident record. (3)
Additional references. (4-5) |