| Summary : Remains of Gunpowder Works built by the Wakefield family to replace their works at Old Sedgwick (UID 1077948), and built/operational 1851-1936. It lines both banks of the Peasey Beck between Endmoor and Gatebeck. The factory was originally simply Gatebeck, but became Gatebeck Low Works after 1896 when new plant - Gatebeck High Works (1450452) - was erected on a virgin site to the north. In 1876 a tramway (1516560) was built connecting the works to a wharf (1516636) on the Lancaster Canal and to Milnthorpe railway station. The factory initially had its own sawmill, but in 1880 a separate cooperage/sawmill complex (1450456) was erected outside Gatebeck village; the old sawmill is still extant (1516535). In 1917 Wakefield's merged with the Nobel organisation which became ICI, but falling orders led to eventual closure. As required by law, many buildings were dismantled and/or burned to ensure no explosives remained. In WW2 the site was requisitioned by Army Engineers (1516753), and between 1956 and 1968 was used for Civil Defence Training (1516762). Although much of the works has since been redeveloped as two caravan parks and an industrial unit, surviving features at the southern end of Millbrook Caravan Park include two corning houses, stove house, glazing house, boiler house, four pairs of incorporating mills, two charge houses and a watch house; these are all scheduled. A weir and large mill race from which smaller leats ran to provide power for waterwheels and turbines within separate process buildings, also survives down the east edge of the Park but a stove house, mixing house, various refineries, workshops, cartridge-making facilities and magazines now survive only as buried remains in the redeveloped areas. A number of administrative/ancillary buildings, however, are still upstanding (1516452, 1516446, 1516473, 1516480) converted to domestic use at the site entrance; two pairs of charcoal retorts also survive here, reset as gateposts (1516653, 1516667). |
More information : SD 54 85. A Gunpowder Works was established at Gatebeck in 1850 by W H Wakefield and Company. This became their principal manufactory and their old mills at Old Sedgwick closed, although the incorporating mills at Bassingill were retained. Power for the mills was provided by the Peasey Brook which was used to turn waterwheels and turbines; this was supplemented by steam engines. The works had the earliest plant in England for manufacturing saltpetre from sodium nitrate. A notable survival on site are a number of iron charcoal retorts, which are the only known surviving examples in England.
The site has been redeveloped as caravan park. (1-1a)
Scheduled. (2)
Documented. Two pairs of charcoal retorts, the last surviving at a gunpowder works, are used as gateposts at SD 5489 8576 and SD 5434 8546. (3)
The works was built by John Wakefield III as a replacement for his existing factory at Old Sedgwick (SD 58 NW 41). Licence to build the works was granted in 1850, but (contra auth 1a) construction did not begin until late 1851. (Also contra auth 1a, the company did not become W H Wakefield until c 1866 when John Wakefield died). Although some gunpowder was produced in 1852, the factory only became fully operational from 1854 which is when Old Sedgwick closed.
As originally built, the works occupied a large river terrace on the left bank of the Peasey Beck between the settlements of Endmoor and Gatebeck. Although there is evidence for an earlier water-powered mill of some kind (SD 58 NW 87) on the site, Wakefield constructed a new 700m-long leat to power waterwheels and later water-turbines within the factory, fed from a weir opposite Gatebeck Farm; this discharged back into the earlier millpond and tailrace. At this time there were no incorporating mills at Gatebeck and green charges had to be transported by horse and cart to the company's exisiting mills at Basingill (SD 58 NW 35) 4 miles away, with ripe charges brought back for onward processing. However, c 1858-9, the headrace was extended by over 100m to the south and two pairs of mills built along it, with two more pairs added between 1881 and 1896. In 1859 or 1860 the factory also expanded across the river with new press houses and expense and powder magazines, and later a stove house and other buildings, erected on the right bank. Other changes include the construction of a saltpetre refinery in 1864 specifically to produce potassium nitrate saltpetre from the inferior sodium nitrate form by a process that became known as the Wakefield Process, and in 1875 the construction of a horse-drawn tramway (the Gatebeck Tramway; SD 58 SW 53) linking the various parts of the factory to the company's nearby wharf (SD 58 SW 54) on the Lancaster and Kendal Canal (LIN 126) and further afield to Milnthorpe railway station. In 1880 the company opened a new Cooperage complex north of Gatebeck Bridge on the site of a former foundry and bleachery (SD 58 NW 86), and converted the existing sawmill within the works into a Mechanics' Shop (SD 58 NW 93); this building is roofed and still stands in reasonable condition. Around the same time the company also started manufacturing blasting cartridges from new and converted buildings adjacent to the northern reaches of the headrace. By 1895 the cartridge presses may have been powered by pressurised water piped down to the factory from a new reservoir (SD 58 NE 09) the company built across the Fall Beck some 1.5km to the east.
By 1896 the company was busy erecting plant on a virgin site on the west bank of the Peasey Beck opposite the Cooperage complex, specifically to manufacture a range of specialist safety explosives that it was developing for use in mines suffering from 'firedamp'. The new site - termed the High Works (SD 58 NW 85) - opened in 1898, after which the existing factory became known as the Low Works. Initially the High Works was run by a subsidiary company known as Nitrate Explosives Co Ltd, but by the 1920s both parts seem to have been managed as a single enterprise.
Bretween c 1851 and 1914 the company erected a considerable number of terraced houses for its workforce in Endmoor and Gatebeck (see SD 58 NW **-** and SD 58 SW **-**). These have since been sold off and are now in private ownership.
In 1917 the Wakefield company merged with many of its rivals to form Explosives Trades, which itself soon became part of Nobel Industries Ltd; in 1926 Nobel Industries was absorbed into ICI. ICI invested in and modernised many aspects of the Gatebeck factory, but in 1936 took the decision to close the works in light of the continuing downturn in demand for gunpowder. By early 1937 the works had been stripped of anything saleable or salvageable and the process buildings burned as required by Board-of-Trade regulations to cleanse them of powder residues, and in 1939 the derelict site was sold. Much of the site was requisitioned by Army Engineers during World War II, and a series of surviving weapons pits and other features (SD 58 NW 97) are testament to this period of activity. However, between 1939 and 1950 the factory was broken down into lots and sold off for a variety of uses. Small parts of the Low Works adjacent to the road frontage west of the beck went for piecemeal housing development, while land on the east bank was leased between 1956 and 1968 by Westmorland County Council for Civil Defence Training (SD 58 NW 99); toilet blocks and, probably, a Nissen hut (SD 58 NW 98) are survivals from this period of use. This area plus the remainder of the Low Works are now occupied by an industrial site and two caravan parks (the latter called Gatebeck and Millbrook).
The surviving archaeology and buldings within Millbrook Caravan Park - namely: the scheduled area at the southern end of the park containing the ruins of four pairs of incorporating mills, a watch house, two charge houses, two corning houses, a glazing house, stove and other features; the area around the works entrance where a number of administrative and ancillary buildings (Foreman's House, stables, laboratory/tailor's shop/store and offices: SD 58 NW 88-91) converted to domestic use, and two pairs of charcoal retorts reset as gateposts (SD 58 NW 94 and 95), still stand; and a linear strip at the eastern edge of the park where much of the mill leat, albeit dry and in places infilled, together with elements of factory buildings along it, also survive - were investigated at a variety of scales and levels as part of the EH: Cumbrian Gunpowder Industry Project. See report (4a) and archive in the NMR for greater, in-depth information.
Although there are indeed two pairs or charcoal retorts reset as gateposts at the works, as per auth 3 (one pair at either end of the short access road into the factory), one of the sets of grid references cited actually relates to a third pair of retorts (SD 58 NW 96) reset at the entrance to the former Cooperage. (4)
Additional references. (5-6)
The gunpowder works are visible on air photographs, centred at SD 5433 8532 and were mapped as part of the National Archaeological Identification Survey: Upland Pilot. Most of the site is under dense tree cover or has been redeveloped by the latest 2011 vertical photography. Elements of Second World War training is visible on the site, but recorded separately (UID 1516753).
(7) |