Millbeck - a mill hamlet through time

Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, 20, 298-305
In 1958 Brigadier J.W. Kaye wrote an article for these Transactions about the woollen industry at Millbeck, north of Keswick. Using title deeds and the mill day books for 1830-1841, he identified the extensive nature of the mill complex, built from the late 1700s onwards, along with the products it made and where they were sent during its heyday. The authors were asked by the National Trust, which now owns part of the site, to identify remaining features of the mill complex and to undertake further historical research in order to provide a fuller picture of the site before, during and after the operation of the mills. With access to records not available to Kaye, the authors have been able to provide such a picture, particularly as regards the later years of the mills and the post-woollen mill years.