OTHER MILLS ON THE CAIRN BECK.

This article was in the newsletter of 17th June 2026. If you would like to know more about the mills history, the goings on, new products or outlets sign up t the newsletter on the website.

At present the water supply for the mill comes from the Cairn Beck. This has its source at Cairnhead, an area of boggy ground between Ainstable and Croglin. There is no direct flow from the Pennine escarpment. Within two kilometres of its source the beck is powering its first mill, Gateshaw Mill. At present little is known about this mill with nothing recorded in the accounts for the Howards of Naworth Castle the Overlords of the Manor.

The next mill is Carlatton Mill. Now this does have a recorded history. It has an early record from 1251 when it is stated that the two mills at ‘Karlaton’ returned 109 shillings.-,It was later part of the holdings of the Howards of Naworth Castle, and appears in their estate accounts with the earliest mention in January 1613 when 16d was paid for a door. It was not only a corn mill but also a walk mill. A walk mill was used to wash and felt woollen cloth after it had been woven. This was achieved by soaking in water whilst been pounded by wooden hammers powered by a waterwheel.

The next two mills were both textile mills, the first was in the valley below Heads Nook. This mill appears to have a long history, first as a walk mill, and it later became Glencairn Mill. The next mill is the large cotton mill in Warwick Bridge. Dating from the 1790s it was a cotton spinning mill, and later became part of the Otterburn Mill Company and operated as a woollen mill.

The next mill is ours and in medieval times there were two mills, one for each of the manors of Little and Great Corby. In the 17th and 18th century the mill had two waterwheels. But this was not the last. Below our mill and before the Cairn reaches the Eden it flows around the side of Holme Eden. This is the large house that was built by Peter Dixon, of Dixon’s Chimney in Carlisle fame in 1837. The buildings on the other side of Little Corby Road opposite the mill, were a small farm and a walled garden. One of these buildings was a water powered saw mill, it was powered by an undershot waterwheel stated as being of six horse power.

So one little beck in North Cumbria has provided water power for nearly 800 years at least. It has powered not only corn mills but saw mills and textile  mills. There is still a lot of research to be done into these other mills. Also there is a possibility that the early Warwick Bridge Corn Mills were not powered by the Cairn Beck, but from the Trout Beck. The Trout Beck now joins the Cairn Beck just below the weir, next to the new COOP store, from which our present water supply is drawn. Again more research is required.