Holme Head and Dalston Following the River Caldew

2 1 River Eden Scottish Border Holme Head and Dalston Catchment Area N 3 following the River Caldew a walk with cotton and corn mills, a salmon-ladder, an historic village, and woodland rich with birdlife SOLWAY FIRTH BRAMPTON written and designed by ECCP tel: 01228 561601 CARLISLE R i 4 v ARMATHWAITE e r E d e n NORTH PENNINES LITTLE SALKELD AONB 5 M6 PENRITH APPLEBY LAKE DISTICT NATIONAL PARK SHAP BROUGH KIRKBY STEPHEN 6 Howgills © Crown copyright. All rights reserved 7 Licence no. 10000 5056 (2007) 08/07/2k 8 9 weir at Holme Head Ferguson Mill and weir 2 Holme Head and Dalston following the River Caldew “Adown the stream where woods begin to throw Their verdant arms around the rocks below, A rustic bridge across the tide is thrown, Where briars and woodbine hide the hoary stone, A simple arch salutes th’ admiring eye, And the mill’s clack the tumbling waves supply.” Susanna Blamire, a Dalston poet who lived 1747-1794. From the southern end of Bousteads Grassing, cross the footbridge over the River Caldew. The unusual building straight ahead of you – at the corner of Denton Street and North Street – is the coffee-tavern and reading-rooms built by Ferguson Brothers for its employees in 1882. It stands at the end of Bridge Terrace, a row of terraced houses built by the firm of spinners, weavers, bleachers, printers and finishers in 1852. The gardens in front of the Grade II-listed houses were once home to the company’s bowling green. Turn left to pass Bridge Terrace on your right, followed soon after by The Bay public house. 3 The Bay pub was once the home of Ferguson Brothers’ works manager. Most of the mill buildings in the area have now been converted into homes. The company moved to the site in the 1820s, although the buildings are thought to date from about 1800. The Bay itself was built in 1864 to regulate the flow of water into the mill-race, which the factory used both as a source of power and in some of its production processes. The factory, later run by Coats- Viyella, closed in 1991. A fish-ladder has been built at the weir here to enable salmon, returning after their epic swim across the Atlantic from Greenland, to return to their breeding-grounds along the river. Guided by the chemistry of the water, and having lived in the sea for up to four years, most salmon return to the same river in which they hatched from eggs. Visitors to Holme Head may catch sight of the salmon as they attempt to leap up the weir - before they find the ladder. They can be seen between October and December, especially just after a period of flood. salmon 4 Just beyond the weir, you can choose to follow the path beside the river or bear right at the fork to keep on the surfaced cycleway. This soon swings left and goes through a complicated-looking metal gate. In very wet weather the cycleway provides an easier route to Dalston. From the cycleway, you can see a wildlife pond to the right, and, in the distance, Carlisle’s award-winning cemetery which cyclists, has been the city’s main burial-ground since lino print for 1855. Red squirrels are among the wildlife bronze panel that can be found along the site’s tree-lined avenues. The Caldew cycle-track forms part of Sustrans’ National Route Seven, running from north Cumbria to Inverness. This is also the route of the Cumbria Way, a 70-mile walking route from Ulverston, in the south of the county, to Carlisle. The route was devised by local Ramblers’ Association members in the mid-1970s. cycleway 5 Go through the next metal gate and enter a small wood by a stile. Keep straight ahead along the path, leaving the wood by a second stile beside the mill’s outflow channel. Turn left and follow the tarmac path around Stead McAlpin works’ perimeter fence. One of the last-surviving examples of the river Caldew’s once thriving textile industry, Stead McAlpin moved into the Cummersdale print works in 1835. The textile printer and dyer is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the John Lewis Partnership, having been taken over by the workers’ co-operative in 1965. At the factory gates, keep straight ahead, passing a footbridge on your left. The lane swings right. When it does so, keep straight ahead on the riverside cycleway, passing an Environment Agency river level monitoring station and then going under the railway bridge. heron fishing on the Caldew 6 Kingfisher perched on branch illustration based on © image Nigel Blake (rspb-images.com) Built and controlled by the local coal- owners and gentry, the Maryport and Carlisle Railway was engineered by George Stephenson and opened in stages between 1840 and 1845. Its main purpose was to provide transport for coal from the northern part of the Cumbrian field, although Carlisle merchants were initially opposed to it because they feared that Maryport, with its already thriving industry, would harm the Earl of Carlisle’s collieries east of Brampton. There is a wealth of birdlife along the banks of the Caldew. You may be lucky enough to spot kingfisher and dipper; oystercatchers sometimes nest on the shingle beds close to the railway bridge; and, in winter, siskin and the increasingly rare redpoll can be seen in the alders. 7 After 2.5 kilometres, you approach the Nestlé factory and a number of signposted routes off the main track – ignore all of these. One of these paths leads up to Low Mill, a former corn-mill. This was fed by a mill-race drawn off the Caldew. Before reaching Low Mill, the water was used by the Low Green Cotton Mill. This mill operated until 1884 and its site is now occupied by the Nestlé factory, which was built in 1962. Continue along the cycleway. When you reach the edge of the playing fields, just beyond the factory, turn left to follow the track round the back of Caldew School. Turn left at the road and walk through the village via the churchyard. Most of the buildings in Dalston date from the 18th century, but there are also two, 15th century, clay dabbin cottages in the Square. St Michael’s Church was built in 1750 and restored in 1850, but has a chancel dating from the 13th century. In the 19th century, the village was home to several cotton mills. Soon after passing the Co-op, you will see a wrought-iron structure – known locally as ‘The Lamp’ - on the grass. Turn left just after this - along the ‘no through road’. 8 Dalston church 9 the White Bridge, Dalston 10 The Lamp was constructed in 1911 to mark the coronation of King George V. Consisting of a stone base with a wooden lamp-post on top, it was the village’s first street-light. Unfortunately, it did not remain lit for long because it became the cause of controversy, even resulting in brawls. Some people were angry that the name and emblem of the village had been placed above that of the king. Eventually, the lamp-post was removed, leaving just the stone base. However, that wasn’t the end of The Lamp; the parish council decided to restore it as part of its millennium project. Today, it consists of a metal sculpture designed and built by John Parkinson, of the Upfront Gallery near Hutton-in-the-Forest; and it again serves its original purpose as a street-light. When you reach the end of the lane, cross the White Bridge over the river Caldew. The bridge was originally built in 1899 and then reconstructed in 1999. A few yards after passing a green bench on your right, turn left at a footpath sign (towards Cummersdale). Walk with the fence on your immediate left for a short while, and then go through a kissing-gate and down some steps, to continue with the fence on your right. 11 Continue walking parallel to the river, picking your way through the trees. The woodland here is home to the four most common species of warbler – garden, willow, chiffchaff and blackcap. The latter’s fluting song has earned it the nickname ‘northern nightingale’. Chiffchaff can be identified from their distinctive ‘chiff chaff’ call as they flit from tree to tree. Nearby in the gorse, look out for linnet, yellowhammer and whitethroat. Chiffchaff on bramble illustration based on © image Malcolm Hunt (rspb-images.com) 12 Rivers and the textile industry: The river Caldew is just one of many rivers in Cumbria that contributed to the growth of the area’s industrial base, including paper, pencils and, of course, textile mills. Although water power was nothing new, from the late 18th century the mills of the Industrial Revolution used it on a larger scale than ever before. By the middle of the 19th century, water – mostly from the river Caldew – had made Carlisle and its surrounding villages into the fourth most important textile-producing area in the country. The first textile factory opened in the city in 1724, but it wasn’t until the laws on the use of cotton were relaxed in 1774 that the industry really took off. Cumbria was also home to a huge bobbin industry serving the cotton factories. At one point, there were 120 water-powered bobbin mills in the Lake District, producing about half of the entire international textile industry’s bobbins. 13 carpet of wild garlic 14 As you draw level with the chimney of the Nestlé factory on the opposite side of the river, a wire fence prevents you from continuing in the same direction.

Load more