 The
present sawmill at Bark Barn was constructed when the previous sawmill
at Cunsey was retired in 1998 due to age and for safety reasons. The
new sawmill is of modern though sympathetic construction and there is
a photo gallery of the present sawmill HERE.
The sawmill provides custom sawn wood for many projects including restoration
work. One example of this type of work is the restoration of a C16th
Elizabethan cruck barn a few miles north of the Mill at Esthwaite.
cruck barns are relatively rare in this area due to the large availability
of stone but are more common in the south and where stone is rare.
The
basic concept of a cruck barn is to find suitably curved trees, in
this case oak, and to cut them following the curve. These are then dowel
jointed to form the main support for the building. Outriggers are
used to compensate for the variation of curve in the main crucks. Graythwaite
sawmill is providing all the timber for this unusual project which is
being restored on a 'like-for-like' basis. There is a photo gallery of
the Esthwaite cruck barn HERE.
The original Graythwaite Sawmill was at Cunsey on the shore of
Windermere and powered by the fast flowing Cunsey Beck.
From 1711 it
was a furnace, a waterwheel driving the bellows to create the 1100 degrees
needed to melt iron. The iron came from a forge situated half a mile
up stream where "blooms" were produced by smelting raw iron
oxide ore with charcoal which were very impure. The Mill processed the
blooms into malleable high quality iron by heating and hammering. This
was then shipped down the lake by barge to Lakeside railhead where it
was taken anywhere it was required to be made into steel.
The iron industry
locally started to collapse around 1800 due to the introduction of
coal and for a short time the mill was employed turning bobbins for the
textile industry. About 1870 Colonel Sandys installed a Gilkes turbine
and bought a variety of machines from Lancashire to utilise the timber
resource on Graythwaite Estate mainly for his own use in restoring many
old houses and the building of new.
Just before the first World War boats
powered electrically enjoyed a period of popularity and the Mill was
one of a few places on Windermere that could recharge the batteries
required. The facia board is still in place.
Due to antiquity the mill ceased to work
safely from 1998 and is awaiting regeneration in some form yet to be
devised. There is a photo gallery of Cunsey Mill HERE.
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Graythwaite Sawmill
Bark Barn, Graythwaite
Ulverston
Cumbria, LA12 8BB |
|
Tel : 015395 30752
E-mail:
info@graythwaitesawmill.co.uk |
| Copyright © 2007 - 2009 Graythwaite Sawmill |
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