Cocklakes Mine

Overview

Cocklakes worked the gypsum and anhydrite of the Eden valley a few miles south of Carlisle, beginning as a quarry in the early 1860s and going underground as the seams deepened. It began as an offshoot of a Carlisle solicitor's alabaster and plaster-of-paris business, acquired its own mill in about 1864 and its own siding off the Settle–Carlisle railway in 1876, and was the first place in Britain to manufacture plasterboard. In 1930 it still had fifty-seven men underground.

History

Gypsum near Cotehill was first taken from small surface pits and quarries, many of them worked by a few men at a time, some of whom were builders or plasterers; some of those workings produced alabaster, and a local builder is recorded using alabaster for a floor in 1731. Operations became commercial around 1830, when leases were granted to several partnerships. In 1838 a Carlisle solicitor, John Howe, established John Howe and Company, alabaster dealers and makers of plaster of paris, at premises in the city centre. He went into partnership with John Pigg, a landowner of Cotehill, to extract and refine gypsum, and together they opened a quarry near Cotehill. Pigg left the partnership around 1850, but further quarries followed as the earlier ones worked out, and in the early 1860s a quarry was opened at Cocklakes. At first the material was hauled by cart into Carlisle for processing. The factory was expanded in 1862, but carting the raw stone was slow, and around 1864 a mill was built at Cocklakes itself, with capacity to process material from other local quarries as well. By 1873 output had grown enough that the mill had to be upgraded. That expansion coincided with the building of the Settle–Carlisle railway. Shortly after it opened in May 1876 Howe and Company opened negotiations for a siding, and agreement was reached on 29 December 1876 for one at milepost 302 and 75 chains, controlled by a signal box of twelve levers with two spares. Material went at first by horse and cart from the mill half a mile away, but by 1880 a branch line had been laid from the siding to the mill and the company bought its first locomotive, a standard-gauge 0-4-0 saddle tank named John Howe. The name passed to a new saddle tank in 1908, taking the original in part exchange, and the second John Howe lasted until 1970. In 1911 Howe and Company was amalgamated with Joseph Robinson and Company, who had quarries at Knothill, Kirkby Thore and Barrowmouth, and with the Long Meg Plaster Company, to form the Carlisle Plaster and Cement Company. That concern was taken over by the Gotham Company in 1916. The 1930 List of Mines still enters Cocklakes at Carlisle under the Carlisle Plaster and Cement Co. of 20 Devonshire Street, with W. T. Trimble as agent, fifty-seven men underground and seven at surface, working gypsum and anhydrite. Cocklakes was the first place in the United Kingdom to manufacture plasterboard — an unfamiliar enough product at first that workers are said to have tried to separate the paper from the plaster. Anhydrite from the Eden valley went by rail to the chemical works at Billingham, and during 1940, with serious shortages of anhydrite for making sulphuric acid, Cocklakes was brought back into production to supply a new sulphuric acid plant at Prudhoe near Newcastle; by 1943 it was working around the clock.

Geology

The Eden valley carries thick evaporite beds in its Permian and Triassic sequence, and gypsum and anhydrite are the two forms of calcium sulphate they hold — gypsum the hydrated mineral, anhydrite the anhydrous one. Which is present depends chiefly on depth: anhydrite takes up water and becomes gypsum where groundwater reaches it near surface, so the shallow ground is gypsum and the deeper ground anhydrite. That is why extraction here began as quarrying and was later replaced by mining as the seams got deeper, and why the same ground served two quite different markets, plaster from the gypsum and sulphuric acid from the anhydrite.

Geological setting: Evaporite Deposits (well documented example)

Workings

Quarries first, in the early 1860s, then underground working as the seams deepened. On site were a processing mill built about 1864 and enlarged in 1873, and from 1880 a branch line running the half mile from the mill to a siding on the Settle–Carlisle railway, opened under an agreement of December 1876 and controlled by a twelve-lever signal box. The works kept its own locomotives: the saddle tanks John Howe of about 1880 and 1908, then Harold, bought second-hand in 1924 and scrapped about 1943, J. N. Derbyshire, new in 1929, WTT in 1942 and WST in 1954, with three diesel hydraulics arriving from 1968. In the later years these engines were moved between Cocklakes, Long Meg and Kirkby Thore as required.

Closure

No closure date has been established here. The mine was working fifty-seven men underground in 1930, was brought back into production for the wartime sulphuric acid programme in 1940 and working twenty-four hours a day by 1943, and the second John Howe locomotive lasted on site until 1970. British Gypsum had a plant at Cocklakes within living memory. The site has since been cleared of its buildings.

What remains

Cleared. The Cocklakes site has been stripped of its buildings, and of the whole Eden valley plaster industry the surviving traces are few — the water-filled quarries at Knothill in the forest, the sidings and the old plaster mill on the river bank at Long Meg, and the working plant at Kirkby Thore. Cocklakes itself is a hamlet with a lake used for fishing.

None identified. The buildings have been cleared from the site; nothing read for this record describes a surviving structure at Cocklakes.

Related mines

• Long Meg Mine — Both Eden valley calcium sulphate mines, and connected twice over: the Long Meg Plaster Company and John Howe and Company of Cocklakes were among the concerns amalgamated into the Carlisle Plaster and Cement Company in 1911, and in later years the two mines shared a locomotive fleet moved between them and Kirkby Thore as required — the saddle tank WST of 1954 among them.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• In 1838 John Howe, a Carlisle solicitor, established John Howe and Company, alabaster dealers and makers of plaster of paris, and in partnership with John Pigg of Cotehill opened a quarry near Cotehill; a quarry was opened at Cocklakes in the early 1860s. ¹
• Around 1864 a mill was constructed at Cocklakes with capacity for processing material from other local quarries, and by 1873 it had to be upgraded to cope with the volume. ¹
• Agreement was reached on 29 December 1876 for a siding at milepost 302 and 75 chains on the Settle-Carlisle railway, controlled by a signal box with 12 levers and 2 spares; a branch line from the siding to the mill was laid by 1880 and the company bought its first locomotive, a standard gauge 0-4-0 saddle tank named John Howe. ¹
• Joseph Robinson and Co., J. Howe and Co. and the Long Meg Plaster Co. were all amalgamated into the Carlisle Plaster and Cement Co. in 1911, which was taken over by the Gotham Co. in 1916. ²
• The 1930 List of Mines records Cocklakes at Carlisle under the Carlisle Plaster and Cement Co. of 20 Devonshire Street, with W. T. Trimble as agent, 57 men underground and 7 at surface, working gypsum and anhydrite. ³
• Most of the original extraction in the Eden valley was by quarrying, later replaced by mining as the seams got deeper, and large quantities of anhydrite were shipped by rail to the chemical works at Billingham. ²
• Steam locomotives at Cocklakes included the two named John Howe, Harold (bought second-hand in 1924, scrapped c.1943), J. N. Derbyshire (new in 1929), WTT (1942) and WST (1954); in later years these were moved between Cocklakes, Long Meg and Kirkby Thore as required. ¹
• The Cocklakes site has now been cleared of the buildings. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gypsum Production in the Cotehill Area — Settle-Carlisle Railway Conservation Area partnership
2. (secondary) Gypsum — Industrial History of Cumbria
3. (primary) 1930 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act: Cumberland — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 5 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026