3
River Eden
Catchment Area
Scottish Border
N
Solway Firth
Brampton
written and designed by ECCP tel: 01228 561601
1
2
Carlisle
n
de
er E
R iv
4
Armathwaite
5
North Pennines
AONB
Little Salkeld
6
M
Penrith
Appleby
Lake Distict
National Park
Shap
Brough
Kirkby
Stephen
6
Howgills
© Crown copyright. All rights reserved
Licence no. 10000 5056 (2007)
08/07/2k
7
8
9
Holme Head and Dalston
following the River Caldew
a walk with cotton and corn mills, a salmon-ladder, an
historic village, and woodland rich with birdlife
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 CoatsViyella, 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.
cycleway
cyclists,
lino print for
bronze panel
From the cycleway, you can see a wildlife
pond to the right, and, in the distance,
Carlisle’s award-winning cemetery which
has been the city’s main burial-ground since
1855. Red squirrels are among the wildlife
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.
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 coalowners 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. Turn right
alongside the fence and then over a wooden step stile
into Ike’s Wood.
The next section of the walk can be muddy
in places. Keep to the left of the next
waymarker post and down a slippery
embankment.
The woods on this side
of the river Caldew are
home to several resident
birds, including the
long-tailed tit,
treecreeper, great
spotted woodpecker
and goldcrest, the
UK’s smallest bird.
At a T-junction of paths, turn right
and cross a narrow footbridge.
Once over Pow Beck, turn left
to walk with the fence on your
left and then head straight
across the field towards the
river bank. Keeping a fence
on your left at first – and
ignoring a fisherman’s
stile in it – you soon cross
Calfins Beck via a plank
bridge.
treecreeper
illustration based on ©
image Gordon Langsbury
(rspb-images.com)
15
Pass to the left of a water-trough and then through two
gates into another field.
On the other side of the field, cross the step-stile into
Blackhall Woods. Bear right into the trees and follow
the narrow track up the bank, bearing left at the top.
The path, covered in a thick layer of beech leaves, is
indistinct in places.
Rich in potash, the huge amount of foliage
shed each year from beech trees is a
boon for the woodland soil. However, the
combination of a vast root system and the
dense shade cast by the heavy foliage
makes it difficult for undergrowth to thrive
in established beech woods.
woody nightshade
illustration based on © image
Val Corbett
16
bridge over Pow Beck
17
railway tunnel
18
Keeping close to the river, go down a bank, across
an old stile and then bear right, up a stepped
embankment. Soon after, you find yourself on a track
heading up to a gate. Just before reaching the gate,
turn left at a waymarker and continue following the
posts through the woods. The path is muddy in places,
but there are sections of wooden walkway over the
wettest patches.
After crossing a bridge over a small beck, climb some
steps and briefly leave the woods. Descending some
more steps, cross a plank bridge and enter an area of
sparse trees. You finally leave the woods via a wooden
step-stile, after which, turn right to cross a second stile.
Walk across the field until you reach a large gap in
the fence on your right. Go through this gap and
immediately over a step-stile by a metal gate on your
left. Bear half-right to cross the field diagonally – to a
wooden step-stile in the opposite corner, into woodland
again. Climb a few steps on the other side of the stile
and then bear left at the top of the embankment.
Once over the next metal stile, there is a short section of
wooden walkway to ease your progress over a boggy
patch.
In the distance, you can see Dixon’s
Chimney, part of Shaddon Mill. This cotton
factory, built in 1836, used water from the
Caldew – channelled via the Denton Holme
mill-race - for its steam engine.
A waymarker soon indicates that you must head back
down to the river. Once at the bottom of the slope,
make your way towards the railway. Cross a series of
plank bridges before passing under the railway via a
concrete walkway, through a short tunnel.
19
Just beyond the tunnel, cross the metal stile in the fence
on your right. Walking across this field, you can see the
buildings of Blackwell Hall up to your right.
otter, lino print for bronze panel
Just beyond Blackwell Hall – and not visible
from the riverside path – is the building in
which Bonnie Prince Charlie was staying
when he called for the surrender of Carlisle
during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. This
was on the 10th of November. The city
held out for a few more days before the
Jacobites entered on the 15th of November
They posted a garrison there before
marching south to Derby, but the Duke of
Cumberland regained Carlisle before the
end of the year.
20
red
campion
forget-me-not
Once over the next metal stile, continue along the
tree-lined river bank. Crossing another two metal stiles
along the way, follow this riverside path all the way into
the suburbs of Carlisle.
If you’re walking early in the morning or
at dusk, keep your eyes peeled for otters.
These often elusive creatures, which belong
to the same family as badgers, weasels
and stoats, are on the increase in England
after many years of decline. They can often
be spotted at the foot of bridge piers or
on rocks in the river. Watch for footprints
in soft ground along the river bank as well
as spraints (droppings). These are black
or dark greenish and tar-like when fresh.
They are loosely held together and have a
distinctive, musky/fishy odour, described as
smelling like newly mown hay. Over time,
the spraints fade to grey, but retain a sweet
scent. They may sometimes be confused
with mink scats, which tend to be more
compact and have an unpleasant smell.
21
sand martin nest holes along the river Caldew
In the summer, watch for sand martins, which make their
nests in the river bank. They make a horizontal tunnel up
to 90cm long with a chamber at the end, using the same
site until the cliff collapses or until the holes become too
big. Agile fliers, they feed on invertebrates as they skim
the surface of the water. They are among the first spring
migrants to appear, arriving mid-March to mid-April.
22
sand martins
illustration based on © image Heather Angel
(naturalvisions.co.uk)
23
Bridge Terrace with old coffee-tavern and reading-rooms
As you approach the built-up area, cross a small bridge
and then go up a few steps to return to Bousteads
Grassing, where the walk started. If you parked in
Denton Holme, turn left along the surfaced path to cross
via the footbridge to conclude your walk.
24
St Michael’s Church
P
‘Discover Eden’ is a countryside recreation and interpretation
programme being managed by East Cumbria Countryside
Project in partnership with the Eden Rivers Trust supported by
the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Nestlé
Works
Low Mill
Fourteen circuital routes at dispersed locations throughout East
Cumbria provide an opportunity to explore the great scenic
diversity associated with the Eden catchment landscape.
White
Bridge
Ike
9
ck
Morton
-B
ro
w
ra
ilw
other paths
ay
o
all W ods
ar
ckh
Blackhall Wood
le
e
w
29
rlis
Po
ck
B5
Ca
Be
ew
Dalston Hall
Hotel
Bla
Please leave gates as you find them,
leave no litter and keep dogs under close control.
d
C
Parking: limited, considerate parking at the far end of
Boustead Grassing. Also possible to park in Denton Holme
on Sundays, when the disc parking restrictions do not apply.
Length:8¼ miles
13 kilometres
4 – 5 hours
Grade: moderate: level, easy access on outward route,
return can be muddy with short steep sections, steps and stiles.
Route:
Holme Head – Cummersdale – Dalston – Ike’s Wood
– Holme Head
Clothing: boots and outdoor clothing; paths can be wet
oo
a ld
By walking all routes you can
eventually collect rubbings of
eighty four images.
bronze motifs by Pip Hall
’s W
er
Each route is well way-marked with arrows and the distinctive
‘Discover Eden’ kingfisher logo. Watch out for a series of small
bronze panels etched with motifs depicting aspects of human
and natural heritage. Rubbings can be taken from these using
paper and crayon.
Brief route details:
Caldew
School
Dalston
R iv
LOOK OUT for 6 bronze motifs • woman weaving at loom • cyclists • kingfisher • blackcap • blue b el
l
to Welton
Calfi
ns B
nd wild garlic • otters
N
sa
Pirelli
Works
Cummersdale
footpath
bridleway
cycleway
cyc
Stead
McAlpine
Riv
er
01km
½ mile
Reproduced from 1923 Ordnance Survey map with the kind permission of the Ordnance Survey © East Cumbria Countryside Project 2007
Originally published by East Cumbria Countryside project (c/o Carlisle City Council)
Eden Rivers Trust: Dunmail Building, Newton Rigg College, Penrith. Cumbria CA11 0AH tel: 01768 866788
email: [email protected]
website: edenriverstrust.org.uk
Ca
Cemetery and
Crematorium
Scale
0
to
Blackwell
Hall
l ew
ay
Caldew
rlisl
e
Denton
Holme
weir
Ferguson Mill
(apartments)
Holme
Head
P
Bousteads Grassing
research and text by Vivienne Crow
images by Barry Stacy, Val Corbett and ECCP
inside flap
1. River Eamont 2. Mayburgh Henge 3. Red River benchmark near Temple Sowerby
4. Mosedale near Calbeck 5. Haaf netting in Solway 6. Ravenstonedale
7. Appleby horse fair 8. River Eden near Wetheral 9. Pendragon Castle