The Engine Room, Stott Park Bobbin Mill

A severe drought in the Lake District in 1859 stopped many water mills for weeks, and this event led those bobbin masters who could afford it to install steam power. The engine is housed at one end of the new lathe shop. The exact date of install is unknown, but it is likely to have been finished shortly after the building was finished in the 1880s. The engine is a simple, single cylinder, double acting horizontal machine with a condenser with no moving parts. Given sufficient steam pressure it could develop 40hp. It was never a sole source of power, and it was complimented by a water turbine until the 1940s when an electric motor was installed.