Gunpowder in the Lake District
Elterwater and Low-wood are two sites in Lakeland that show
clear remains of the once thriving black powder or gunpowder industry.
Michael Davies Shiel is the recognised authority on the subject.
The growing demand for the powder came from quarrying and mining
across the North. Saltpetre and sulphur were imported as vital
ingredients. The other requirement was charcoal, something obtanable
from the coppicing of the areas woodland. Water power was equally
important with the earliest works being on the River Kent, south
of Kendal.
The Elterwater works on the River Brathay, now a holiday complex,
(Langdale Estates)are still tracable on the ground. The areas
last gunpowder mills closed in 1937. Saltpetre came from Chile
and barrels used to arrive at Windermere railway station for onward
transport. Sulphur came from volcanic regions such as Stroboli
on Sicily. Coppice wood was fed into the greedy retort furnaces
to produce quality charcoal at Gatebeck. Careful grinding and
mixing are the requirements for black powder manafucature. Thus
a series of small water driven grinders and mixers would be spread
along a watercourse such as the Brathay. The risks of explosions
in the process menat that work was spread between blast banks
in an attept to limit the potential for disaster. Any furnaces
for drying also had long covered flues to carry away the sparks
well away from the gunpowder areas. Rotary churns and heavy orin
or stone runners were all designed to crush and mix the ingredients.
But always they had to be designed to prevent that strat spark
that could end with an explosion.
In the latter stages of the industry large waterwheels were replaced
by the turbines that became the hallmark of Kendal firm Gilbert
Gilkes and Gordon. Elterwater boasted six water wheels. The friction
generated in some of the earlier grinding processes led to fatal
explosions. The crude black powder was then compressed under great
pressure into sheets before the dangerous process of corning into
identical sized pieces for even explosion. Early corning was done
by mallet Equally hair raising was the later stage of drying the
mixture before carefull packaging. The site at Sedgewick is completely
overgrown today. Black powder from these Lakeland works was used
around the world, but also nearer home for the iron ore mining
of West Cumbria and Furness.
And for the latest use of gunpowder in the Lakes!www.lakelandfireworks.co.uk
