Black Beck Gunpowder Mills

What is now South Lakeland once had seven gunpowder mills the oldest of them was Old Sedgwick established in 1764 the youngest and most modern was Black Beck established in 1860 at Bouth, the site is now Black Beck Caravan Park
F.C.Dixon who owned the large Abbots Reading estate about half a mile east of Bouth established the mills. The estate included a number of farms, one of them “Black Beck” gave its name to the gunpowder mills because the land they were built on was formally part of that farm.
The Ulverston Mirror announced in 1860 that Mr F.C.Dixon had applied to the Lancaster quarter sessions for a license to manufacture gunpowder at Bouth and that the application had been successful.
Unlike the other gunpowder mills in the area, which used water, power to driving their machinery Black Beck would use a large triple expansion steam engine, which was unique.
The works were taken over by W H Wakefield in 1882 as were the other nearby
Lowwood powder mills  (In those days Lowwood was written as one word).
In the early days raw materials were brought into the Leven estuary by sea, gunpowder other than local sales was also transported by sea.
In 1868 the Furness Railway opened its branch line from Ulverston to lakeside and the powder mills took full advantage of the opportunity it gave.
The works were linked to the railway by a full gauge tramline that ran from inside the works along a raised embankment to Pool Bridge, it then followed the western bank of river to River Leven estuary which it crossed over a purpose built 200 foot long girder bridge joining the main line at the Dixon Siding.
The railway delivered sulphur, saltpetre, charcoal and 40 tons of steam coal each week to the Dixon sidings, from there the wagons were pulled by shire horses to and from the mills, it was considered far to dangerous for coal fired steam trains to come into the works as sparks from the engine could cause explosions.
Although the works were powered by steam a good clean source of fresh water was still required and was provided by a small beck running thru the site from which the farm and the works took their names.
The triple expansion steam engine was located between number three and four incorporating mills, which the engine drove. Incorporating was the name given to the process that ground the raw material under great pressure until each grain of gunpowder consisted of the same percentages of ingredients, sulphur saltpeter and charcoal.The process became more dangerous as the process continued.

Step 2. Raw gunpowder which had been dug from the incorporating mill using brass or copper tools to minimise the risk of a spark was loaded into worker tubs “wooden tubs” then taken for pressing to the press house. The  press was powered using a high pressure water supply taken from a  supply held on the hillside. The press was made of cast iron and consisted of an 18 inch hydraulic piston set into the floor, four cast iron columns of about 6 inch diameter supported the fixed press head also made of cast iron and weighing half a ton.  A sheet of copper or brass about 3 feet square was placed on top of the hydralic piston and a layer of gunpowder about 2 inches thick spread over it,  then another copper sheet was placed on top of the powder and another layer of gunpowder was spread on top of this, followed by another sheet then another layer of powder. This was repeated until a press load of about 30 sheets was built, next the high pressure water supply was turned on, slowly raising the  piston and lifting the press load until it came into contact with the fixed press head thus squeezing the load at a pressure of two and a half tons per square inch. Once the pressing was completed the high pressure water supply was turned off, the drain valve was opened allowing the hydraulic piston to lower and the pressed powder could then be off loaded. The pressed powder resembled large slabs of black chocolate about 2.5 cm thick. Pressing was necessary to give a standard input to the next stage which was corning.