The avenue of millenium trees took us up the hill into Dallam Park, warm sun, contented barrel shaped sheep and white woolly lambs leaping around on long legs with small bodies and faces with large brown eyes. Over the brow of the hill, we see the deer are down by the river, the sunlight is catching that hint of fresh light bright green as leaf burst takes over these huge trees the deer park was designed and planted on a grand scale. We make for Haverbrack, when named was 'a slope where oats are grown', now it is open fields and on the headland a wonderful wood of tall, tall trees of beech tower above us as we follow the footpath round and out we come with a view of the lakes and the estuary.
We talk of mud and silt and changing channels due to the building of the viaduct at Arnside [the advent of the railway was the beginning of the end for the port of Milnthorpe], how different life would have been before the advent of the viaduct when sailing ships were beached on the mud and cargoes like buffalo horn were off loaded onto horse drawn carts and delivered to the appropriate mill in that instance Bela Mill where hand cut horn combs were made.
Haverbracks' path drops down to the Dixies- the nearest point to Milnthorpe that bigger ships could get-now a modern light industrial unit reminiscent in shape to the hull of a ship occupies the roadside site. It is said that some smaller ships could get up the river to the Strand.
We sat on the old Railway line viewing the estuary, eating our picnics and drinking in the landscape, bird and marsh life.
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| Dejeuner sur l'herbe |
Our route takes us to the banks of the Bela as it nears the sea, we follow it up stream back into the park, walking the bank the route of the old road to Arnside, the bridge over the river into the park was once the lowest bridging point.
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| Dallam Park |
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| Now you want my lunch? |
The river skirts the cricket pitch and recreation ground, tall trees let dappled sunlight filter through onto small islands and shallow pools, a lovely place for kids to discover river life.
Roger Bingham has done a great job in composing and placing historical information plates at strategic and relevant points along the riverside where many mills once turned and as Milnthorpes' name implies it was a place of many Mills.
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| Bela Comb Mill-the only remaining mill in Milnthorpe |
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| The weir at Bela Mill |
Hornwork, rope, twine and canvas, flax spinners, bed ticking, bag and sails, sacking and paper were all once manufactured here, we are talking outside Bela Mill and are invited in to see the wheel -twice as wide as HCM's we observe the stillness of the neglected wheel and hear the water rushing below. Where once horn combs were cut by hand some plastic combs are moulded and packed but also imported from China and distributed. Our trail along the river for traces of mill life takes us up Mill lane and back along the noisy A6 south to Beetham.
Billerud formerly Henry Cooke is a modern paper manufacturing plant, pulp is imported from Sweden but water from the Bela is used in the process and HCM's turbine generates electricity which contributes to Billeruds green credentials, for 330 years at least paper has been manufactured on this site, there was also a fulling mill here which no longer exists. Over the bridge and we are back at HCM where water is used by the mill and the turbine, it would seem that this is the Bela's hotspot for water use activity.
These walks have been a sharing experience for those who have taken part, for me it has been great to benefit from the knowledge of others and share what I have learned so far on this project.
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