The old sluice gate on Tarn Beck which once controlled the mill race which would have turned the water wheel at the Carding Mill further down in Seathwaite. A carding mill combs out wool ready for spinning and at one time this one would have employed about 10 men. When it was first set up in the 1790s the spinning yarn produced would have been used by hand weavers. The building today has been converted for other uses.
Tarn Beck flows out of Seathwaite Tarn which nestles at 1,200 ft (365m) on the western slopes of the Coniston fells and as you can see there is always copious amounts of water coming down, the beck has broken its banks. From old water power to
wind power, this is all that remains the old windmill at Hodbarrow Point, the photograph taken just as the colours were about to turn last September. The name Hodbarrow is from Old Norse, hafri (oats) and riff (a ridge) so it is appropriate that this used to be a corn mill.
An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at O here
