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Spark Bridge

Village in Cumbria, England

Field	Value
country	England
static_image_name	Road into Spark Bridge.JPG
static_image_caption	Road into Spark Bridge from the north
coordinates
official_name	Spark Bridge
civil_parish	Egton with Newland
unitary_england	Westmorland and Furness
lieutenancy_england	Cumbria
region	North West England
constituency_westminster	Barrow and Furness
constituency_westminster1	Westmorland and Lonsdale
post_town	ULVERSTON
postcode_district	LA12
postcode_area	LA
dial_code	01229
os_grid_reference	SD305849
pushpin_map	United Kingdom South Lakeland
pushpin_map_caption	Location in South Lakeland

Spark Bridge is a village in the Westmorland and Furness district, in Cumbria, England, within the Lake District National Park, and within the historic boundaries of Lancashire. The former mill village is situated away from the main road on the River Crake which flows from Coniston Water to Morecambe Bay at Greenodd. The village green which is next to and gives access to the river is in the middle of the village surrounded by well maintained white painted cottages.

Most of the village is in the civil parish of Egton with Newland, which has a joint parish council with Mansriggs and Osmotherley; an area including the Farmer's Arms pub is in the adjacent parish of Lowick, to the north, and the area east of the River Crake is in the parish of Colton.

History

Spark Bridge bobbin mill, using power from the river, employed 60 people in the 1857, at which time it produced "1800 gross" (ie 1800x144 =259,200) bobbins per week. The mill diversified after the cotton industry declined, and was active for much of the 20th century.

Facilities

The River Crake passing through Spark Bridge

There are two public houses, The Royal Oak Inn at the centre of the village, and The Farmers Arms, a listed building rescued in 2021 by local arts charity Grizedale Arts, supported by loan stock investors and local and international donors. The diversified pub now offers crafts classes, talks and events and a holiday apartment as well as a bar, restaurant, cafe and outdoor pizza oven. The village also has its own postbox, a telephone box and a bus stop. The bus X 12 runs Monday to Saturday to Coniston or in the other direction to Ulverston and Barrow in Furness.

Canoeists use the village green to leave the river at this point, often using the nearby village hall as a base.

River Crake

The River Crake passes from Coniston Water four miles away through Spark Bridge en route to the Leven Estuary.

In November 2009 many of the tributaries feeding the River Crake overflowed, feeding water on the local road network. It was described as a once in a thousand-year flooding event by the Environment Agency. Cumbria Police closed the main bridge on Thursday night around 7 p.m. to all on foot and in cars, they feared that the damage could have been caused to the bridge but a later examination showed that it was undamaged.

References

"Spark Bridge, South Lakeland". [[Ordnance Survey]].
"Welcome to ENMO Parish Council". Parish Council of Egton with Newland, Mansriggs and Osmotherley.
"Woodland Industries".
(20 January 2011). "Insight into life of bobbin makers". The Westmorland Gazette.
(20 October 2021). "The Farmer’s Arms – Grizedale Arts".
"Homepage".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

villages-in-cumbria westmorland-and-furness

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