Peasey Beck

The source of the beck is on Lambrigg Fell, close to the contour () between Kendal and Sedbergh, where it is known as the Sparishaw Beck. It heads towards the south, and is crossed by the A684 road, the M6 motorway and Fairthorns Road to reach Killington Reservoir. Two dams impound the water of Killington Reservoir, and the main outflow for Peasey Beck runs through the longer of the two. The beck is crossed by Reservoir Road, a minor road that follows the southern shore of the reservoir, and then by another unnamed road at Low Bendrigg. Near Crooks Plantation, it turns to the east before sweeping round in a large loop to head westwards. It is joined by Gillsmere Sike on its left bank, which flows northwards, passing close to a small lake called Tarneybank Tarn, the outflow from which supplements that of Gillsmere Sike. The beck passes to the east of Endmoor, where there is another weir, and is crossed by a minor road carried by Challon Hall Bridge, near to Challon Hall. At Kaker Mill or Preston Patrick, there is another weir, and the beck turns to the south-west. The beck falls over a weir where the feeder for the Lancaster Canal diverges, before it passes through a sluice, and runs parallel to the river for most of the way to the canal. Peasey Bridge carries the A65 road over the river, and immediately beyond it, Peasey Beck passes under the Lancaster Canal through an aqueduct. The canal feeder continues a little further south around the back of Crooklands coach garage, before passing under the A65 road and through the grounds of Mill Outstation, a depot for National Highways, to enter the canal. At Milton, the mill is attached to the rear of the former miller's house, built in the early 18th century, with an extension constructed in 1863 for Jacob Wakefield, whose initials appear on the end gable. The water wheel and internal machinery remain in situ. The beck passes under the A590 road and Wath Sutton Bridge at Wath Sutton. It is joined by Farleton Beck on its left bank, and the combined flow join that of Stainton Beck to the east of Ackenthwaite and Milnthorpe, to become the River Bela, which flows into the estuary of the River Kent. ==Killington Reservoir==

Killington Reservoir or Killington Lake was built to supply water to the Lancaster Canal. The proprietors for the Lancaster Canal were empowered by an Act of Parliament obtained in 1807 to deviate from their original route, and to extract water from Farleton Beck, Stainton Beck and Crooklands Beck (later called Peasey Beck), rather than the River Mint. They bought of land in 1810, in order to build the reservoir, but over-stretched themselves, and construction had to wait until they had raised more money. William Crossley was the Canal company's engineer from 10 May 1817, while James Briggs was the superintendent. Crossley oversaw the construction of the reservoir. The contract was initially awarded to Millington, Bainbridge & Kelly, but there was a problem with their tender, and William Seed carried out the work. Two dams were required to impound the water, both of which had clay cores. The larger one () crossed the valley of the Peasey Beck, and was long and high. The second dam further to the west () was long and just high. The reservoir was eventually completed in 1819. It now covers an area of , as its banks have been raised twice. A wave wall was built along the top of the dams in the late 1970s, to prevent erosion of the face of the dam in high winds. Landowners in the three parishes maintained that although they had sold the land, that did not include the fishing rights, and appointed a bailiff to enforce this in 1840. However, the canal company claimed they owned the fishing rights in 1880, and a long-running dispute followed, which was finally settled in November 1912, when the High Court ruled that the canal company did not inherit the fishing rights. The rights are managed by the Killington Reservoir Fishery Charity, which has three trustees, one appointed by each of the parishes. They have been rented by the Kent Angling Association for many years, and the £750 income is split between the Old Hutton Mole Fund, the New Hutton Institute and Killington Village Hall. Residents of the parishes can obtain fishing licences at reduced fees. By 1976, Old Hutton's income from the fishing rights was no longer adequate to employ a full-time mole catcher, and the trust deed governing the Mole Fund was amended, with funds now being used for the benefit of residents in Old Hutton and Homescales. Water sports also take place on the reservoir. The Killington Sailing Association has a clubhouse and floating jetty on the east side of the lake, next to the main dam, and has facilities for dinghy sailing, canoeing, paddle-boarding and wind-surfing. They are affiliated to the Royal Yachting Association and offer training to members, youth groups and people with disadvantages. Below the dam, the water is not carried to the canal in an aqueduct; the reservoir merely controls the flow in the beck. A small dam about downstream near Crooklands diverts water into the canal. The scheme was switched on in January 2017, and formally opened by Tim Farron MP. During its first year of operation it generated income of £33,500. Of this, £21,500 was available to fund interest payments and repayment of capital to the shareholders, as well as for community benefits, which are expected to be around £50,000 over the first 20 years. ==Mills==

Despite its relatively small size, the waters of Peasey Beck have powered at least eight watermills. Furthest upstream was Hutton mill (), just above Bridge End Bridge. A mill race left the river on its left bank and fed a mill much closer to the bridge. In the late 1600s, it was a corn mill and some of the first machinery for cleaning grain to be used in the region was described by Thomas Machell, the rector of Kirkby Thore, who collected a huge amount of data about Cumbria until his death in 1698. At that time, the mill was used for grinding the barrels of guns as well as grinding, threshing and winnowing corn. It had become a bobbin mill and woollen worsted mill by the mid-19th century, and was processing Italian flax in 1885. At Beckside Bridge (), a weir and mill race was constructed for a corn mill which was by the bridge. Production of gunpowder for use in mines and quarries began in 1852 and around 20 tons were manufactured each week. It was shipped to northern England and Wales, and was also exported to West Africa and India. The site occupied around , with the area now occupied by Gatebeck Caravan Park and Millbrook Caravan Park being used first. Mills were built on both sides of Peasey Beck, which were linked together by internal tramways. Peasey Beck provided the power, but later on, steam engines were used. The finished product was packed into barrels, which were manufactured by Gatebeck Cooperage, and was transported to Milnthorpe railway station by closed horsedrawn carts. From 1874, a tramway was used to move the gunpowder to the station. It ran alongside Peasey Beck to the A65 road, but motive power was still provided by horses, which were shod with brass shoes to prevent the risk of sparks. The site closed in 1937, the last such facility in the area to do so, and the caravan parks opened in the early 1970s. Kaker Mill () is known to have been in existence since 1184, and during the 14th century was worked by monks who owned Challon Hall. It was a corn mill, and closed during the Second World War. The wheel was fed from a weir at Challon Hall, which ran along the eastern edge of the road, and passed under the road near the mill. The mill race was supplemented by water from Birks Beck. At Park End Mill, just below Kaker Mill, marble was cut and polished. Crooklands Mill () started as a corn mill. The wheel was driven by a long leat which left the beck around upstream, and provided a fall of . From 1805 it was used to mill flax and to produce ropes. This continued for 50 years, and it was then used to produce bobbins for the Lancashire cotton industry, until its closure in the 1930s. The mill race ran along the right bank of the river, and the weir was just downstream of the point at which the Lancaster Canal feeder left the river. Both Millness Mill () and Milton Mill () were corn mills, and were fed by long leats. The weir for Millness Mill was next to Peasey Bridge, which now carries the A65 road. The mill race for Milton Mill started at the point where the tail race of Millness Mill discharged water back into the river. Milton Mill was a lowder mill, where the high breast-shot water wheel is located inside the building. An annular ring was attached to the side of the wheel, which meshed with a wallower, fixed to a vertical shaft. On the floor above the wheel, a great spur wheel was attached to the vertical shaft, and a triangular lowder frame carried three smaller cogs or stone nuts, which drove the three pairs of stones resting on the frame. A fourth pair of stones was added around 1900, giving the lowder frame a bulge on one side. When the mill was listed in 1962, the mill wheel and all of the machinery were still in situ, and this was still the case in 1978. ==Water quality==

The Environment Agency measure water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. The water quality of the Peasey Beck was as follows in 2019. The data only includes a short section above Killington Reservoir. Like many waterways in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and mercury compounds, neither of which had previously been included in the assessment. ==See also==