Above: Example of a horse drawn railway like at Black Beck Gunpowder Works. To avoid explosions the railway was pulled by horses instead of engines. The horses were shod with copper to prevent explosions that could have been sparked by iron shoes.
 
The Gunpowder mill had a connection to the Furness railway (between Lakeside and Haverthwaite, from 1869 to 1965), joining it at a junction point "between Lady Syke and Haverthwaite known as

Dickson's siding

. ...The traffic was marshalled at Greenodd and was pushed in front of the main train as far as the siding. From there it was drawn by horses up the valley of the Black Beck to the works which was half a mile north-east of the village of Bouth." (from: Steam Nostalgia, by Gerald Nabarro*, London 1972) The former Furness railway was reopened, by "private enthusiasts", as a steam railway in 1973 (called the

).

The railway delivered sulphur, saltpetre, charcoal and 40 tons of steam coal each week to the Dickson siding. From there the wagons were pulled by shire horses to and from the mills. It was considered far too 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 through the site from which the farm and the works took their names." (From the former website www.levenvalleyhistory.co.uk)

 o

* The author,

, was the husband of a Dickson descendant. On 1 June 1943 he married Joan Violet, granddaughter of the above mentioned F.C.Dickson and daughter of Bernhardt Basil von Brumsey im Thurn, a British Army officer of Swiss ancestry (family

from Schaffhausen, first mentioned in 1106). Nabarro was from a prominent Sephardi Jewish family and a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1973. He was also the owner of a famous moustache (see left, photograph from Wikipedia). Information provided by John Humphreys.

But:  "The village regained some of its former importance when the Dickson family opened Gunpowder mills at Blackbeck in 1860. These mills eventually employed more than 70 people, and provided employment for the next 68 years. Father, sons and daughters followed each other into this very dangerous industry. Blackbeck suffered ten fatal explosions in which 33 men were killed before the works closed in 1928." (from:

by Ron Mein), also see right.
 
The Gunpowder mill was at first - and  foremost - run by G.F.Dickson's eldest surviving son Frederick Cartwright Dickson (often mentioned as "F.C. Dickson") on the grounds of the Blackbeck estate. "The Ulverston Mirror announced in 1860 that Mr F.C.Dickson 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 drive their machinery, Blackbeck used a large triple expansion steam engine, which was unique. Eventually the works were taken over by W H Wakefield in 1882 as were the other nearby Lowwood powder mills. 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 1869 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 the river to River Leven estuary which it crossed over a purpose built 200 foot long girder bridge joining the main line at the

Dickson Siding

.