The earliest part of the mill was built in 1835 by John Harrison, a local landowner, In the 1850s the mill was leased to members of the Coward family, who expanded the mill, even when the bobbin industry was threatened by the Cotton Famine of the 1860s when many other Lakeland mills were closing. The construction of the Lakeside railway in 1869, with a station less than a mile away, no doubt making Stott Park a more viable location than many others.
The Cowards continued to run the business and through diversifying in later years by producing products other than bobbins, the mill was one of the last to survive until 1971 when the it closed, the wood turning industry having declined hugely due to the increase in products made from plastic. It was acquired by the Dept of the Environment and eventually re-opened by English Heritage as a working museum in 1983.