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Today, the most famous is Stott Park Bobbin Mill near the southern tip of Windermere, which was set up by John Harrison, a local farmer, in 1835 and ran until it was abandoned in 1971 when the arrival of plastic bobbins finally put it out of business. Attracted by its remarkable state of preservation, English Heritage acquired the mill in 1991 and turned it into a working museum. But even at its peak, Stott Park was a minor producer employing only 25 men and boys and producing a mere 12 million bobbins a year. Low Briery Mill on the banks of the River Greta east of Keswick produced 40 million bobbins each year, while Howk Mill in Caldbeck, which employed nearly 60 people at its peak, is thought to have made even more.

The American Civil War interrupted the supply of cotton during the 1860s and the bobbin industry suffered as a result. It never fully recovered, having to compete against textile manufacturers turning their own bobbins on steam-powered lathes at their factories and an influx of cheaper imports from abroad. Many mills diversified into other wooden products from rungs for ladders to tool handles and even toggles for fastening duffle coats. Today little remains other than a few notable ruins, many of the old mills having been converted into pleasant beck-side cottages.