Green fingers that spun cotton

Published 26 June 2009

Under the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 Carlisle was to have a new council. Those elected to serve in 1836 were celebrated in a satirical ballad, The Gathering of the Clans.

The little loco that didn’t set the world on fire

Published 19 June 2009

City’s pioneer of the silver screen

Published 5 June 2009

The early history of cinema in Carlisle owes much to Charles Sidney Bacon, but he was not a Cumbrian. Born at Bishop Auckland in 1876, Sidney, as he preferred to be called, was the son of professional photographer, Richard Bacon and his wife Mary.

Dacre’s battlefield discovery earned Scots’ enmity

Published 29 May 2009

Before going into battle, Sir Thomas Dacre made his will “in the case of his sudden death at the hand of the Scots”.

Famous London artist joins otter hunt at Penton

Published 22 May 2009

A former huntsman with the Carlisle Otter Hounds wrote to the Carlisle Journal in April 1914: “I knew George Earl well as he went out with us in the season of ’71.”

Download the Carlisle hidden history podcast

Published 21 May 2009

Do you know why there’s a bell on top of Carlisle’s town hall? Or how Tullie House got its name? You can discover answers to these questions and more about the history of Carlisle with Denis Perriam thanks to a new podcast produced by The Cumberland News.

History men (and women) in the making

Published 8 May 2009

Writing in 1891, Richard Saul Ferguson stated: “One of the plagues of my life is having to write over and over again the ‘Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society’ and I wish I could boil that down to two words.”

Rail company’s brush with the law

Published 1 May 2009

When the Caledonian Railway decided to build a new engine shed at Kingmoor, the Carlisle Journal reported in December 1873 that the £20,000 contract had gone to Messrs C and J Armstrong of Carlisle.

Remember the Alamo? Amelia did

Published 24 April 2009

One of the brothers who published the Carlisle Journal, William Steel, wrote under the pseudonym ‘Crayon’ in the Local Jottings column each week.

X marks the birthplace of two famous brothers

Published 17 April 2009

On the memorial to Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London, in St Paul’s Cathedral, is the inscription “He tried to write true history.”

Trouble at the Victorian chippy

Published 10 April 2009

Called before the magistrates in April 1891 was William Tidsmouth, a ‘chip potato merchant’ of Bridge Street in Caldewgate, on a charge under the Refreshment Room Act of 1872.

The night a goods train took the plunge

Published 3 April 2009

In a Board of Trade report by Lieutenant-Colonel CS Hutchinson in May 1875, details were given of a crash on the Canal Branch Railway, Carlisle, caused by the collapse of the Wigton Road bridge.

Keeping us posted on crossroad signs

Published 3 April 2009

Signposts feature in the spring issue of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society newsletter.

Cook’s tour of the new Settle line

Published 20 March 2009

Before the Settle to Carlisle Railway opened to the public one person privileged to travel on the line was Thomas Cook, the originator of ‘Cook’s Tours’.

Our links with the murder of Thomas Becket

Published 13 March 2009

On display in the south aisle of the choir of Carlisle Cathedral is a replica of a 12th century sword similar to that which slew Thomas Becket.

Friend or foe? How Cumbria treated a king on the run

Published 27 February 2009

Writing about Cumwhitton in 1884, TF Bulmer said: “In the southern part of the parish is a tract of dreary treeless waste, commonly called King Henry, where, according to tradition, one of the Kings of England who bore that name encamped with his army.”

Vanished cotton mill was one of UK’s finest

Published 20 February 2009

There is nothing left today of Currock Mill which stood on the corner of Currock Street and Rome Street. The manager Jacob Cowen’s house was where the Cumberland Wrestlers Hotel was later built and the main building came down to make way for Iredale’s Brewery.

Beheaded at 27, was James traitor or martyr?

Published 13 February 2009

In October 1874 the Carlisle Journal reported on the removal of the Derwentwater family from the vaults of Dilston Chapel in Northumberland, in the presence of a large number of spectators.