Past & Present
Waning pride in Cumbria’s processions
In the May Day Horse Procession of 1889 the principal feature, reported the Carlisle Journal, was “the Silloth lifeboat manned by the crew, about a dozen in number, dressed in their cork jackets and red caps and carrying their oars upright”.
Last updated 12 March 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Carlisle’s early push bike pioneer
In 1947 Mr L Nunn wrote to The Cumberland News to say “opposite Cecil Street, where a garage now stands, was a wooden building known as Robinson’s cycle shop.”
Last updated 5 March 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Potty – or just a sign of the times?
In December 1778 the Cumberland Pacquet reported that “the court of Kendal has ordered all the signs projecting from the street in that town to be taken down”.
Last updated 26 February 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
The English Gate rediscovered
In September and October 1979, part of Carlisle’s past was revealed after being covered since the 1820s.
Last updated 19 February 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Father’s murder is still unsolved
At Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, Australia, is the unmarked grave of Archibald Norval, who died on March 5 1951 aged 79. In the same plot is his wife, Amy Elinor, who died aged 70 in July 1947.
Last updated 12 February 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Iron boat pulls the canal crowd
The Dumfries Courier in April 1858 reported on an evening stir on the High Street, Dumfries.
Last updated 5 February 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Points to blame for Wetheral viaduct crash of 1873
Briefly during 1873 the Carlisle Journal became a daily newspaper and some content did not find its way into the Friday edition.
Last updated 29 January 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Chemical works given over to nature
A supper was held at the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Kirkbride in November 1857 “to celebrate the erection of a large chemical works and chimney on the Silloth railway near Drumburgh”, reported the Carlisle Journal.
Last updated 22 January 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
The clink of ice all the way from America
The Carlisle Journal in August 1853 referred “our lady readers to the advert of Mr Ritson, confectioner, who has started a branch of business – the manufacture of ices, a summer luxury which he supplies in great perfection”.
Last updated 15 January 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Boys, and the county, beating about the bush
In a perambulation around Carlisle in 1820 Mr Sanderson left the city at the new Court Houses and before reaching Botchergate he crossed “a barren plot of waste ground covered with stones and rubbish called Citadel Hill”.
Last updated 8 January 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Bank Street business that went with a bang
As a jack-of-all-trades and something of an inventor, Thomas Harrison advertised to the people of Carlisle in March 1873 that he had “fitted up a room in Longcake’s Lane as a wash house with a large boiler.”
Last updated 24 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Why all the world wanted a piece of Napoleon
Growing at Carleton, near Carlisle, in 1901 were four willow trees taken, as cuttings, from Napoleon’s grave in St Helena, stated Bulmer in his Directory of Cumberland.
Last updated 18 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Prisoners and Paganini among hotel guests
On an 1878 letterhead for the Crown & Mitre Hotel in Carlisle, the tenant claimed it was “established 1750”. But James Walter Brown, writing about that hostelry, states it “must have been earlier than 1745 for it is on record that ‘Rebel Will Addison’ was then its landlord.”The newspaper which gave an obituary also advertised that “Isabella Hardesty, mother-in-law of George Hardesty, intends to carry on in place of her late son-in-law”.
Last updated 11 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Pultney Corrie the third, founder of Hell’s Angels
A representative of the Magnetic Telegraph Company appeared at Carlisle Petty Sessions in November 1859, summoned by two workmen for wages due.
Last updated 4 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Waverley line celebrations south of the border
Not to be outdone by the residents of Hawick, who had celebrated the start of work on the Border Union Railway a few days earlier “the Longtown people determined to imitate the proceedings” over the Border, reported the Carlisle Journal.
Last updated 27 November 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Let’s build a seaside town, said the railmen
Most of Silloth was owned by the Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway and Dock Company – because it was their idea to create that town.
Last updated 20 November 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
We love graffiti... as long as the Romans did it
In his tour of the northern part of Cumbria in the 1790s William Hutchinson wrote: “We took our route from Naworth to view the Roman inscriptions on the rocks of the River Gelt about two miles from Brampton.”
Last updated 13 November 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
The De Quincey brothers’ holiday haven
Near to Wetheral Church, on the steep bank down to the River Eden, is Eden Croft.
Last updated 6 November 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
‘The Grassing is but a shadow of itself’
Taking a walk through Bousteads Grassing in May 1891, William Steel remarked, “the ‘Grassing’ is but a shadow of its former self”. In his lifetime, which spanned most of the 19th century, Steel had seen tremendous changes in that area of Carlisle.To accommodate the workers at the new shed the railway company proposed housing nearby and plans were passed in April 1878 for Maryport Cottages. With the houses built by April 1879, the surveyor pegged out a new street called ‘Boustead Grassing’ to reach them, this being an extension of Rome Street. Although £17,575 had been paid to the Corporation for land at the Grassing and Long Island by the railway company, complaints were made by the councillors that the street was 40ft wide. But under the bye laws all new streets had to be of that width, it was pointed out.
Last updated 30 October 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
Mill’s history will make your head spin
The early history of Langthwaite Mill at Warwick Bridge was researched and published by David Mawson in 1976.
Last updated 23 October 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
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