Category: crime
Shaddongate riot
The Shaddongate riot and how it led to Carlisle’s police force. In the last post Cumbrian Characters looked at how Carlisle came to have a full-time, professional police force two years before the L... Read More
Carlisle Police – a mixed honour
Carlisle Police has the honour of being the first ‘proper’ police force in Engoand and Wales. The reason why is something to be less proud of! Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel (pictured) is synonym... Read More
Debauchery in Penrith
Debauchery in Penrith is part 1 of a series on a local Victorian solicitor, but also the story of a young woman shabbily treated by her boyfriend. Thomas Gibson Cant Thomas Gibson Cant, a Penrith soli... Read More
Wilson Towers – two curious deaths
Wilson Towers isn’t as rare a name as you might think. This one was a stone mason, born at Tallentire about 1843-45. In the space of four years, he was to be charged with manslaughter twice. Later, ... Read More
1826 murders
1826 murders: On the morning of March 12, 1827, there was a double hanging at Carlisle jail. At five minutes before twelve, the prison bell tolled a summons to Robert Fox and Philip Tinnaney, to proce... Read More
John Scott Brown thin-skinned thug!
John Scott Brown was a ‘low-bred’ man with a chip on his shoulder. The violent assault he committed gives an idea of life in 1878. Cumbrian Characters usually tries to be impartial, not to judge p... Read More
Branded, burned, hanged – punishments in the 18th century
Branded for life is a figure of speech; in the 18th Century, branding was a punishment dished out by judges for a range of offences. The old saying ‘may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’ me... Read More
Annie Robinson murder in mind
Here’s to you Annie Robinson..? Annie Robinson was seemingly deserted by her first husband, married the second in dubious circumstances, then tried to poison him after in order to marry his cous... Read More