Recent Posts
Cumbrian lodging houses – dens of disease
If you imagine Cumbrian lodging houses in the 1800s were in any way better than those in the big industrial cities elsewhere in England, you’d be wrong. Conditions for those forced to live in th... Read More
James Ainslie – and Georgian medicine
Georgian medicine wasn’t so much ‘kill or cure’ as ‘kill or do very little’. With nothing resembling quality control, or advertising standards, you could peddle any old c... Read More
Port Carlisle – Britain at Low Tide
Port Carlisle featured a little in episode three of the third series of the excellent Britain at Low Tide. You can currently watch it on catch-up here. The episode focused on the area round the Sol... Read More
Ann Little – driven to a terrible act
On July 11, 1881, Ann Little, 45, who couldn’t read or write, was charged with attempting to drown herself and her two youngest children, Ann and Joseph, in the River Caldew, near Hutton Roof. It so... Read More
Victorian burials, a grave and unhealthy issue
Victorian burials may conjure up images of widows in black, and brooches containing hair. They were also a major public health concern… In a previous post on the ‘connection’ between tempera... Read More
John Bowstead, held in wide esteem
John Bowstead (or Boustead) of Beck Bank Great Salkeld, was so respected that people from far an wide contributed to a memorial after his death. Though a Scottish judge probably didn’t contribut... Read More
Carlisle Museum gifts – gee, thanks for those!
A look around Carlisle Museum in 1844 may have astounded and amazed visitors – possibly not entirely in a good way! I’ve not dug into who the donors were: maybe someone will recognise a name a... Read More
James Irving of Blackwell House – an unusual will
The will of James Irving (baptised 1835 Bowness-on-Solway, died 1877 Switzerland) suggests he was worthy of the description Cumbrian Character… Elsewhere on this site, you can find a general inf... Read More