Carlisle
Carlisle is a city located in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is the largest settlement and only city in Cumbria. In 2021 it had a population of 77,730.
Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Nicknamed the 'Great Border City' due to its proximity to Scotland, the city and Carlisle Castle became an important military stronghold in the Middle Ages. The castle served as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568 and currently hosts the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and the Border Regiment Museum. A priory was built in the early 12th century, which subsequently became Carlisle Cathedral in 1133 on the creation of the Diocese of Carlisle. As the seat of a diocese, Carlisle therefore gained city status. Carlisle also served as the county town of the historic county of Cumberland from the county's creation in the 12th century.
In the 19th century, the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution began a process of socioeconomic transformation in Carlisle, which developed into a densely populated mill town. This, combined with its strategic position, allowed for the development of Carlisle as an important railway town, with seven railway companies sharing Carlisle railway station.
History
Ancient Carlisle
The ancient history of Carlisle is derived mainly from archaeological evidence and the works of the Roman historian Tacitus. The earliest recorded inhabitants in the area were the Carvetii tribe of Britons who made up the main population of ancient Cumbria and North Lancashire. According to Boethius and John of Fordun, writing in the 8th and 9th centuries, Carlisle existed before the arrival of the Romans in Britain and was one of the strongest British towns at the time. In the time of the emperor Nero, it was said to have burned down. The Roman settlement was named Luguvalium, based on a native name that has been reconstructed as Brittonic *Luguwaljon, " of Luguwalos", a masculine Celtic given name meaning "strength of Lugus".Excavations undertaken along Annetwell Street in the 1970s dated the Roman timber fort constructed at the site of present Carlisle Castle to the winter of AD 73. It protected a strategic location on the Roman road to the north and overlooking the confluence of the Caldew and Eden rivers.
The fort at Carlisle was reconstructed in AD 83 using oak timbers from further afield, rather than local alder as a possible result of the increased Roman control of the area. At this time the Roman fort was garrisoned by a 500-strong cavalry regiment, the Ala Gallorum Sebosiana.
By the early 2nd century, Carlisle was established as a prominent stronghold. The 'Stanegate' frontier, which consisted of Luguvalium and several other forts in a line east to Corbridge, was proving a more stable frontier against the Picts than those established deeper into Caledonia. In AD 122, the province was visited by Hadrian, who approved a plan to build a wall the length of the frontier. A new fort, Petriana, was therefore built in the Stanwix area of the city north of the river on Hadrian's Wall. It was the largest fort along the wall and was completed in stone by around AD 130. Like Luguvalium, which lay within sight, Petriana housed a nominal 1,000-strong cavalry regiment, the Ala Gallorum Petriana, the sole regiment of this size along the wall. Hadrian's successor Antoninus Pius abandoned the frontier and attempted to move further north; he built the Antonine Wall between the firths of Forth and Clyde. It was not a success and, after 20 years, the garrisons returned to Hadrian's Wall.
At one time, Carlisle broke off from Rome when Marcus Carausius assumed power over the territory. He was assassinated and suffered damnatio memoriae, but a surviving reference to him has been uncovered in Carlisle. Coins excavated in the area suggest that Romans remained in Carlisle until the reign of Emperor Valentinian II, from AD 375 to AD 392.
Middle Ages
The period of late antiquity after Roman rule saw Cumbria organised as the native British kingdom of Rheged. It is likely that the kingdom took its name from a major stronghold within it; this has been suggested to have been broadly coterminous with the Civitas Carvetiorum, Carlisle. King Urien and his son and successor Owain became the subjects of a great deal of Arthurian legend. Their capital has been identified as the listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Britain, which later developed into, whence the city's modern Welsh name Caerliwelydd. Rheged came under Northumbrian control before 730, probably by inheritance after Rienmelth, daughter of Royth and great-granddaughter of Urien, married Oswy, King of Northumbria. For the rest of the first millennium, Carlisle was an important stronghold contested by several entities who warred over the area, including the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. In 685, St Cuthbert, visiting the Queen of Northumbria in her sister's monastery at Carlisle, was taken to see the city walls and a marvellously constructed Roman fountain.By the time of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Carlisle was in the possession of the Scots. It was not recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book. This changed in 1092, when William the Conqueror's son William Rufus invaded the region and incorporated Carlisle into England. The construction of Carlisle Castle began in 1093 on the site of the Roman fort, south of the River Eden. The castle was rebuilt in stone in 1112, with a keep and the city walls. The walls enclosed the city south of the castle and included three gates to the east, south, and north called the Irish or Caldew Gate, the English or Botcher Gate, and the Scotch or Ricker Gate respectively. The names of the gates exist in road names in Carlisle today. Carlisle Cathedral was founded as an Augustinian priory and became a cathedral in 1133. In 1157, Carlisle became the seat of the new county of Carliol ; in 1177 the county was renamed Cumberland.
The conquest of Cumberland was the beginning of a war between Scotland and England which saw the region centred around Carlisle change hands a number of times. It was a major stronghold after the construction of the castle. During the wars, the livelihood of the people on the borders was devastated by armies from both sides. Even when the countries were not at war, tension remained high, and royal authority in one or the other kingdom was often weak. The uncertainty of existence meant that communities or peoples kindred to each other sought security through their own strength and cunning, and they improved their livelihoods at their enemies' expense. These peoples were known as the Border Reivers and Carlisle was the major city within their territories.
The Reivers became so much of a nuisance to the Scottish and English governments that, in 1525, the Archbishop of Glasgow Gavin Dunbar cursed all the reivers of the borderlands. The curse was detailed in 1,069 words, beginning: "I curse their head and all the hairs of their head; I curse their face, their brain, their mouth, their nose, their tongue, their teeth, their forehead, their shoulders, their breast, their heart, their stomach, their back, their womb, their arms, their leggs, their hands, their feet and every part of their body, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, before and behind, within and without."
Early Modern era
After the Pilgrimage of Grace, Henry VIII, concerned at the weakness of his hold on the North, employed the engineer Stefan von Haschenperg to modernise the defences of Carlisle. von Haschenperg was sacked in 1543 for having "spent great treasures to no purpose"; but at the north end the castle towers were converted to artillery platforms, at the south the medieval Bochard gate was converted into the Citadel, an artillery fortification with two massive artillery towers. The death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 and her succession by James VI of Scotland as King James I of England allowed more determined and coordinated efforts to suppress reiving. The borderers were not quick to change their ways and many were hanged and whole families were exiled to Ireland. It was not until 1681 that the problem of the reivers was acknowledged as no longer an issue.Following the personal union of the crowns Carlisle Castle should have become obsolete as a frontier fortress, but the two kingdoms continued as separate states. In 1639, with war between the two kingdoms looming, the castle was refortified using stone from the cathedral cloisters. In 1642 the English Civil War broke out and the castle was garrisoned for the king. It endured a long siege from October 1644 until June 1645 when the Royalist forces surrendered after the Battle of Naseby. The city was occupied by a parliamentary garrison, and subsequently by their Scots allies. In 1646, the Scots, now holding Carlisle pending payment of monies owed them by the English Parliament, improved its fortifications, destroying the cathedral's nave to obtain the stone to rebuild the castle. Carlisle continued to remain a barracks thereafter. In 1698 travel writer Celia Fiennes wrote of Carlisle as having most of the trappings of a military town and that it was rife with alcohol and prostitutes.
In 1707 an act of union was passed between England and Scotland, creating Great Britain, but Carlisle remained a garrison town. The tenth, and most recent siege in the city's history took place after Charles Edward Stuart took Carlisle in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. When the Jacobites retreated across the border to Scotland they left a garrison of 400 men in Carlisle Castle. Ten days later Prince William, Duke of Cumberland took the castle and executed 31 Jacobites on the streets of Carlisle.
Industrial Revolution
Although Carlisle continued to garrison soldiers, becoming the headquarters of the Border Regiment, the city's importance as a military town decreased as the industrial age took over. The post of Governor of Carlisle as garrison commander was abolished in 1838.In the early 19th century textile mills, engineering works and food manufacturers built factories in the city mostly in the Denton Holme, Caldewgate and Wapping suburbs in the Caldew Valley. These included Carr's of Carlisle, Kangol, Metal Box and Cowans Sheldon. Shaddon Mill, in Denton Holme, became famous for having the world's 8th tallest chimney and was the largest cotton mill in England.
The expanding industries brought about an increase in population as jobs shifted from rural farms towards the cities. This produced a housing shortage where at one point 25,000 people in the city only had 5,000 houses to live in. People were said to be herded together with animal houses, slaughter houses and communal lavatories with open drains running between them. Living conditions were so bad that riots were common and some people emigrated. The problem was not solved until the end of the 19th century when mass housing was built west of the city walls.
In 1823 a canal was built to Fisher's Cross to transport goods produced in the city. This enabled other industrial centres such as Liverpool to link with Carlisle via the Solway. This was short-lived and when the canal operators ran into financial difficulty the waterway was filled in. A railway was built in place of the canal.
Carlisle became a major railway centre on the West Coast Main Line with connections to the east. At one time seven companies used Carlisle Citadel railway station. Before the building of the Citadel railway station the city had several other railway stations, including London Road railway station. Carlisle had the largest railway marshalling yard in Europe, Kingmoor, which, reduced in size, is operational and used by railfreight companies.
The Strand Road drill hall opened in 1874.