[edit]
Main article: History of Cumbria
Ancient Carlisle[edit]
Main article: Luguvalium
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, "[city] 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.
General Gnaeus Julius Agricola advances through Carlisle in AD 79.
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[citation needed] 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[edit]
Carlisle Castle was built in the reign of William II.
Main articles: Rheged, Cumberland, and Curse of Carlisle
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 Cair Ligualid listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Britain, which later developed into Caer-luel, 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 (a name that was originally an abbreviation of Latin Carlioliensis, meaning "[Bishop] of Carlisle"); 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 (innermost thoughts), 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[edit]
Historic view of Carlisle
After the Pilgrimage of Grace, Henry VIII, concerned at the weakness of his hold on the North, employed (1539) 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 (by him and his successors) 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.: 243  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, following a Treaty of Union being signed the previous year, acts of union were passed by the parliaments of 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[edit]
A banknote designed by William Home Lizars for Carlisle City and District Banking Company highlights the town's industrial features.
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 (Port Carlisle) 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.
Modern history[edit]
Botchergate in Carlisle, 1957
At the start of the 20th century, the population had grown to over 45,000. Transport was improved by the City of Carlisle Electric Tramways from 1900 until 1931, and the first cinema was built in 1906. In 1912, the boundaries of Carlisle were extended to include Botcherby in the east and Stanwix in the north.
Carlisle was subject to the decline in the textile industry experienced throughout Britain as new machinery made labour unnecessary. In 1916, during the First World War, the government took over the public houses and breweries in Carlisle because of drunkenness among construction and munitions workers from the munitions factory at Gretna. This experiment nationalised brewing. As the Carlisle Board of Control, and subsequently the Carlisle & District State Management Scheme, it lasted until 1971.
During the Second World War, Carlisle hosted over 5,000 evacuees, many of whom arrived from Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding towns.
A shopping centre (including a new central library) was built to the east and north-east of the market cross and opened in 1986. The area east of the market cross had formerly been occupied by narrow alleyways of housing and small shops (on a layout which had not changed much since medieval times) and referred to locally as The Lanes. Carlisle city centre was pedestrianised in 1989.
On the evening of Friday, 7 January 2005, the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril burst their banks due to as much as 180 mm (7 inches) rainfall upstream that day. 2,700 homes were flooded and three people died. The city's police and fire stations were flooded along with Brunton Park football stadium. The police, fire service and Carlisle United F.C. were mobilised, the latter as far as Morecambe. At the time of the flood, emergency services also had to respond to cases of car-related arson in the city.
