Browse Items (70 total)

Platelayers in Carlisle

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Photograph of platelayers in Carlisle, 1899. Platelayers were employed to inspect and maintain the track, including all its component parts such as rails, sleepers and bolts. Duties included greasing points and generally watching for wear and tear.…

Carlisle Women Munitions Workers Football Team, 1917

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The photograph shows women dressed as munitions workers, posing with a football that has been inscribed with 'EAST CUMB WMW 1917'. Two of the women wear the triangular 'On War Service' badges that were issued to munitions workers.
The implication…

Cumberland and Westmorland Suffragettes, 1911

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On 17 June 1911, suffrage societies joined together in London in a procession of some 40,000 women to demand the vote, with the date chosen as it was the coronation of King George V.

The event included an empire pageant with women representing…

Sal Madge - a Whitehaven colliery worker and wrestler

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Sal Madge worked in Whitehaven's colliery and wrestled men for sport. She usually dressed as shown the photograph, with a man's jacket, shirt and waistcoat above a long skirt, and is said to have worn her hair cut short.

Sal Madge was born in a…

The Camera in the Field: things pleasant and unpleasant

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An example of war reporting, with an emphasis on the immediacy of photography, including a portrait of Drummer Spencer John 'Joe' Bent of the East Lancashire Regiment, awarded the Victoria Cross for three acts of heroism.

The parade of veteran war-horses at Olympia in the International horse show of 1934

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Photographs of 24 horses, with captions and descriptive text, across two pages. A number of the anecdotes about the horses indicate a very strong bond between the rider and the steed.
Note that horse no. 7 is called 'Nigger', doubtless because of a…

British and French prisoners of the Turks: our groups named

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Photographs of Prisoners of War, reproduced from a Turkish newspaper, with identifying names and regiments. Includes three members of Lancashire regiments, as well as some naval personnel. Note that the men all seem to be wearing civilian clothes…

Aisgill Railway Disaster

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The Aisgill rail disaster occurred on the Settle-Carlisle Railway on 2 September 1913, at a point near the hamlet of Aisgill where the gradient caused a challenge for smaller locomotives. A stalled passenger train was hit from behind by a second…

Horse drawn railway service at Port Carlisle

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The village of Port Carlisle, originally known as Fishers Cross, was developed as a port in 1819 to handle goods for Carlisle using the canal link built in 1823. In 1854, just after the canal was filled in, a railway opened using the canal bed for…

The Great Railway Strike: comments and responses

The Great Railway Strike: food-distribution by the government - Hyde Park as depot
The files on this item are all drawn from the same edition of the Illustrated London News, from early October 1919. They all relate to a national railway strike which started on 27 September 1919.
During World War One, and its immediate aftermath, …