Olympic torch route - Day 34 Carlisle

Carlisle Town Hall

There are some very good lands on the banks of the river Line. On coming near Carlisle the soil is excellent. The banks of the river Eden are the richest grounds in the north of England. It is allowed there is grass here that will feed five heavy sheep per acre. The town is pretty regular, and there are good inns; facing the north there are eighteen stables of different kinds. Most of these depend on drovers; they have a market for live cattle nine months in the year, a new flesh market that has a street and a row on both sides.

From A Scottish Farmer's Ride Through England 100 Years Ago (1904)

Carlisle has two ancient parishes, St Cuthbert and St Mary, on which the Poor Law Union and registration district were based. Original records for Carlisle are held at Carlisle Archives Centre. There is a chapter on the City of Carlisle in Volume 4 of  Magna Britannica by Daniel and Samuel Lysons (1814) at British History Online. There is more information about Carlisle online at A Vision of Britain Through Time

 

Catching up

brightsolid offices

I've had (an am still having) an unusual and pleasantly busy week, so I am a bit behind with my blog posts. However, having started the Olympic torch route series I am going to keep it up, although the illustrations might be a bit restricted for the next few days.

I'm in the USA at the moment, waiting for a plane to take me on the next stage of my travels - to Buffalo, since you ask. The first part of my week involved two interesting events in London; a conference, which they call an 'executive briefing' for some reason at CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and the following day a reception at the smart new offices of brightsolid, a converted nonconformist chapel. So I was out way past my bedtime that night, which didn't leave much time for packing for this trip.

The 'executive briefing' was called 'The Social Media Revolution - how user-generated content is changing the way we work'. It was a very interesting day with good speakers, and if you are among the Twitterati you can find some comments on the day using the hashtag #socialmediaeb. We still had handouts in the form of printed PowerPoint slides, which seemed like an awful lot of dead tree for an event that was all about online media.

The brightsolid event was much more of a social event, and I was lucky enough to be shown round their lovely new offices, in a converted nonconformist church near Old Street. I met lots of nice people, some that I already knew and some that I had not previously met. It was a lovely evening. Someone had a lot of fun choosing the decor inside, all very tasteful in the various brightsolid brand colours.

Right now I'm in upstate NY, heading back to Boston tomorrow. I shall return.

Meanwhile, happy Jubilee weekend for anyone whois celebrating it