Last updated 16:38, Sunday, 20 April 2008

Such was the state of lawlessness in Shaddongate in 1826, the Carlisle Patriot despaired: “This is a most woeful state of society.”

There had been a riot there that year with loss of life and the Patriot said it had been declared a “free city”, where “no constable dare execute a warrant”.

One inhabitant said “he and his family have scarcely had any sleep for four or five nights; that they live in continual terror and dare not quit the house after a certain hour at night and are not safe in it for stones”.

On such a climate of unrest it seems Isaac Parker of Church Street, Liverpool, had been ill-advised, because he died, according to the Carlisle Journal of 1848 “in the prime of life”, having taken up residence in Shaddongate, “where he had removed for the benefit of his health”.

Some changes had taken place in Shaddongate since 1826, but with a predominance of manufacturers in the vicinity and the tallest chimney in Europe, fed by eight Lancashire boilers, the word “health” was not something associated with that area.

On an early morning visit to Shaddongate in 1844, an observer said: “We sauntered slowly along watching the long clouds of smoke shoot forth from Dixon’s Chimney and inclined to ponder over the conditions and habits of the men who crowded past us in increasing numbers; for presently the bells of the various factories were heard and a stream of workmen almost instantaneously poured along the streets.”

He questioned a woman “why she would never go in that direction”.

She replied: “There’s so many vulgar children” and added “so many weavers, that one can’t get past”.

In trying to determine the derivation of the unusual place name one correspondent to the Journal in 1851 showed the standing of Shaddongate in the eyes of other citizens, saying: “All old towns had those suburban approaches of poor dwellings inhabited by those who would not, or could not, conform to the laws of the borough.

“They were always without the walls and beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the Borough-reve.”

Looking back in time he thought the name originated from these inhabitants living in “shads” and “chads” in “levels and hollows”.

By 1869 conditions had again deteriorated with more houses packed into an already crowded area.

At a town council meeting in September Mr Hardy expressed his concerns: “I am afraid Shaddongate will be ‘Shabbygate’.”

Later that month one of the members of the Local Board of Health had visited Brewery Row because of the complaint of tainted water.

He had sampled one pump which 13 residents used and “it left a nasty taste in his mouth for the rest of the day”.

They had been lucky to have a pump because eight others “had no water supply to their houses except the waters of the Little Caldew”, said the Journal.

In an article on “how the poor live in Carlisle”, the same newspaper in 1884 said: “In the purlieus of Shaddongate we find a miserable class of dwellings and a horrible stench.”

A resident of Shaddongate, Sam Jordan, sent a letter to the Journal in 1894 about one courtyard off Broadguards, which linked Church Street with Shaddongate.

He said: “The most part of the Fleet is a mere aggregation of tumble-down rookeries, innocent of sanitation, with pitfalls at every step.”

Anyone venturing into the Fleet “even on a pair of stilts during sloppy weather,” said Sam. “Would deserve a medal and woe betide if one of his jibs came off because he would be a wallower.”

One of the reasons for puddles in Rigg Street, which runs parallel with Broadguards, was reported to the Health Committee in 1893.

“People kept ducks and fowls there and even blocked gullies to create ponds,” read the report.

The medical officer also admitted that the houses were “not fit for human habitation” and those living there were “doomed to early extinction”.

Little had been done by 1915 when the Journal said: “The district will never be tolerable to any people who take a pride in the city.”

The newspaper continued: “It is to be hoped that when brighter years come round the widening of Shaddongate will be considered among the most needed public improvements in the city.”

It took some years before this target was met.