Last updated 09:42, Friday, 02 May 2008

I read with some interest the article on the Underwood Mineral Water business in Junction Street and later Peter Street, Carlisle (The Cumberland News, April 25).

William and his wife Frances, my great grandparents, were, I would say, one of the early entrepreneurial firms in Carlisle. My father William, who is seen in the photograph holding the horse’s head while my grandfather (also William) is sitting waiting to set off on his round in the city and surrounding districts, told me his mother was a strict but very loving mother and grieved over the loss of her sons in the Great War.

My father himself was gassed on the Somme in 1916 (the year I was born) and spent three years in Blencathra hospital recovering.

By the time he was fit enough again, the business had passed to his cousin Tom whom I remember visiting from time to time when he lived in Empire Road. My father received £200 for his share of the business.

I often used to drop into the works on my way home from the Cathedral School and was told to help myself to lemonade or dandelion and burdock stout and used to watch with amazement the movement of the bottles travelling along the production line and being capped at the end with the rubber and spring marble which to me was such an ingenious device.

Alas, I know of no-one in the city or elsewhere descended or connected to that era and I believe I am the oldest survivor of that well-known and respected business, as well as being the oldest surviving Cathedral chorister.

WILLIAM UNDERWOOD
Cairn Terrace
Heads Nook