Work has started to remove a walkway over the River Eden in Carlisle.

The metal walkway is shrouded in plastic wrapping

Shrouded in plastic wrapping, the link between the rear of the Sheepmount and the Etterby Road area of Carlisle has now been closed to walkers.

Two railway bridges cross the River Eden at this point about 1.5miles from Carlisle station.

The walkway runs alongside the railway bridge on the upstream side of the older of the two bridges.

Notices placed nearby indicate that work started on the 22 January 2011 and is expected to take about one month.

Eden viaduct walkway removal

Temporary electric lighting has been installed at the edge of the railway bridge overlooking the walkway to enable work to be carried out at night for safety reasons.

Some of the metal work can be seen above the stone pillars

Portable generator lighting units and welfare cabins can also be found nearby.

With the closure to walkers of the nearby Waverley Bridge this walkway was often used unofficially by locals wishing to avoid the long detour via Eden Bridge a mile upstream.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The walkway is a redundant structure and in very poor condition, with heavy corrosion to metallic elements”.

He added: “The walkway is used by trespassers and vandals to cross the bridge and commit railway crime.  It has been identified by British Transport Police as one of the hotspots in the Carlisle area with incidents of train windscreens being “stoned” and smashed.”

It is believed that the walkway was officially closed many years ago.

New bridge for Carlisle

Carlisle City Council and Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity, have been working on a number of projects for many years to try and get a new footbridge over the River Eden south of the main Eden Bridge at Stanwix.

The latest scheme, part of the Connect2 project operated by Sustrans, hoped to create a network of paths and cycleways between the Currock area of the city and Kingmoor to the north.

According to The Cumberland News, plans for the new bridge were shelved due to rising costs, estimated to be about £5m.

Your comments

Can you add to the history of the soon to disappear footbridge?  When was it installed, did you ever use it, are you sad to see it go?  Let us know in the comments area below.

Gallery

Eden Bridge Gardens in Carlisle have recently completed a large restoration project.

This is how the lower garden looks now ….

Commanding an impressive view over the Eden Valley, stand the remains of Pendragon castle, thought to be constructed during the reign of William II in the twelfth century by Ranulph de Meschines, Although the the keep dates to Norman times, the Garderobe Turret (toilet) dates from the fourteenth century.

Pendragon Castle Viewed from the Road

Legend suggests that a much earlier Pendragon Castle on this site belonged to Uther Pendragon, father of  the legendary King Arthur. According to the legend, Uther had attempted to re-route the River Eden to create a moat for the castle.

An ancient rhyming couplet reads;

“Let Uther Pendragon do what he can, Eden will run where Eden ran.”

Other stories tell of tragedy, when Saxon invaders poisoned the well, leading to the death of Uther Pendragon and a hundred of his men.

No archealogical evidence has been found to suggest Dark Age settlement, although a couple of Roman coins have been discovered on the site.

Doorway to Pendragon Castle

The castle is now a ruin with evidence of the spiral staircase to the left of the doorway and other rooms off to the right.  Most of the first floor has collapsed showing only traces of where the floor would have been with a few windows and doorways.  The 14th century garderobe still stands.

Over it’s lifetime, the Castle has had many famous and infamous owners, one being Hugh de Morville, a knight responsible for the murder of St. Thomas A’Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.

Robert de Veteripont became the next owner and then Lady Ideona de Veteripont who also founded the nearby church of St. Mary at Outhgill. A later inheritance saw the castle passed on to Robert de Leyburn before becoming the property of  the wealthy Robert de Clifford, who acquired a licence to the crenalate the castle in 1309. When he was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 the castle passed to his son, Roger.

One of the small archways

In 1341 the castle was destroyed by a raiding Scottish army but was rebuilt in 1360. Disaster struck again in 1541, when fire left Pendragon castle in ruins.  It was not until the mid seventeenth century that the castle was restored to it’s former glory by Lady Anne Clifford. Following Lady Anne’s death in 1676, the Earl of Thanet, removed anything of value, including the lead from the roof and again left the castle to the ravages of nature.

The first floor had virtually collapsed by the 18th Century

Some recent work has been carried out to prop up some of the structure and to install a set of wooden steps to lead to what is left of the first level.

If you visit this site, please be aware that it is on private land and that animals are grazing around the castle.

OS Grid Ref:- NY 782025

Spanning the River Eden in the North West corner of the City of Carlisle is the Waverley or Eden Viaduct.

The Waverley or Eden Viaduct

With 6 arches the bridge is a Grade 2 listed structure.  Originally a link between Carlisle and Hawick it formed a part of the Border Union Railway which came to be known as the ‘Waverley Route’. The bridge has the British Railways Board reference   BRB etc 265. Upriver of the viaduct is the Willowholme Industrial Estate, the West Coast Main Line and the back of Carlisle Castle.    

Podcast

Standing high on a pedestal overlooking a former rubbish tip in Carlisle is the iconic figure of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria in Victoria Park Carlisle

With Orb in one hand and Scepter in the other it is a classic Queen Victoria pose captured by Thomas Brock RA.

According to the Council for British Archaeology the statue was erected on the 7 May 1902.

This was just over one year since the Monarch died.

The final cost of the bronze statue was over budget at £1500

Victoria Park is part of the larger Bitts Park area of Carlisle and occupies land between the River Eden and the Castle.

The ‘bitts’ were thought to be small parcels of land that were used for grazing.

Bitts Park was the very first public park to be established in Carlisle.

The formal gardens that contain the statue of Queen Victoria were laid out in the 1890s on the site of a rubbish tip!

Empire inscription

In admiration

At the base of the front of the monument, under a title of Empire, an inscription reads …

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Empress of India, Born May 24th 1819, Died January 22nd 1901.

A great Queen, A good Woman, A friend alike to rich and poor, who for Sixty Three Years Reigned over a prosperous and World wide Empire.

This statue is erected by the citizens of Carlisle in admiration of her noble life and character.

Very little information about this memorial seems to be available on the internet.  If you can add to the history please let us know via the contact us page or via the comments section below.

Empire, Education, Science and Art, Commerce.

On each of the four sides of the plinth are bas-reliefs presented by the Mayor.

Benjamin Scott JP, George Dove JP, William Hudson Scott JP and John Jackson Bell in 1902.

Each tableau depicts the symbols of Empire as seen by those of the day, Empire, Education, Science and Art, and Commerce.

Thomas Brock RA

Born in Worcester, Brock came to London in 1866 to train in the studio of the sculptor, John Henry Foley.

On Foley’s death in 1874, Brock completed a number of Foley’s commissions and for almost the following fifty years was one of the most prolific sculptors of public monuments and statuary in Britain.

He sculpted numerous statues, such as that of Sir Henry Irving which stands just north of the National Portrait Gallery and the huge memorial to Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace.

This most prestigious of his works, in collaboration with Aston Webb, 1901–9, earned him his knighthood at its unveiling in 1911.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1868 onwards, becoming a Royal Academician in 1891.

In 1905, he became the first president of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

Images

Read more
http://www.uea.ac.uk/~t009/ArtistBiography.htm
National Portrait Gallery
Thomas Brock – Wikipedia

Walked and driven past thousands of times a day, the significance of these municipal gardens is largely unknown to the City’s inhabitants.

Situated on the north bank of the River Eden just off Eden Bridge is Eden Bridge Gardens, designed by the internationally renowned landscape architects Thomas H Mawson & Sons.

Eden Bridge (Italian) Gardens, Carlisle

For some peculiar reason, these gardens have been known locally for many years as the “Chinese Gardens”. However, there is nothing Chinese in the design and anybody knowledgeable in the works of Thomas Mawson, knows that he was famed for his grand Italianate designs, still existing at many stately homes including Rydal Hall in Cumbria.

Built using unemployed labour in the depression of the 1930′s, under the supervision of the City Engineer, Percy Dalton, these gardens costs just over £3,000, the cost being kept down by the use of reclaimed materials. The white cove stone used to make the rest houses was taken from the old Eden Bridge parapets that were demolished during the bridge widening operations of 1930 to 1932. The sandstone used to build the retaining walls was taken from the old gaol in English Street and the crazy paving paths that run throughout the garden was taken from the old road, which used to pass over Eden Bridge.  All of this, long before the word “recycling” was even heard of.

Opened in 1933 by City Mayor, Councillor E.B Gray, the design featured the classic Mawson pergolas

Eden Bridge Gardens Opening Plaque 1933

and raised terraces overlooking lily ponds. Crazy paving and a simple rock garden completes the setting.  Most of the design work is likely to be attributed to Thomas Mawsons’ son Edward as Thomas was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and indeed died in November 1933.  This was possibly one of the last designs that Thomas Mawson may have contributed to.

Sadly these gardens are in disrepair, but a grant of £50,000 has recently been awarded by The Heritage Lottery Fund to help the City Council with restoration. Work will start in October 2008 by Carlisle City Council employees.

The scheme will see vital repairs, made to the rose pergolas and Lily ponds. The rock garden will be cut back and invasive species and weeds removed and the surrounding trees cut back to allow more light into the garden and create site lines through to the main Rose pergola. The steps, which connect the two raised terraces, are to be relaid and the crazy paving paths repointed. The work is expected to take six months to complete.

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