Long gone

A beautiful day today and we found ourselves, for various reasons, down by the Solway Coast and marpaul country. We stopped in Port Carlisle, a place she often goes to and blips from, and I realised that the remains of the old port were an ideal topic for Derelict Thursday.

Yes, this was actually a port with big sailing ships and lots of warehouses and activity. You would certainly not think so if you visit this quiet village today and yet the evidence is there all the same. This is a painting that gives an idea of the kind of ships that would have used the port. This ship, The Robert Burns, was actually an emigration  ship, for example in 1851 it sailed from Port Carlisle to Quebec with 50 emigrants on board. The remains of the wharf that it is against in the picture is in the foreground of my photograph.  
 
In the photograph you can see the remains of the stone dock and the pier and the wharf, all gradually disintegrating. I thought the mono treatment gave it a timeless quality. The colour version is here. It really needs to be seen in large to get an idea of the size of the area. The distant hills are on the Scottish side of the Solway.
 
Imagine the scene, nearly 200 years ago, when this area would have ships docked and goods being loaded and unloaded, people everywhere.  I like to think the stones hold the memory of it all.
  
The Port was developed in 1819 to handle goods for Carlisle using the Ship Canal built in 1823. The canal started here and ran all the way to Carlisle. Sailing boats made their way by canal from Port Carlisle to the heart of the city. The canal did not last long after the railway arrived, it closed in 1853 and a railway line was built on top of it. That’s why there is little evidence of the canal now and many people have no idea that it ever existed. A few weeks ago we went to listen to a talk by a local historian, David Ramshaw, who has done an amazingly detailed study of the Carlisle Ship Canal – absolutely fascinating. And we bought his highly illustrated book – also fascinating.