Uncovering Carlisle’s Textile Revolution: Distington School

The Courtyard at Lowther Castle On a snowy winter’s day, we travelled from school to Lowther Castle and met the Creative Conversations group again. Cassie gave a short talk about the history of the Castle and Lowther family. She told us that the Lowther family has been on-site since as early as the 12 th century. A man named Dolfin, who is believed to be of Viking descent was the first to build on this land in 1150. He chose the area for its beauty and wildlife. The name Lowther comes from Old Norse meaning ‘foaming river’. The building was then renovated and improved in 1691, making it Lowther Hall. This was a much grander home with beautiful gardens to compliment it. Unfortunately, the building did not last long as it burnt down in 1718 due to the chimneys not being swept. It remained a charred shell and when the then owner Richard Lowther died in 1751 without an heir, the estates passed to his cousin James Lowther (known as Wicked Jimmy), which included the coal fiel

By Travis   On the 22nd January, we discussed our visit to the Beacon, and shared what we had learned with those who were unable to go. We reflected on what Alan had told us about the slave trade and what conditions would have been like for the West Africans kidnapped and sold into slavery and were shocked when he told us it is thought 50 million had been enslaved.  We all said we did not like holding the example of the manacle used on the slaves! We all had enjoyed our visit and meeting our friends from the Creative Conversations group again. Slave ships - Evan, Hubert and Lexie By Aneasha By Sienna A few weeks after our visit, some of us made prints showing slave ships whilst we were learning a type of printing, where we drew into an ink coated glass surface, then placed paper over and gently rubbed making a reverse print of our drawing!  We really enjoyed doing this and hope to do it again.     

On the 15th January, we joined Creative Conversations group from Prism Arts on a trip to the Beacon to learn about the Trade Triangle. Alan from the Beacon told us about the trade triangle and especially the slave trade and Whitehaven's involvement.    We learned that between 1710 till 1769, 69 slave ships sailed from Whitehaven - which amounted to 1 - 2% sailing from Britain - in comparison 1250 sailed from Liverpool.  The first leg of the trade triangle ships had set sail from European countries.  From Britain they were loaded with textiles, firearms, weapons, gunpowder and metal goods to trade with dealers in West African countries.  The second leg - the middle passage -  saw West Africans, kidnapped by their own kind,  sold and packed onto the ships - men, women and children - for an eight week journey to the Caribbean and North America to work in the plantations.  We learned that the slaves were treated appallingly - they were chained, force fed with butter beans