DARKNESS AT NOON ON WASHING DAY

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When Hasell Street  got the hassle

Washing day disasters- in fact, more than a century of washing day disasters- became a regular feature in Upperby, Carlisle, after the Lancaster to Carlisle railway line was built.

A spewing monster? The Duchess of Hamilton all steamed up at Upperby

 It was not long after Queen Victoria came to the throne. Had she heard about these disasters she would, surely, not have been amused.

 The railway line and its link with the Hasell family is currently being commemorated  in an exhibition at Dalemain near Penrith , historic home of the Hasells.But another link –to the washing day disasters- may have been overlooked by the exhibition organisers.

Washing day disasters were a serious problem for housewives when in 1846 the first train arrived in Carlisle and a massive depot was built at Upperby in the city to house the line`s steam locomotives.Local people called  the depot, the Lancky.

These locomotives with their belching steam and smoke are not the cleanest machines. The Upperby depot, full of the spewing monsters made life hell for housewives putting their clothes out to dry on washing days in the street next to the depot.

Dense smoke clouds from the depot often created darkness  at  noon.

Sometimes Persil did its stuff and the washed clothes were spotless.More often than not however, all the Persil in the world could not shift a thick pattern of coal stains.

Salvation did eventually come for washing days.Steam locos became obsolete in the 1960`s, about 120 years after the line opened.Electric-powered locos took their place.

But surprisingly, the street next door continued to suffer. The street had been named Hasell Street to commemorate the Dalemain family link. But Carlisle people, it seems for a very good reason, never got round to pronouncing the name Hasell correctly.

They always pronounced Hasell Street wrongly. Everyone called it Hassle Street. That presumably was because of some hassle- in other words, an irritating inconvenience.And what was that hassle?

There seems to me no doubt what it was. It was the belching locomotives, the clouds of smoke and the washing day disasters that followed.

  Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277.