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Mildred Edwards: Our City Our People 1889 - 1978 Memories Find!

Working for Cumbria Libraries we are fortunate in being able to pick the brains of colleagues with specialisms.

Our team of Local Studies librarians have an amazing wealth of knowledge and expertise, and they manage collections which hold all kinds of amazing things. Some items are extremely rare and valuable, and as such, are treasures in themselves, whilst other items may be a little more modest but fall perfectly into the scope of this project being both literary treasures and hidden gems, giving a real flavour of the area, its landcape and its people.

For this next find I am indebted to Stephen White who is the Local Studies specialist based at Carlisle Library. When I told Stephen about the Reading Detectives project and asked him for some possible suggestions he came back with Mildred Edwards' Our City Our People.

Stephen writes:

In 1977 a Carlisle lady self published her story of growing up in Carlisle around the turn of the century. The lady doesn't claim to be anybody special or have done exceptional things. She'd be quite content to be called ordinary in fact. It is that ordinariness which makes this a fascinating and encouraging book. Fascinating because she writes so well about everyday things and encouraging because it makes you feel that your own story may be worth writing down, and may even be interesting to others! ...The 73 page booklet book is long out of print and only very occasionally comes up on the second hand market; and when it does it will fetch £15.00 plus. Now that would have surprised her!

As we are finding so often with this project, one find can often link with another. Mary has already listed as a find Irvine Hunt's book, Geese, Cattle, Wallopers and Secret Irish Paths, which is about a boy driving geese to market at Carlisle. This was set in a similar time to that covered by Mildred Edwards' self published memories, and Mildred also mentions the Cattle Mart and geese being driven there:

...This shop was almost next door to the Cattle Mart, a busy place with droves of cattle and sheep bring driven in and out, horses had their days too. If it was a wet day you could smell the Mart long before you came to it. There was no paving in the place, so there was no lack of slush and muck. The streets too had their share, with droves coming and going. Also in the autumn there were flocks of Irish Geese being driven, a small variety, which, were put on the stubble to fatten for Christmas, one could get a nice one for three shillings then. I've heard my husband say when he was a lad about twelve this was so. He had been in the Mart, and his father bought a flock of 200, and set him up the hill to the Brampton Rd. and left him to get that lot to Scaleby Hill, six or seven miles, the birds were hungry and would feed by the roadside grass, and got so full they could hardly waddle, my husband said it was one of the hardest jobs he had ever had. He'd had a good collie with him, but it it was more used to animals than birds, so progress was slow, the light went, and in the darkness stragglers were hard to handle, however he landed home without losing any.

I wonder if Irvine Hunt read this account when he was researching his book!

4 September 2009 from Helen

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