AN EXHIBITION devoted to the history and development of two prominent areas in Carlisle will open its doors this weekend.

Shaddongate Community Resource Centre, home of Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service (Cumbria CVS) will host the exhibition, which will put the spotlight on how Shaddongate and Caldewgate have evolved.

The event will officially launch at 6pm today (Friday), and will be free for all to attend on Saturday and Sunday between 10am and 4pm.

Named ‘The Gate’, the public display was made possible thanks to money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It follows a successful series of heritage walks which have taken visitors on a historical tour of Shaddongate, Caldewgate and Willowholme.

The tours pointed out historical sites, facts and forgotten memories of an area once packed with factories, mills, breweries and the sounds and smells that accompanied them as Carlisle joined the industrial revolution.

The exhibition is the culmination of months spent collecting together information about the area and its importance to the development of Carlisle as an industrial city and features a timeline of events, people and places which shaped the area as it began to take off around 1750 and includes information about weaving, rioting, football, pubs and breweries, the ship canal and many other things that made up the Free City as the area was nicknamed in the early 1800’s.

Organiser Mark Costello, from Effective Communities, the team behind the project, said: “This is a small place big on history.

“We are scratching at the surface of it’s heritage and there are so many stories we could tell.

“The exhibition is taking place at the Shaddongate Resource Centre for example, a relatively new building, but one built on a site with a lot to talk about.

“Some people might remember the Border dairy complete with pipeline transporting skimmed milk from one side of Shaddongate to the other.

“But much earlier, from 1851 the site was home to Caldewgate Ragged and Industrial School.

“A place of learning and refuge for the areas’ poorest children at a time before free education.

“Earlier still in 1758 the site was the birthplace of Mark Lonsdale, celebrated Cumberland poet and writer of Th’ Upshot and Love in Cumberland.

“There is lots to find out about and we hope people will enjoy what we have collected and add their own memories as well.”

For further information about the exhibition, go online to www.shaddongate.weebly.com, or email markcostelloe@hotmail.com.

Alternatively, call Mark on 078640 80596.