A sheepfold in the city?

A scene in the centre of Carlisle. Could be any UK town or city really. But the clue is in the top right hand corner.

We left the Drove Road at Longtown and have now travelled south 8 or 9 miles to Carlisle. Remember that we are following in the footsteps of Andy Goldsworthy and his arch and he was following one of the routes used by Drovers as they moved herds of cattle and sheep south from Scotland.

It is known that the bulk of Scottish cattle entered England at Carlisle. A fair here had been established by the time of Henry 1 (1100-35) and was held on several days between August and Christmas. There is documentary evidence that up to 18,000 cattle a year passed through in the 1600s.

An old map shows a wide drovers lane leading round the city, outside the city walls. There was a Drove Inn on this route, which was closed in 1917. Obviously nothing of the original lane now exists, although the road that was built using the same route through the city took on the name of Drovers Lane. Part of it was renamed Lowther Street and is now one of the main streets in the city. The remaining bit was built over with an extension to the Lanes Shopping Centre, built for Debenhams and opened in 2000. But the new road still retains the original name.

So in the picture you can see the street name on the only bit of 'Drovers Lane' left. Looking up Lowther Street from this point, it is difficult to imagine a time when the opposite side of the road, where the Victorian buildings are and the bus is parked, was all green fields, the city walls were more or less where the pavement is now and between the two was a wide dirt track with grassy verges, along which herds of cattle and sheep were driven, on their way south.

In 1997 Goldsworthy built his arch alongside this wall, pleased that the sandstone building was made of the same kind of sandstone as his arch. Then he built it again further down the drove route, where on an old map a sheepfold is marked. This was just outside the Civic Centre. It must have been quite a sight for people around at the time. We sat in the very spot, where the arch stood and a sheepfold was planned. But this was never built. Maybe someone realised that a sheepfold in a car park was just about okay, but in the centre of the city outside one of the main buildings was perhaps going a bit too far!