The Borderers

Carlisle youth hostel, known as Etterby House, was on Etterby Road at the northern edge of the city. It had previously been the abode of a local magnate and came with its own fishing rights on the River Eden. We spent 7 overnight stays there, as part of 5 different Lake District short breaks between October 1964 and April 1972.

In April 1967, we travelled there by car but had to secrete it around a corner and out of sight, as YHA rules did not permit such things at that time. We invented a story, which no one would ever have believed had we seriously had to air it, that we were travelling by canoe. I think that my mum knitted my light-blue bobble hat, which is just in view. It was obviously as much of a ‘Wow” with the girls that we had met the night before as my anorak must have been. [Photo with thanks to Ian Hughes]

The hostel closed in 1997. The building has since been converted into several individual properties and renamed Eden Bank.  

Rather than fish, the attraction that this location provided was the view of Kingmoor sheds, as well as that from the bridge just to the south where the main line from Glasgow crossed the River Eden in its approach to Carlisle Citadel station. Our earlier visits coincided with the run-down of steam power, before it disappeared completely in 1968. By 1967, Kingmoor had become a hot-spot for the Britannia Pacifics already ousted from other parts of the network.

Type One No. D8120 is passing below the Etterby Road bridge on 25/3/67.

Type Two No. D5708 has just crossed the River Eden in Carlisle on 25/3/67.