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The Devils Porridge

Illustration of a Lohner L plane.

Short 184 & Lohner L Postcards

By Collections blog

Short 184

The Short 184 was designed to meet a requirement for a torpedo bomber. It was developed from the Short 1913 circuit of Britain airplane with a 225hp Sunbeam Maori engine and was notable for its rearward folding wings and three-float landing gear. A major production programme began in the spring of 1915 involving 9 contractors in addition to Short. A variety of engines powered the Short 184 including the 240hp Renault and Sunbeam units. Production totalled more than 900 aircraft of which 300 were still in service at the end of the Great War.

Lohner L

The Lohner L, a slender, elegant flying boat, was produced by the Jakob Lohner Werke of Vienna. Powered by either a 140hp Hiero or by an Austro-Daimler of 140 or 180hp, this two-seater aircraft could carry up to 200kg of bombs or depth charges and also operate quite effectively as a fighter armed with a Schwarzlose machine-gun on a rotable mounting. It was used in the Austro-Hungarian Navy against Italian targets from 1915 until the end of the war in the reconnaissance, night bombing and anti-shipping roles.

A D-Day medal.

WW2 Medals

By Collections blog

The 1939-45 War Medal is a campaign medal which was instituted by the United Kingdom on 16 August 1945, for award to citizens of the British Commonwealth who had served full-time in the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy for at least 28 days between 3rd September 1939 and 2nd September 1945.

The duration of the Second World War in Europe was from 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945, while in the Pacific Theatre it continued until 2 September 1945. Foreign citizens commissioned or enlisted into the British forces, who did not receive a similar award to the War Medal 1939-45 from their own Governments, were also eligible to qualify for the award of this medal.

This D-Day Commemorative badge was made in Paris to remember the soldiers who laid down their lives in an attempt to end the War.

The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War Two. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the allied victory on the Western Front.

Botchergate Carlisle with trams running.

Old Postcards of Carlisle

By Collections blog

It is always very interesting to view old postcards of what the local and surrounding areas looked like in the past and how much they have changed throughout time. These postcards of Carlisle date from different time periods showing different parts of the city throughout time.

 

The first postcard shows Botchergate Street in Carlisle sometime around WW1.

 

This shows Carlisle Cathedral from the North Side.

 

The Museum keeps many postcards of the local area and has many more of other towns and villages nearby showing what it might have been like living there during and after the First World War.

 

This  shows the entrance to English Street.

 

These postcards show some of the most recognisable streets in Carlisle that anyone who has been there or lives there would recognise which is why it is so interesting to see how they have changed overtime.

 

 

This postcard is a more recent overview photo of the Citadel and Carlisle Train Station. This postcard also shows the more updated roads and the removal of the tram system, which can be seen in the Botchergate postcard.

Postcard of Gretna township in the past.

Old Postcards of Gretna and Eastriggs

By Collections blog

When HM Factory Gretna was built in WW1 they needed a place to house all of their workers, they came up with the idea to build two new townships near the Factory site. These two townships were Eastriggs and Gretna, many houses and hostels were built to house all of the workers during WW1 some of which you can see in the photo below of Dunedin Road in Eastriggs.

 

 

The photo below shows the temporary wooden huts which were eventually converted into proper houses using brick after the war built in Gretna along with some of the permanent  hostel buildings which have now been converted into houses.

 

 

Below is a photo of the girls reading room which would be used some of the 12,000 female workers who worked at HM Factory Gretna during their spare time. The interior looks very nice but some reports we have of girls who worked at the Factory say that it was very cold inside during the winter as there was no heating.

 

Illustration of Fokker E-111 plane.

Fokker E-111 & Hanriot HD-1

By Collections blog

Hanriot HD-1

Built at first by Rene Hanriot and Pierre Dupont at Billancourt, Paris, this attractive French fighter found little interest with the Aviation Militaire, who did not use it operationally. The Italian Air Force thought otherwise; producing large numbers at the Nieuport-Macchi factory at Varese and adopting the aircraft as its most widely-used fighter, in Italy, Albania and Macedonia. it also equipped the Belgian Aviation Militaire and was used by the French and United States Navies.

Fokker E-111

During the early months of the Great War the Dutchman, Anthony Fokker, supplied three monoplane designs to the German Army. In April 1915 Fokker was asked to develop one of these to be armed with a fixed machine gun firing forwards through the propeller. Three months later an interrupter gear was devised by Fokker and Lubbe and fitter into the Fokker M5k single-seat monoplane already in service. The airplane was then given the military title of Fokker E-1. The E-1 was powered by the 80hp Oberursel rotary engine and was soon replaced by the E-11 and the E-111 both with the 100hp Oberursel. At first, armament was a single Parabellum gun but the standard equipment soon became the Spandau. The E-IV, a larger machine, powered by the 160hp Oberursel was armed with two Spandau’s. The Fokker Eindecker entered service in later 1915 to start the ‘Fokker Scourge’ that gave German’s air superiority. 258 were built and used by the German’s, Austro-Hungarians and Turks. Production ended in July 1916 when the airplane had become thoroughly obsolete.

 

Past archive photo of The Rand, Eastriggs.

Old Postcards of the Local Area

By Collections blog

These old postcards show what life was like in these local towns and villages and how much they’ve changed. We do not have exact dates from when the photos were taken but they show a very different time.

 

 

This postcard shows the Scotch Express leaving Carlisle Train Station which as you can see looks very different in this photo than it does today.

 

The Central Hotel in Annan looks a lot different here. Shame that it has now fallen into disrepair. This postcard also shows how different the roads were back then with no road markings and the roundabout not yet in place.

 

 

This postcard shows what Powfoot looked like quite some time ago. The old sandstone house now being part of the Powfoot Golf Hotel.

 

 

This postcard shows The Rand in Eastriggs and what it looked like with all of the houses built for the workers of HM Factory Gretna and used as hostels. These hostels were all purpose built to house the workers of HM Factory Gretna during the First World War.

A booklet concerning Britain's First Decimal Coins.

Britain’s First Decimal Coins Set

By Collections blog

Today’s website post is a little different as it does not relate to either World War One or World War Two but it is an item we have in the Museum store that we found interesting. The item in question is a Britain’s First Decimal Coins set which explains the changeover to decimal currency and what date it will be happening, it also includes five of the new coins which were being introduced.

The five coins which it includes are the Half penny, one pence, two pence, 5 pence and the ten pence. The day the United Kingdom changed to decimal currency was called Decimal Day and was on Monday 15th February 1971 and was nicknamed D-Day. These coins include designs which were made by Christopher Ironside who won the competition to have his designs on the new decimal coins.

Inside the booklet includes a list of information about how and when the new coins will be introduced into circulation and what the new system means with 100 pennies making up the new pound. Although the new coins were released from 1968 onwards the planning of the decimal coins started in 1961 when a special committee was set up by the Government to think about whether Britain should introduce a decimal currency. The committee decided in favour of decimalisation. So, on 1 March 1966 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan, announced that pounds, shilling and pence would be replaced by a decimal currency, with a hundred units in a pound.

Illustration of Vickers F.B. 5 plane.

Caudron G4 & Vickers F.B. 5 WW1 Plane Postcards

By Collections blog

Caudron G4

The Caudron G4 came into service during the spring of 1915 as a bombing reconnaissance airplane with a good useful load of about 220lbs, an extraordinary rate of climb and even equipped with a wireless set. G4s were assigned to 38 escadrilles of the French Air force and used extensively throughout the war. At first they operated on reconnaissance duties then, in November 1915, they undertook daytime bombing sorties attacking targets beyond the Rhine. By the autumn of 1916 they were withdrawn from this duty because of the greatly improved German fighter defences. The RNAS used the Caudron G4. 43 were imported from France and 12 were built in the British Caudron plant. They were used to raid the German Zeppelin, submarine and seaplane bases along the Belgian coast. The G4 was also built in Italy and used by the Italian Air Force while 10, acquired by the American Army Air Force, were used as training aircraft.

Vickers F.B 5

Vickers Ltd were one of the first companies to design fighter aircraft. Their Type 18 ‘Destroyer’ was featured at the 1913 Aero show at Olympia armed with a belt-fed Maxim gun. The production aircraft, the FB 5, was bought by the RFC armed with a drum-fed Lewis Gun. No.11 Squadron RFC was the first specialised fighter Squadron to be formed with FB 5s in February 1915 and was soon in action with its ‘Gunbus’ used as a fighter, ground-strafer and sometimes a bomber. On 7th November 1915, 2nd Lieutenant G.S.M. Insall of No.11 Squadron RFC won the Victoria Cross for an action in a Vickers FB 5. This slow airplane, with a meagre performance, remained in service until July 1916, by then being no match at all for the German Fokker monoplanes.

Some bullets.

WW1 Items

By Collections blog

These two objects are being kept in the Museums store so I thought I would do a bit of research on them. One of the items are .303 British shell casings from WW1 and the other is an officers side arm holster also from WW1.

 

The .303 British bullets were first developed in Britain as a black-powder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee-Metford rifle. In 1891 the cartridge was adapted to use smokeless powder. It was the standard British and Commonwealth military cartridge from 1889 until the 1950’s when it was replaced by the 7.62x51mm NATO. During a service life of over 70 years with the British Commonwealth armed forces the .303-inch cartridge in its ball pattern progressed through ten marks which eventually extended to a total of about 26 variations. The bolt thrust of the .303 British is relatively low compared to many other service rounds used in the early 20th Century. During World War One British factories alone produced 7 billion rounds of .303 ammunition. Factories in other countries greatly added to this total.

 

 

The other item is a leather WW1 British Officers sidearm holster which we believe used to hold a Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver which was used by British Army officers as their side arm. The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was designed in 1895 and was produced from 1901-1924, the revolver is easily recognisable by the zig-zag grooves on the cylinder. Though Webley viewed this weapon as an ideal sidearm for cavalry troops, the Webley-Fosbery was never adopted as an official government sidearm. Several models of the Webley-Fosbery revolvers were produced, and the type saw limited action in the Boer Wars as well as World War One, where some privately purchased examples were carried by British Officers in the .455 service bearing. Reports from the field suggested that the Webley-Fosbery, with its precisely machined recoil surfaces, was more susceptible to jamming in wartime conditions of mud and rain than comparable sidearms of the period.

 

 

The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast

By Archive

Welcome to The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast!

 

The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast has been created as part of an inter-generational oral history project. The project is now available for you to listen to online.

 

Through conversations and interviews, our volunteers and others from the local community will be sharing their personal stories and memories with The Devils Porridge Podcast team.

 

This week on the Podcast we talk to David Ramshaw – author of ‘The Carlisle Ship Canal’. He was due to give a talk on the book in July but it was cancelled due to lockdown.

 

The Carlisle Ship Canal had a very short life compared to most canals. Construction work began in 1819 and the canal was closed in 1853. As a result there is probably less known about it than many other canals which still exist today.

 

 

More episodes will follow over the coming weeks, so please come back and listen to more installments throughout the summer.

 

If you would like to get involved in the project to share your own stories and memories or if you would like to find out more about joining our production team please contact: steven@devilsporridge.org.uk

 

 

You can listen to the podcast below:

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