Part of my job involves writing about planning applications which, while it sounds a bit boring, residents quite like to read about what could happen in their neighbourhood and the NIMBY brigade can get quite worked up about them at times.
But sometimes an application can reveal the odd gem and this is just such an example on the News & Star website which I wrote on Friday: Plans submitted for All Things Tea in Brampton
Plans were submitted to Cumberland Council for the ongoing alterations to a Grade II listed building in Brampton which is known as Prince Charlie’s House.
And no, before you ask, it is not connected to our current King Charles III but it is linked to the Jacobite leader Bonnie Prince Charlie who made the building his headquarters between November 12 and November 18, 1745, during the siege of Carlisle.
Apparently it used to have a white plaque, and no I am not entirely sure what difference there is between that and a blue plaque, but now it sports a much fancier commemoration as these pictures show.
It was first listed on April 1, 1957, and it is described as a shop with a flat above in High Cross Street from the late 17th Century with alterations from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is also one of the oldest buildings in the Cumbrian town.
I took a run out to Brampton yesterday to get these pics and, according to the current commemorative plaque on the wall, the siege was of Carlisle and its castle and the terms of surrender were dictated from Brampton on November 14 and the city keys presented to the prince two days later in 1745.
However, advanced elements of the English forces reached Carlisle on December 21, 1745, to retake the city and the prince was forced to retreat back to Scotland.
Related article: Prisoners’ Stone in Culloden Wood
Related article: Commemoration event at Culloden Battlefield
Related article: Investment for battlefield site
Related article: Piper sounds lament for fallen Scottish soldiers
When I was living I Scotland I lived just a few miles from Culloden and the battlefield was one of the first places I visited once I had moved there. I found it quite atmospheric and, despite the brutal past, it seemed quite calm.
And I did a few articles about the site over the years and there was also a local Cumbrian connection to the Jacobite cause as Clifton, near Penrith, was the scene of the last skirmish on English soil.
Ian Duncan Media 