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<< News >> Carlisle keeps its cursing stone

Submitted by Thorgrim on Wednesday, 09 March 2005  Page Views: 7010

Museums
Tullie House Museum
Tullie House Museum submitted by nicoladidsbury : Cursing Stone, Tullie House Millenium Walkway, Carlisle The polished granite stone is inscribed with the curse, which was cast on all the reivers of the English/Scottish borders in the 16th Centuary. The names of those reivers are inscribed in the stones that make up the floor of the millenium walkway, Armstrongs, Grahams, Robsons, Elliotts, and Kerrs to made a few. The Tullie House Museum ... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Carlisle City Council decided last night (8/3/05) to keep its controversial cursing stone displayed in the Tullie House Museum. A Liberal Democrat councillor believes that the giant boulder, inscribed with a 16th century curse, may have brought on foot and mouth, the recent floods and other setbacks. His council motion called for the stone to be destroyed or removed.

The stone was installed in 2001 as part of the city’s millennium celebrations and was created by Carlisle-born artist Gordon Young, who had the idea of inscribing a boulder with a curse against the reivers, issued by the Archbishop of Glasgow. The councillor was urged into action by the editor of the Christian magazine Bound Together, who raised the issue of the cursing stone at a neighbourhood forum meeting.

An on-line poll by The Cumberland News, shows that public opinion is evenly divided. Forty-eight per cent wanted the stone to be destroyed, while 52 per cent thought it should stay.

The granite artwork blamed for bringing misfortunes of "biblical proportions" to a city has been saved. Carlisle City Council rejected a proposal to destroy the stone, commissioned to mark the millennium. Since the Cursing Stone was placed in Carlisle, the city has suffered floods, foot-and-mouth disease, job losses and a goal famine for the football team. But council leader Mike Mitchelson said the decision proved the citizens of Carlisle were rational people.

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"Carlisle keeps its cursing stone" | Login/Create an Account | 12 News and Comments
  
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Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Anonymous on Friday, 15 June 2012
no the city will not get rid of the stone.the councillors belong to a secret sect.you do the maths.why have it here in the first place.besides 100.s of so called christians voted against it and it is still there bringing in revenue for the greedy coffers.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by bat400 on Friday, 15 June 2012
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    Let me guess, you voted to have it removed to "break the curse?"
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Runemage on Friday, 15 June 2012
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    Hi Anon, you're answering a question that was asked in 2005.
    Whilst spurious stories about this stone appear in some of the red-tops on a slow news day, there have been no entirely serious suggestions about it being moved for many years.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Thorgrim on Wednesday, 09 March 2005
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"But council leader Mike Mitchelson said the decision proved the citizens of Carlisle were rational people." Well just about half of them are "rational people"
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Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by TimPrevett on Wednesday, 09 March 2005
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It is SAVED! Hallelujah for some rationality!

Tim
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Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Anonymous on Tuesday, 08 March 2005
I am amazed at the results of the poll. Amazed that 48% of the town actually agree with the the idea of destroying this stone, which is essentially art work. Its reminisent of the people who tried to destroy Long Meg and her sisters, because the believed the stones were evil. I thought we had come a long way since then, obviously I was wrong.

I'd best get down to Tullie House and photograph the stone, before its turned into little rocks. (Question; Do you think the resulting rocks will each hold a small part of the power of the curse?)
;-)
nicoladidsbury
PS - On a lighter note, I haven't seen any burning witches lately....
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Thorgrim on Tuesday, 08 March 2005
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    Unbelievable isn't it and brings no credit to Carlisle or the Liberal Democrats. Whatever happened to the Liberal partof their name - more like hell fire Puritanism or the Taliban. Foot and mouth went across the whole of Britain, not just Carlisle and floods have got more to do with world wide climate change and global warming than curses. Oh well - back to the Dark Ages! If the stone is so powerful, maybe the US will want it as their next ultimate weapon.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Anonymous on Thursday, 17 March 2005
    Why be so flipant about this cursing stone. It is not the stone that one objects to but the words inscribed in the stone. Words are powerfull. Words can promote or words can destroy. We as an "enlightened society" on one hand, preach about speaking positively, to our children, and to each other,(our demigodery of Oprah and Dr. Phil testifies to that fact). If you doubt the power of words, ask any person about the impact that an unkind or thoughtless word spoken to them by a teacher or a parent have had on their life--the contrary is also true. Yet on the other hand we dispute about the virtue of putting up a stone upon which a curse is inscribe...why not inscribe #$**&^##@ (explicatives intended) on another stone and see if the fine people of this fair city will embrace that as well. The question which should have been asked on the survey should have been "Would you inscribe such a curse on a plaque and display these words as a curse over YOUR home and over YOUR family?" I think the figures would come back with the majority of people saying NO. Why would anyone desire such words of misfortune declared over the city in which their home and their family reside?
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by nicoladidsbury on Thursday, 17 March 2005
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      You're right about the choice of words on the stone being a bit strange, but I think the inspiration for the carving came from the museum itself. The museum has been open since the 80s and one of its main attractions is a visual audio film depicting the times of the reivers, a lawless bunch of raiders and plunderers. The film starts off with the curse being read out to the audience. This curse has been cast on to listening audiences many times a day, for over ten years, but no one ever objected, and no one ever thought to blame the film for causing any particular problems.
      These same words have now been etched onto a rather beautiful polished granite stone. The stone sits quietly, almost forgotton, in the underpass between the castle and the museum. Mostly people pass it by without even looking its way. The borderers family names carved in the floor of the underpass attract more attention, as everyone walking through searches for their family name.
      The stone's curse was never meant to be declared over the city; the words are only a rememberence of a shocking time in our history, and the words themselves do not have any power. They only have power if people give them power, as this latest debacle has done.
      I live in carlisle, I am descended from the cursed reivers, and the stone holds no power over me.
      However, you are right, I would never inscribe a curse anywhere near my home........
      [ Reply to This ]

Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Thorgrim on Tuesday, 08 March 2005
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Do they still burn witches too? Strange that the local Christians should object to a curse made by a Christian Archbishop.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Anonymous on Sunday, 13 March 2005
    how do you know its christian The scriptures origins could be protestant or presbytarian bishop, thats all I wanted to say.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Will city get rid of cursing stone? by Thorgrim on Sunday, 13 March 2005
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    But Protestants and Presbytarians ARE Christians aren't they? The curse was made by the Archbishop of Glasgow so I guess that he would have been a Protestant.
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