大象传媒

During WW1, Carlisle experienced an increase in juvenile delinquency as society struggled to cope with the demands of fighting a total war.

On the home front women started to work long hours in the new munitions factories at Gretna and this conflicted with their traditional role as homemakers.

And with many fathers and older brothers serving in the frontline many children were being raised in families without a male role model.

With increasing numbers of casualties many men didn't come home, and women found themselves having to raise a family on their own.

The result was an increase in gangs roaming the streets of Carlisle causing trouble. This ant-social behaviour began to alarm the city fathers.

One extraordinary example of this was the ice-cream parlour on English Street becoming a magnet for 'latch-key' kids who were causing a disturbance of the peace. To put an end to the 'ice cream riots' the Italian owners were fined for staying open late on the basis that a raspberry sorbet wasn't food.

This alarm at the breakdown in public order was such that local moral guardian Canon Rawnsley pushed for the creation of new Boys and Girls Clubs to give the children something to do. This effort to keep trouble off the streets of Carlisle demonstrated that it was ahead of the rest of the country in responding to the social upheaval on the home front.

Location: Carlisle, Cumbria
Image: Ice cream parlour in Carlisle, courtesy of Ashley Jackson

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