The Continuance Institute

The Circles · C-10

Carlisle Circle

A border circle whose outward work is seasonal, unreliable, and unusually hard.

Place
Carlisle, Cumbria, United Kingdom
Recognised
1991
Affiliated house
Fell House
Assigned steward
Iona Reid
Convener
Margaret NixonRetired district nurse. Term began 2026; first year.
Ordinary meeting
Fortnightly, Wednesday evenings
Typical attendance
10 to 15
Access
Open to visitors

Local history

Recognised in 1991. The flood rota was adopted in 2006 and has been called out in nine of the twenty years since; in the other eleven the circle's return records no hours, which the stewardship has twice confirmed is the correct way to record them.

The outward obligation

Repair and restoration

Flood repair rota, held with a district flood recovery group.

Clearing, drying, and rehanging doors after river flooding. Dormant in dry years, and the circle says so in its return rather than inventing hours.

The forms it carries

  • The Quiet Twelve

    Twelve minutes are kept before the reading. Nothing is assigned to the silence.

  • The Repair Table

    A table, a bench, or a marked shelf where ordinary objects wait to be mended.

  • The Boundary Walk

    At the start of each season the practical boundary is walked and what is wrong with it is written down.

  • The Weather Entry

    Before the first shared meal of the month, one person writes the weather in the house book.

Local variation. The boundary walk follows a river path and is walked in February, when it is least pleasant and most useful.

The shared forms, as they are kept in the houses

Also attached to Fell House

Elsewhere in Europe