When the Roman emperor Hadrian built the wall that was to protect the northern-most fringe of his empire in AD122, the garrison of Luguvalium was already well-established and thriving. Today, Carlisle, as Hadrian’s outpost became known, has the slightly rundown appearance of a place that has suffered years of economic decline. Key employers such as railway yards and a printing works have closed and a collection of Ministry of Defence maintenance units was shut down in the 1990s. The city was damaged by floods in early 2005 and even now not all the 1,500 jobs that were lost have been replaced.