Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ALSTON

ALSTON, a town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district, in Cumberland. The parish is also designated Alston Moor. The town stands on the South Tyne river, a little W of Middlefell, not far from the boundaries with Northumberland, Durham, and Westmoreland, at the terminus of a branch railway of 13 miles from the Haltwhistle station of the Carlisle and Newcastle railway, 26 miles by road and 35 by railway, ESE of Carlisle. Its site is a declivity, near the influx of the Nent to the South Tyne, amid a region of high, moorish uplands; and its appearance is relieved and beautified by the vales of the streams and by the neighbourhood of woods. Its houses are irregular, but consist chiefly of stone. The chief public buildings are a new town hall, the parish church, several dissenting chapels, a grammar school, a workhouse, and a stone bridge. The chief employments are connected with a woollen factory and an extensive mineral traffic. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and fairs on the third Saturday of March, the last Thursday of May, 27 Sept., and the first Thursday of Nov. The town has a post office‡ under Carlisle, a telegraph station, a banking office, and two hotels; and it is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place.

The parish includes also the chapelries of Garrigill and Nenthead. Acres, 35,060. Real property, £12,573, -of which £4,243 are in mines. Pop., 6,404. Houses, 1,282. Much of the property belonged to the Earls of Derwentwater; and, after the attainder and execution of the last earl, was given to Green. wich hospital. The land is chiefly moor and moun tain, either utterly sterile or grazed by sheep; but the rocks abound with rich ores; and the hills in some parts are pierced with spar caves. Lead mines began to be worked in the time of Henry III.; they became greatly extended about 1688; they increased to 119 in 1768, with an annual produce of about 167,544 cwt.; and they then began to decrease, but still amounted to 102 in 1814, with an annual produce of about 91,968 cwt. an aqueduct level, 5 miles in length, called Nent Force, was cut from the Nenthead mines to the town for carrying off the water. The lead ore generally contains so much silver as to yield from 8 to 10 ounces per ton; and that of Yadmoss mine, opened in 1828, has yielded 96 ounces per ton. Copper ore has been found in the same mines as the lead. Some of the caves in the hills make both a beautiful and an opulent display of minerals; and one, called Tutman's Hole, has been explored to the extent of a mile from the entrance. Traces of the Roman Maiden-way are seen about a mile W of the town; and remains of Whitley castle, consisting of earthworks, substructions, and a moat, occur on Hall-Hill. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; and includes the curacy of Garrigill. Value, £210.* Patron, Greenwich hospital. The chapelry of Nenthead is a separate benefice. The grammar school in the town has £40 a year from endowment; and other charities have £65.

The subdistrict and the district of Alston are co-extensive with the parish. Poor-rates in 1866, £1,846. Marriages in 1866, 31; births, 214,-of which 28 were illegitimate; deaths, 114,-of which 34 were at ages under 5 years, and 2 at ages above 85 years. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 336; births, 2,294; deaths, 1,315. The places of worship in 1851 were 3 of the Church of England, with 1,090 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 520 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 200 s.; 8 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1,831 s.; and 5 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,118 s. The schools in 1851 were 10 public day schools, with 910 scholars; 5 private day schools, with 117 s.; 13 Sunday schools, with 1,393 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 39 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Alston With Garrigill AP/CP       Alston SubD       Alston With Garrigill RegD/PLU       Cumberland AncC
Place: Alston

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