Description
Alston, a town and a parish 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 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 neighbouring woods. Its houses are irregular, but consist chiefly of stone. The chief public buildings are a town-hall, the parish church, several dissenting chapels, grammar and other schools, a mechanics' institute, a workhouse, and a stone bridge. The chief employments are connected with the manufacture of clogs and pattens and an extensive mineral traffic. A weekly market is held on Saturday, and fairs on the last Saturday of March, the last Thursday of May, the Friday before 27 Sept., and the first Thursday of Nov. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Carlisle, and a banking office. It is a seat of petty sessions.
The parish includes also the chapelries of Garrigill and Nenthead. Acreage, 36,968; population, 3384. Much of the property belonged to the Earls of Derwentwater, and, after the attainder and execution of the last earl, was given to Greenwich Hospital. The land is chiefly moor and mountain, 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. The lead ore generally contains so much silver as to yield from 8 to 10 ounces per ton, and that of Yadmoss mine has yielded 96 ounces per ton. Copper ore and a little gold have 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 Newcastle, and includes the curacy of Garrigill; value, £330, in the gift of the Admiralty. The living of Nenthead is a separate benefice. The grammar school in the town has a small endowment, and there are various charities.
