Alston, Cumbria
Encyclopedia
Alston is a small town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 in Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 on the River South Tyne
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...

. It is one of the highest elevation towns in the country, at about 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level.

Geography

The town lies on the confluence of the River South Tyne and the River Nent. The landscape of the area is built up from limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

, sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 and shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

. The area is rich in minerals, in particular lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 deposits, and the landscape has been heavily influenced by the effects of varying methods of mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 over the centuries.

The name of the town is recorded in 1164-1171 as Aldeneby and in 1209 as Aldeneston, and seems to mean "the settlement or farmstead belonging to [a Viking man named] Halfdan
Halfdan
Halfdan was a late 5th and early 6th century legendary Danish king of the Scylding lineage, the son of king named Fróði in many accounts, noted mainly as the father to the two kings who succeeded him in the rule of Denmark, kings named Hroðgar and Halga in the Old English poem Beowulf and named...

".

Alston claims to be the highest market town in England, being about 1000 feet above sea level. It lies within the North Pennines
North Pennines
The North Pennines is the northernmost section of the Pennine range of hills which runs north-south through northern England. It lies between Carlisle to the west and Darlington to the east...

 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...

, more than 15 miles (24 km) from the nearest town, and is surrounded by moorland.

Nearby villages include Garrigill
Garrigill
Garrigill, Cumbria is a small village in the North Pennine region of the UK situated on the banks and close to the source of the River South Tyne...

 and Nenthead
Nenthead
The small village of Nenthead in the county of Cumbria is one of England's highest villages, at 1,500 feet. It was not built until the middle of the 18th century and was one of the earliest purpose-built industrial villages in Britain...

.

Early settlements

The earliest evidence of population in the area comes from pottery fragments, a gold basket-earring and flint tools found in one of two barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

s excavated in 1935 (2 miles or 3 kilometres NNW of Alston at Kirkhaugh), these were dated between 2000 BC and 1700 BC.

Evidence of Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 activity in the area comes from the earth remains of Whitley Castle, thought to be the Roman fort (Castra
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...

) of Epiacum http://www.roman-britain.org/places/epiacum.htm built and rebuilt by the Sixth and Twentieth Legions between the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The fort's main purpose was to extract and protect lead and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 deposits in the upper reaches of the south Tyne valley.

Sovereignty

In the 10th century, Alston Moor
Alston Moor
Alston Moor is an area of moorland and civil parish in Cumbria, England, based around the small town of Alston. The parish had a population of 2,156 at the 2001 census. As well as the town of Alston, the parish includes the villages of Garrigill and Nenthead, along with the hamlets of Nenthall,...

 was part of The Liberty of Tynedale
Tynedale
Tynedale was a local government district in south-west Northumberland, England. It had a resident population of 58,808 according to the 2001 Census, and was named after the River Tyne . Its main towns were Hexham, Haltwhistle and Prudhoe...

 which was an estate of the Scottish Kings within England, a situation that resulted in many years of confusion over the sovereignty of the area.

In 1085, the Barons de Vertiponte became the first recorded Lords of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...

, they held the moor on behalf of the kings of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 while the kings of England retained the mineral rights
Mineral rights
- Mineral estate :Ownership of mineral rights is an estate in real property. Technically it is known as a mineral estate and often referred to as mineral rights...

. This was confirmed in a hearing during 1279 which concluded that the miners of the area were distinct from the local population thus paying their dues to the English crown instead of Scotland. As a result the miners lived in their own self regulated communities under English protection.

In 1269, John de Balliol
John of Scotland
John Balliol , known to the Scots as Toom Tabard , was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296.-Early life:Little of John's early life is known. He was born between 1248 and 1250 at an unknown location, possibilities include Galloway, Picardy and Barnard Castle, County Durham...

, the king of Scotland invaded the north of England, as a result of this Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 moved to reclaim the Scottish estates and Tynedale which included Alston Moor was taken into direct control of the English crown where it remains.

Despite the town being on the Tyne and being historically part of Tynedale the area has never been part of either Hexhamshire
Hexhamshire
Hexhamshire was a county of northern England. It existed for several hundred years until it was incorporated into Northumberland in 1572.-County:...

 or Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

 but part of Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....

 and later Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

. This was probably because the mines in the area were at one time administered from Carlisle.

Mining

Historically the area has been mined for lead, silver, zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 and fluorspar
Fluorite
Fluorite is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It is an isometric mineral with a cubic habit, though octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon...

.

In the 13th century, the area was known as the silver mines of Carlisle—silver was found in a high proportion (up to 40 troy ounce
Troy weight
Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals, gemstones, and black powder.There are 12 troy ounces per troy pound, rather than the 16 ounces per pound found in the more common avoirdupois system. The troy ounce is 480 grains, compared with the avoirdupois ounce,...

s per long ton
Long ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...

 or 1.2 g/kg of smelted
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...

 lead) and was used to create coinage in the Royal Mint
Royal Mint
The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...

 established in Carlisle for the purpose. Most mining was very small scale until the mid-18th century,

The biggest mine owner in the area was the London Lead Company
London Lead Company
The London Lead Company was an 18th and 19th century British lead mining company. It was incorporated by royal charter. Strictly, it was The Company for Smelting Down Lead with Pitcoal.-Origins:...

; this Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

 (Quakers) organisation with enlightened employment policies established an interest in the area during the early 18th century. In 1745, it began construction of a school, a library, a sanitary house, a surgeon's house, a market hall with clock tower, a laundry and a 'ready-money' shop in Nenthead
Nenthead
The small village of Nenthead in the county of Cumbria is one of England's highest villages, at 1,500 feet. It was not built until the middle of the 18th century and was one of the earliest purpose-built industrial villages in Britain...

, four miles away.

The last mines closed in the 1950s but as of 2005 Ayle
Ayle
 Ayle is a village in Northumberland, England, situated to the north of Alston. There are six residences in the hamlet.- Governance :Ayle is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham....

 colliery was still active.

Modern industry

The area is no longer actively mined although the mining history is exploited for tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 purposes.

Farming

The moorland
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...

 is mainly used for sheep farming however many farmers also have other enterprises, such as Bed and Breakfast
Bed and breakfast
A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...

 accommodation

Tourism

Tourism is now a key source of income for the area. Alston and the surrounding area is part of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and European Geopark http://www.northpennines.org.uk. Alston is noted for its cobbled streets and 17th century stone buildings.http://www.thecumbriadirectory.com/Town_or_Village/location.php?url=alston The Pennine Way
Pennine Way
The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England. The trail runs from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and the Northumberland National Park and ends at Kirk Yetholm, just inside the Scottish border. The path runs along the Pennine hills, sometimes...

, the UK's
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 first National Trail, passes through Alston.

Shopping is remarkably good for such a small place. Shops include a whole foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...

 shop, a Co-op supermarket
The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group Ltd. is a United Kingdom consumer cooperative with a diverse range of business interests. It is co-operatively run and owned by its members. It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 5.5 million members, who all have a say in how the business is...

, a vegetable shop
Greengrocer
A greengrocer or fruiterer is a retail trader in fruit and vegetables; that is, in green groceries. Greengrocer is primarily a British and Australian term, and greengrocers' shops were once common in suburbs, towns and villages...

, two butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

s, a newsagent
Newsagent
A newsagent's shop , newsagency or newsstand is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local interest. In Britain and Australia, these businesses are termed newsagents...

's which also sells hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....

, a computer shop and cybercafe, an outdoor clothing shop, an organic bakery
Bakery
A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...

 and a number of craft
Craft
A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...

, gift and antique shop
Antique shop
An antique shop is a retail store specializing in the selling of antiques. Antiques shops can be located either locally and with the advent of the Internet found online...

s.

Metal working

For much of the 20th century, between 1940 and its closure in 1980, a foundry
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...

 employed around 200 people. The closure of this foundry increased unemployment in the area from 8.9% to over 25%.

Currently the area's main employer is Precision Products,http://www.shawprocess.co.uk a company that was started in 1947 by William (Bill) Ball. The company produces stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 and super-alloy castings, employing around 65 workers.

Population

The population census figures show that at its peak during 1831 the population of the parish of Alston Moor
Alston Moor
Alston Moor is an area of moorland and civil parish in Cumbria, England, based around the small town of Alston. The parish had a population of 2,156 at the 2001 census. As well as the town of Alston, the parish includes the villages of Garrigill and Nenthead, along with the hamlets of Nenthall,...

 was 6,858 people. Today that figure is about 2,000. The population of the town of Alston
was 1128 according to the 2001 Census.http://www.eden.gov.uk/main.asp?page=2156
The community has its own website which is a result of the Cybermoor Projecthttp://www.cybermoor.org which has brought the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 to almost every home on Alston Moor, and broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

 to many. The problem of the area's relative remoteness compared to other areas of England was solved by utilising IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee . The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent...

 technology to construct the network infrastructure.

Town Hall

The Town Hall is a focal point for the community, being a venue for many local social events. It also contains the tourist information centre
Visitor center
A visitor center or centre , visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to the visitors who tour the place or area locally...

 and some local administration offices. Up until the late 1980s the Town Hall also contained the public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...

 and a branch of the Trustee Savings Bank
Trustee Savings Bank
The Trustee Savings Bank was a British financial institution which specialised in accepting savings deposits from the poor. They did not trade their shares on the stock market and, unlike mutually held building societies, depositors had no voting rights nor the ability to direct the financial and...

. The bank closed down but the library moved to premises in the Market Place, then moved back to the Town Hall in September 2008.

Construction of the neo-gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 building started in 1857 when Hugh Lee Pattinson laid the foundation stone. The architecture was designed by A.B. Higham and the estimated costs were £2000, although the final costs were closer to £3000; these were paid for by public subscription.http://www.curlewconsulting.co.uk/historyline/26_townhall.mp3http://www.cybermoor.org/directory/towntrail

Market cross

Although the town does not hold a regular market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

 it still maintains the legal right to do so. The market cross
Market cross
A market cross is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, originally from the distinctive tradition in Early Medieval Insular art of free-standing stone standing or high crosses, often elaborately carved, which goes back to the 7th century. Market crosses can be found in most...

 which acts as a focal point in the centre of town was constructed in 1983 to replace one constructed in 1863 after it was hit by a lorry.http://www.curlewconsulting.co.uk/historyline/32_market_cross.mp3

A regular producers' market now takes place in the Town Hall from April to September selling food and crafts produced in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

, celebrating Alston's position at the crux of these three counties.

Nent Force level

During the area's peak of prosperity in 1776 John Smeaton
John Smeaton
John Smeaton, FRS, was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist...

 began construction of an underground drain (the "Nent Force Level") to de-water the mines of the Nent Valley and assist with the transport of extracted materials as well as to locate new mineral seams. The canal took 66 years to construct at a cost of £80,000, and became known as "Smeaton's Folly". In the 1830s mine manager and engineer said that it could be visited "in boats 30 feet in length, which are propelled in four feet of water by means of sticks projecting from the sides of the level; and thus may be enjoyed the singular novelty of sailing a few miles underground". It was intended to be 9 feet square but in the softer terrain was extended to 9'x16', dead level for 3.75 miles (6 km) to allow boat use, with a rise of 35 fathom
Fathom
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...

s (64 m) at Lovelady Shield and then driven into the Nenthead
Nenthead
The small village of Nenthead in the county of Cumbria is one of England's highest villages, at 1,500 feet. It was not built until the middle of the 18th century and was one of the earliest purpose-built industrial villages in Britain...

 ground. The amount of ore found was disappointing, though not insignificant.

Access to the Nent Force Level is currently extremely difficult although efforts have been made to develop a heritage centre
Heritage centre
A heritage centre is a museum facility primarily dedicated to the presentation of historical and cultural information about a place and its people, including, to some degree, natural features...

 to make this extraordinary piece of engineering accessible to the public.

Samuel King's School

As well as having a primary school, the town is host to England's smallest secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 (an 11–16 comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

) Samuel King's School. Alston Moor has a second small primary school at Nenthead.http://www.samuelkings.cumbria.sch.uk

Filming locations

Marketing literature for the town frequently refers to two occasions on which the town has been used as a filming location.

The front street and market cross of the town were used as a filming location in an adaptation of Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre (1997 film)
Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations. This version appeared on the A&E Television Network in 1997....

. Despite three days of set preparation and two days of actual filming only a few seconds of footage were used.

The town was also adapted to resemble a seaside village where Oliver is born for the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 TV miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist (TV miniseries)
Oliver Twist is a 1999 television mini-series produced by ITV based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.-Plot:The first episode revolved around Oliver's parents as they struggled to fight their love for each other...

.

Millennium celebrations

To mark the millennium, a significant proportion of the population of the moor gathered in front of the market cross to pose for a commemorative photo to echo an abandoned tradition.

2005: Alston in crisis?

In August 2005, Alston made national, and indeed international, news headlines regarding the town's apparent lack of womenfolk. The news reports claim a ratio of 10 men to every woman in the town. (This is despite the 2001 Census for Alston reporting almost equal numbers of males and females in its population of 1128.http://www.eden.gov.uk/main.asp?page=2156) A group of young men from Alston, led by a Mr. Vince Peart
Vince Peart
Vince Peart born 30 September, is a founder member of the Alston Moor Regeneration Society, in Alston, Cumbria.Vince first rose to fame during the Summer of 2005 when his efforts to attract women to his home-town were picked up on by international media such as , , , , , , , , , and on .From...

, began distributing leaflets across the north of England and set up the "Alston Moor Regeneration Society" (founded after a pub survey upped the men-women ratio to 17-1),http://www.freewebs.com/alstonincrisis all in an effort to persuade women to come to Alston to find love. Articles appeared in such national media as The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/08/18/nalston18.xml&sSheet=/global/2005/08/19/home.html, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1551311,00.html and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/4161762.stm A documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 was shown on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 on 11 October 2006.

More than two years later the Guardian did a follow up article.http://www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,2181494,00.html The "Alston Moor Regeneration Society" had gone national as the Villages in Crisis campaign. Alston shared first position with Bere Alston
Bere Alston
Bere Alston is a small village in West Devon in the county of Devon in England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bere Ferrers.-History and geography:...

 in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 in the top 10 list of places in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 where the imbalance appears to be at its worst.

Transport

The area is stationed on a number of routes including the long distance footpath, the Pennine Way
Pennine Way
The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England. The trail runs from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and the Northumberland National Park and ends at Kirk Yetholm, just inside the Scottish border. The path runs along the Pennine hills, sometimes...

, and the Sea to Sea Cycle Route
Sea to Sea Cycle Route
The Coast to Coast or Sea to Sea Cycle Route is Great Britain's most popular long-distance cycle route and is based on minor roads, disused railway lines, off-road tracks and specially constructed cycle paths...

 (C2C) Cycle Route.

The town's rail link
Alston Line
The Alston Line was a standard gauge branch line railway that operated in the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria in England. Starting at its junction with the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway line at Haltwhistle, the line ran to the town of Alston...

 to Haltwhistle
Haltwhistle
Haltwhistle is a small town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, situated east of Brampton, near Hadrian's Wall, and the villages of Plenmeller, Rowfoot and Melkridge...

 was completed in 1852 by the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, occasionally referred to as the Tyne Valley Line, is a railway line in northern England. The line was built in the 1830s, and links the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear with in Cumbria. Formal opening took place on 18 June 1838.The line follows the...

 Company. The closure of the line was announced in 1973 and the line closed on 1 May 1976. Part of the route, between Alston and Kirkhaugh, two and a quarter miles in length, is now operated as the narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...

 South Tynedale Railway
South Tynedale Railway
The South Tynedale Railway is a heritage railway in England and is England's highest narrow gauge railway. The route runs from Alston in Cumbria to Kirkhaugh in Northumberland via the South Tyne Viaduct, the Gilderdale Viaduct and the Whitley Viaduct...

. The railway is particularly popular with tourists and passenger trains operate between April and October, with Santa Special trains operating on certain dates in December each year.http://www.strps.org.uk

Many of the bus services to and from Alston are operated by Wright Brothers Coaches, which has depots at Nenthead, three miles from Alston and at Blucher, near Newcastle upon Tyne, and operates an 82-mile route linking Newcastle with Keswick
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...

 via Hexham
Hexham
Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...

, Haydon Bridge
Haydon Bridge
Haydon Bridge is a village in Northumberland, England, with a population of about 2000. Its most distinctive features are the two bridges crossing the River South Tyne; the picturesque original bridge for which the village was named and a modern bridge which used to carry the A69 road...

, Alston and Penrith
Penrith, Cumbria
Penrith was an urban district between 1894 and 1974, when it was merged into Eden District.The authority's area was coterminous with the civil parish of Penrith although when the council was abolished Penrith became an unparished area....

from July to September each year. All local bus services are now under threat of end of service as the County Council wish to remove subsidies. This will leave only the Alston to Carlisle bus in operation.

Further reading

A history of Alston Moor by Alastair Robertson ISBN 0-9547339-1-6

Old Alston by Peter Wilkinson ISBN 9781840334630

The Nent Force Level and Brewery Shaft by Peter Wilkinson ISBN 0-9541845-0-5

Related websites

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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