ABOUT THE AREA  

The website seeks to serve an area covering the town of Brampton and the villages in the surrounding countryside. 

The area roughly extends to the Lyne valleys in the north, the Tyne gap to the east, to Cumrew and Cumwhitton in the south, and to the River Eden in the west.  The River Irthing and its tributaries the Gelt, Kingwater and Cambeck flow through the area.

The Roman wall lies about 3 miles to the north of Brampton and the land to the north of the Wall was the scene of disputes and lawlessness until the 18th century.

Brampton was established as the area’s market town in 1252.  A private grammar school was built in 1588 and a hospital in 1687, but these buildings have not survived.  The oldest remaining building in Brampton currently dates from the 1660s, and the town centre architecture mainly consists of sandstone and rendered buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries.  Weaving was a cottage industry in the 18th century and this was eventually succeeded by a tweed mill which was built in 1869, and is now demolished. 

The countryside beyond Brampton contains a wide range of well preserved vernacular agricultural architecture and the extensive remains of 19th century mining industries.  

Lanercost Priory and Brampton Old Church were originally built in the 12^th century.  Much of the orginal building remains at Lanercost and is maintained by English Heritage.  

The A69 trunk road connecting Carlisle and Newcastle has bypassed Brampton to the south since 1990.  The Carlisle – Newcastle railway has a station at Brampton, about 1½ miles from the town. Local buses serve some of the villages in the area, connecting them to Brampton and to Carlisle, and the Hadrian's Wall bus provides a daily service in summer which links Bowness and the Roman Wall to the east. 

Apart from the comprehensive range of basic services in Brampton, there are few shops in the area.  Castle Carrock, Gilsland, Hallbankgate, Hayton, Heads Nook, Irthington, Warwick Bridge and Wetheral each have a shop.  Low Row and Corby Hill have garages. 

The countryside offers opportunities for walking along the Roman Wall, around Talkin Tarn, in Gelt Woods, and on a large network of footpaths and bridleways.  The Pennine hills are the centre of a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and these provide open access walking, as do the hills to the north towards the Scottish border.

This is a very brief and selective sketch of the area.  If you would like to submit material to develop this page, please email your suggestions to publishing@bramptonandbeyond.org