Brough in 1843
Brough, or Burgh-under-Stainmoor, is in the East ward, 262 miles from the General Post-Office, London, by the ex-mail road to Carlisle and Glasgow, or 28 miles north east of Kendal, and 291 from London by railway to Lancaster, and from thence through Kendal. Many Roman coins have been dug up, and some antiquaries have identified the place with the Roman station Verterae of Antoninus. The town had anciently a castle, which was, together with the town, taken and sacked by King William of Scotland in 1174. The castle was ruined by an accidental fire in 1521, but was repaired by Anne, countess-dowager of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery in 1660. Its remains stand on an eminence, in the midst of what is supposed to have been the Roman station. The chief parts still standing are some portions of the keep and some other towers : the keep is, in its general form and appearance, similar to those of the Tower of London, Rochester Castle, &c.
The whole parish has an area of 22,650 acres, and had, in 1831, a population of 1,882, besides those contained in Kaber township, which was partly in Kirkby Stephen parish and was included in the Kirkby Stephen return. The township of Brough, in which the town stands, had, in 1831, 191 houses, namely, 181 inhabited, 8 uninhabited, and 2 building, with a population of 212 families, or 966 persons. The town is divided by the Helbeck, a small feeder of the river Eden, into two parts, respectively designated Market Brough and Church Brough the former on the north, the latter on the south side of the stream : the houses are plain, but tolerably commodious.
The church is large, but of poor architecture, mostly of late perpendicular character : it has a square embattled western tower, and in the windows is some ancient stained glass. There are meeting-houses for Methodists and Independents. The market is on Thursday but is of little importance. There are two great cattle-markets yearly, and two yearly fairs, one of which, called Brough-hill Fair, is held on a common two miles from the town, near the Appleby road, and is a great fair for cattle, horses, wearing apparel, and hardware. There are coal-pits and lead-mines in the parish : the coal pits employed 63 men in 1831.
The living is a vicarage, of the clear yearly value of £492, with a glebe-house, in the rural deanery of Westmoreland, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle. There is a chapel at Stainmoor in the parish, the perpetual curacy of which is of the clear yearly value of £119.
There were in the whole parish in 1833, nine day-schools of all kinds, with 302 scholars, namely, 115 boys, 62 girls, and 125 children of sex not stated in the return ; giving nearly one in six of the population under daily instruction. One of the day-schools was also a Sunday-school, and there were four other Sunday-schools : the whole contained 193 scholars, namely 25 boys, 30 girls, and 138 children of sex not stated ; giving rather more than one in ten of the population under instruction on Sunday. |