Brough

Brough

Grid Ref : NY 795144
 

Brough Castle, centre left, and St Michael’s Church, centre right.
The A66, near the top of the picture, seperates Market Brough (above) from Church Brough.

Brough is a small town located on the A66 to the east of the county. It lies in the Eden Valley, at the foot of the North Pennines, a few miles north of Kirkby Stephen. It is a twin village – the southern part, Church Brough, lies on a former Roman road and was the setting for the Norman Brough Castle (once the site of a Roman camp). The northern area, Market Brough, is sited on a medieval road.

 

The difference in the two villages relates to the functions they once served – Church Brough’s houses stand around a market square decorated with a maypole, while Market Brough boasts a wide and long main street.

 

Church Brough contains St Michael’s Church, built of sandstone in 1150, though most of today’s church is 14th or 16th century.

 

The village’s claim to fame lies in its 18th-19th century importance as a coaching town for the England-Scotland run. More than ten inns catered to the stagecoach trade.

 

The market cross in Market Brough.

From Market Brough, the scenic B6276 road leads to Alston via Middleton-in-Teasdale, County Durham, passing High Force Waterfall- reputed to be the highest unbroken fall of water in England, (21 metres). There is also access from this road to Cow Green Reservoir, and its associated nature reserve, on the border between Cumbria and County Durham.

 

A few miles north of Brough, on private land, within the Warcop danger area, in the Fox Tower folly.

 
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