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Alston

England's highest market town sits 1400 feet up on the North Pennines, reached by the A686, which is acknowledged as one of the most scenic routes in the world. Alston has a cobbled main street and, from the picturesque Market Cross, narrow lanes radiating out with courtyards enclosing old houses. Many of the older buildings still have the outside staircase leading to the first floor, a relic from the days when animals were kept below while the family's living accommodation was upstairs. This ancient part of Alston is known as The Butts, a title acquired by the need of the townspeople to be proficient in archery during the times of the border raids.

Because the town centre has changed so little since the late 1700s, it proved to be an ideal location for ITV's 1999 reworking of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, scripted by Alan Bleasdale. The town council has created an Oliver Twist's Alston Trail with each of the 24 sites featured in the series marked by a picture of Mr Bumble.

An unusual feature of Alston is the number of watermills in and around the town - a mill race was once the central artery of the old town. The tall spire of St Augustine's Church is a well-known local landmark and its churchyard contains a number of interesting epitaphs, as well as affording wonderful views of the South Tyne Valley.

Alston supports an astonishing diversity of shops and pubs and is home to a wide variety of craftspeople, ranging from blacksmiths to candlemakers, wood turners to potters. Gossipgate Gallery, housed in a converted congregational church built 200 years ago and with its original gas lights still intact, is the premier centre in the North Pennines for contemporary art and craft. A programme of exhibitions runs non-stop from February to December, and in the gallery shop there is a huge range of artefacts for sale, including original watercolours and prints, jewellery, glass, ceramics, sculpture and striking turned wooden bowls made from native woods. There's also a tearoom, the Gaslight Café.

Alston is the southern terminus of the South Tynedale Railway and its restored Victorian station, complete with vintage signal box, has featured in many television and period film productions. The narrow gauge (2ft) steam railway runs regular services during the
summer months travelling through the beautiful South Tyne Valley. At the northern terminus of the two-and-a-half-mile-long track travellers can join a stretch of the Pennine Way that runs alongside the River South Tyne. Alston station has a shop and refreshment room and just across the road is The Hub, an exhibition of historic vehicles together with a wealth of local images and the stories that bring them alive.

To the south of the town is Alston Moor, 50 square miles of superb open landscape. The moor was once at the centre of an extremely important lead mining region, one of the richest in Britain. Lead and silver were probably mined on the moor by the Romans, but the industry reached its peak in the early 1800s when vast quantities of iron, silver, copper and zinc were extracted by the London Lead Company. A Quaker company, it was a pioneer of industrial welfare and also built the model village of Nenthead to house the miners. Here, not only were the workers and their families provided with a home, but education was compulsory and there were some public baths. Nenthead Mines is a 200-acre site high in the hills that tells the story of the lead and zinc mining industry. One of the main visitor attractions is The Power of Water, an impressive interactive area that looks at the technology used, including three working water wheels that drive model machinery. Another is the Brewery Shaft with its 328-feet drop and amazing virtual stone feature. The site also has a gift shop and tearoom.