CARLETON is a township and small village, 3 miles south-by-east of Carlisle, on the Penrith road, and within the manor of Botchard Gate. The township shares in Pattinson’s Educational Charity of £1 18s. yearly, for Carleton, Harraby and Brisco. The Cumberland and Westmorland Lunatic Asylum, opened here 2 Jan. 1862, is a building of red sandstone, from designs by Mr. J. A. Cory, county architect, and besides the asylum itself, there is an isolation hospital, erected in 1892; chapel, built in 1875; mortuary, in 1877; workshops, in 1879; gas and water works, and new farm buildings, added in 1888, and the whole, with surrounding land, covers an area of 137 acres. In 1882 the asylum, originally intended to hold 200, was enlarged for 110 additional male patients, and in 1883 for the same number of additional female patients, and there are now (1897) 290 male and 294 female inmates, and private patients are also received; the chapel, opened by the late Bishop of Carlisle, 5 Aug. 1875, is of red sandstone in the Perpendicular style, from designs by Mr. J. A. Cory, and will seat 400 persons; the organ was erected in 1890. There is a resident medical superintendent, for whom a house was built in 1878.

The water supply is derived from an artesian well bore, 270 feet deep, and yielding 40 gallons of water per minute. John Archibald Campbell M.D., F.R.S.Edin. resident medical superintendent; Rev. John Howard, chaplain; Miss Robinson, matron; H. Ferguson, clerk and steward. Near the Old Roman road is a farmstead, called “Soalesceugh,” the property of Mr. Robinson, in whose grounds, in 1844, a gold coin of the Emperor Nero was found. The Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, who are lords of the manor, John Milbourne esq. and James Shanks esq. are the principal landowners. The soil is loam; subsoil, marl, clay and gravel. The chief crops are oats and barley. The population includes 580 inmates and 64 officers in the Garlands Lunatic Asylum in this township; rateable value, £4,799.

National School (mixed), built in 1873 at the cost of Mrs. Hetherington & purchased by the trustees in 1890; it will hold 70 children; average attendance, 42.