This parish is situated in Eskdale ward and petty sessional division; the county council electoral division of Farlam: the poor law union, deanery, county court and rural districts of Brampton; and is of comparatively recent formation, having been created by order in Council on the 25th of March, 1883. It consists of a portion of the parish of Farlam, viz.: Midgeholme township, with parts of the surrounding parishes, and comprises within its limits about 5,017 acres of assessed land, the ratable value of which is £825, and of the buildings £613, The population in 1891 numbered 567. The parish is bounded on the north by Nether Denton, on the east by Northumberland, on the south by Geltsdale Forest, and on the west by Farlam and Brampton. Both freestone and limestone are quarried in the parish, and coal of good quality is found at Tindale Fell, in the vicinity of which is a small lake, called Tindale Tarn, one and a half miles in circumference. Brierthwaite, or Tarnhouse Forest, is now included in this parish. It was anciently one of the possessions of Hexham priory, to which it was given by Adam de Tindale; but after the dissolution of that house it was granted to the barons of Gilsland.