 Visitors to the "Plough" on Shrove Tuesday 1790 were the local landowner and industrialist John Losh (died 1814), father of Sara and resident at the mansion of Woodside, three miles up the road, Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, Losh's brother James, and his cousin Joseph Liddell.They began the custom of annually electing a Mayor of Wreay, but this was abolished 90 years later due to rowdyism.There is a path from the village to Wreay Woods Nature Reserve, a remnant of a much larger expanse of woodland alongside the River Petteril, managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.