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Keswick(See also Cars of the Stars Motor Museum , Cumberland Pencil Museum
Mining brought money, and architecture in the main street reflected this with the building of the Moot Hall in 1571 (19th century rebuilding). Other older buildings pasted on false facades in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Location Map of Keswick Keswick Tourist Information Centre The Teapottery Keswick Museum and Art Gallery The National Trust runs a free minibus service Sundays from Derwentwater Lakeside to Watendlath.
Take the West Coast Main Line to the railroad station at Penrith for bus service to Keswick. National Express Coaches go to Keswick from many cities. Stagecoach Cumberland buses serve the local area. Photos courtesy of Tony Richards , Julian Thurgood and Greta Hall © 1997-2008 by The Cumbria Directory. Reproduction of this work in whole or in part, including images, and reproduction in electronic media, without documented permission from The Cumbria Directory is prohibited. |
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In the north lakes area, Keswick
(the name means cheese farm) looks up to massive Skiddaw and Lonscale Fell to its north and the
calming waters of Derwentwater on the southwest. The market town gained its original charter from
Edward I in 1276. The area first settled was called Croswaithe, the western part of the town.
Here sits the oldest building in Keswick, the 7th century (parts are 12th
century) Croswaithe (St Kentigern) Church.
In the 16th century the Company of
Mines Royal, a joint venture between Queen Elizabeth I and mining interests, open a dozen mines
in the Keswick area. Gold, silver, copper, and lead were mined. Keswick soon became the centre of
smelting in the Lake District. The woodlands in the area were decimated to provide charcoal,
needed for fuel in the smelting process. Except for one mine, a black lead one in Borrowdale that
produced up into the 19th century, most of the mining had disappeared by the
18th century.
Graphite (black lead),
discovered at Seathwaite, in 1555, was used in pencil manufacturing from the 18th
century and still continues today at the Cumberland Pencil Factory. Visits to the factory itself
are not allowed. However, a video presentation at the Cumberland Pencil Museum, next to the
factory, explains the manufacture of the Derwent pencils. The Museum is entered through a replica
graphite mine. Displays, photographs and once-used machinery demonstrate the history of graphite
mining and the manufacture of pencils. The factory now imports its graphite.
The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway came to the
town in 1865, bringing tourists to the area. The Keswick Hotel dates from this time, as do other
hotels in the nearby valleys. Travellers once had to pay a toll to go from Kendal to Cockermouth,
as evidenced by Toll Bar Cottage on Main Street. Porch Cottage was once home to the Ruskin Linen
Industry, exporting its goods worldwide. The Teapottery is a combination shop and production area
where teapots are handmade in many different and eccentric styles and sizes. You can view the
teapots being made and watch a video explaining what is happening.
Poet Laureate Robert Southey and Samuel
Coleridge, Lake District writers, spent part of their lives in Keswick. Sadly, the place they
both called home, Greta Hall, was turned into a school dormitory. Greta Hall is now (2003) in
private ownership. The owners are in the process of renovating the hall and bringing back its
original features. They hope to open it to the public in a few years. A marble memorial to
Southey lies in the Crosthwaite Church, one mile (.6km) from the town centre. The same church is
the burial place of a man that all countryside and stately home lovers are thankful for-Canon
Rawnsley, the vicar from 1888-1917, was a cofounder of the National Trust.
The local history museum, the Victorian Museum and Art Gallery,
contains original manuscripts and memorabilia of the Lake writers, poets Southey and Wordsworth,
and novelist Hugh Walpole (15 volumes of his diaries are in the museum). Walpole was buried in St
John's Church, designed by Anthony Salvin. The pink sandstone building, altered in the late
1800's, was built in the Old English style. An unusual item among the Museum's exhibits is a set
of musical stones. The Lake District topography can be seen in a relief model, made in 1834, on a
scale of 3 inches (7.6cm) to the mile (.6km). Minerals found in the area are on show.
This poor lytle market town' (as described by John Leland
in the 16th century) is now a bustling centre for fell walkers and Lakeland tourists. John Ruskin
said Keswick was 'a place too beautiful to live in'. Not so. Thousands of satisfied permanent and
part-time residents have proved they can have their cake and eat it too.
The Keswick Launch Company has a water taxi service from
Keswick around Derwentwater.