Keswick is the undisputed hub of the northern Lake District. Literally from no other centre of Lakeland are so many lakes and a variety of fell walks so easily accessible. Its veritable girdle of fells include Skiddaw, Saddleback,Helvellyn, Scafell, Robinson and Grisedale Pike.
It was once a mining town with much of its early history written about by many fine writers over the years.
Keswick is rightly famous too for its excellence of lead pencils...being in fact the birthplace of the industry, during the end of the 18th century and early 19th century pencils were made entirely by hand. By the 19th century, it was the coming of the railway which effectively started the tourist industry here.
In the Market Square is the towns best known building...the Moot Hall, dating from 1813 and now housing the local Tourist Information Centre. It has one of the oldest one-handed clocks in the country. In the tower of the Hall hangs a bell bearing the date 1601 and the letters H.D.R.O. which is said to have come from the ancestral home of the Derwentwater's on Lords Isle. In the past the Moot Hall has been used as a court-house, market, prison, museum and Town Hall.
The town has held a market charter from the days of Edward I, and at one time was famous for its bull-baiting...thankfully abolished in 1835. The oldest building hereabouts is St Kentigern's Church (better known as Crosthwaite Church) located about a half mile out of town. Though built in 1553 it has been built on the site of a much earlier church. It contains a 14th cenntury font, and a fine recumbent effigy of Southey...who lived for forty years at nearby Great Hall, and was made Poet Laureate in 1813, and is buried here in the churchyard. His memorial incidentally was written by his friend William Wordsworth. In this churchyard that Southey loved so much was also laid to rest in 1920 Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, a vicar here for 34 years, but better known as the famous canon who did so much, along with Miss Octavia Hill, in becoming one of the founders of the National Trust. Through his watchfullness and enthusiasm, many gems of Lakeland are forever safe, and it is indeed fitting that he should lie almost within sight of some of the great scenes he saved.
St John's Church is a more modern building on the edge of town and has a prominent landmark ...its spire! From its terraced walk there is a delightful view of meadow, wood, lake and fell, with Brandlehow and Silver Hill beyond the lake, covered with bushy foliage up to the bracken-clad slopes of Catbells and Maidenmoor. Sir Hugh Walpole, the famous Lakeland author, lies buried in the churchyard overlooking the lake.
Keswick's reputed oldest inn is the George Hotel. Many great smuggling deeds were reputedly plotted here.
Another inn, the 'Royal Oak' was according to a slate plaque near the doorway frequented by Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor, Hatley Coleridge, the Wordsworths, Shelley, Thomas de Quincey, Christopher North, along with other Lakeland poets and writers. Here, Sir Walter Scott wrote part of his 'Bridal of Triermain' and here too Lord Tennyson and Robert Loius Stevenson were visitors, while the 'Skiddaw Hermit' and John Peel were frequently to be seen.
Whilst in the Market Square, look for the black and white building, which frankly looks as if it might be a church. It is in fact the Old Court House and Prison which dates from 1695, though it was rebuilt in 1813.
A short distance along the road is the Post Office. Next door was where the poor-house once stood. It was founded in 1644 by Sir John Bankes, a local man who rose to become Lord Chief Justice and a Privy Councillor.
Amongst Keswick's most attractive features are the High and Low Fitz Parks through which flows the River Greta, coming from Thirlmere. Derwentwater is a few minutes walk from the town centre. The view from Friars Crag into the jaws of wooded Borrowdale is a short way from the boat landing and is certainly one of Britain's classics.
A visit to the Museum and Art Gallery in Keswick is a must for all literary lovers. Manuscripts of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Ruskin and Walpole will be found here. Amongst the museum's further items is a set of musical stones collected from Skiddaw. This is the amazing Rock, Bell and Steel Band of Joseph Richardson, consisting of about 60 stones, 60 steel bars, and 40 bells, the longest stone measuring more than a yard and the smallest bell being about two inches across.All are mounted on a huge piece of furniture ready to be struck by hammers, the long stones giving the lowest notes and the small bells the highest. Four men are needed to play this extraordinary instrument.
Turner paintings are here too (donated incidentally by an American). Look for Southey's original manuscript 'The Three Bears' forerunner of 'Goldilocks and the three Bears;'
Castlerigg Stone Circle, just outside Keswick, has got to be a must on everybody's itinerary. It is undoubtedly one of Englands most spectacular Neolithic monuments. It is a circle of some 48 standing stones, 90 feet across, and with the tallest being seven foot two inches high. They date from around 2,000 BC.
For all its associations with greatness...a 40 year residence of Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's family, Greta Hall at Keswick, is one of the least known houses of historical interest in Cumbria. Possibly this is because it is not so easily found, for it is perched on a hillock several hundred yards from one of the main streets of the town, and is surrounded by trees and shrubs. Greta Hall is not officially open to the public but visitors who make appointments are usually allowed to look around. This 190-year-old house, where two of England's most famous poets lived and worked, is now part of Keswick School and the home during term time of some 40 young girls. Greta Hall is angula and pinkish, with oak panelling in the hall, dark twisting staircases, creaky passages contrasting with large well lit rooms. William Jackson, who had the house built, was a wealthy carrier, he devised a double mansion and lived in half of it himself, letting off the remainder to the Coleridges and the Southeys. If any of the poets returned they would not be too unfamiliar with the appearance as well as the atmosphere, for the house contains furnishings, paintings and bric-a-brac connected with them. All the rooms are named after their former occupants - Southey's Parlour, Hartley's Parlour, The Apple-Room and Mrs Wilson's kitchen...which still has the original stone-flagged floor. Robert Southey's study and library, a large room on the first floor which overlooks the lower of town, now contains rows of brightly coloured beds. Robert Southey was 30 when he came to Keswick in 1803 and here, apart from his travels abroad, he lived for 40 years..very much a friend of all the Lakeland poets and certainly one of the best of them. He was born in Bristol in 1774, his father being a tradesman there. An aunt brought him up and he was a youthful prodigy. At the age of eight he had read all of Shakespeare and had the ambition to be a poet. The story goes that an uncle who lived in Lisbon sent him first to Westminster School, and then later to Oxford. He was apparently turned out of the school because he wrote an essay making a much needed protest against the violent thrashing of the scholars!
Many visitors to the area will note (and possibly stay) at the Red House Hotel located at nearby Underskiddaw. This property was built originally by the well known Spedding family. Much of the land hereabouts was owned by the Vanes, Speddings, Walshes and Fishers. Later owners of Red House included the Nicholson family (in 1928). Sir John was knighted for his works in designing Singapore Harbour.
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