About Wordsworth House And Garden
Wordsworth House and Garden
Wordsworth House And Garden Description
We are open from mid-February to early November. The house and garden are open from 11am-5pm, with last entry at 4pm. The gift shop and visitor welcome centre are open 10. 30am-5pm. The house, garden, shop and visitor welcome centre are closed on Fridays.
Wordsworth House and Garden, in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth, is the birthplace and childhood home of romantic poet William and his sister Dorothy.
It is presented as it would have been when they lived here with their parents, three brothers and servants in the 1770s. Today, this homely Georgian townhouse is peopled by knowledgeable 21st-century guides and, on selected dates, the maid-of-all-work is busy in the kitchen – and keen to chat.
There is real food on the dining table, a fire burning in the working kitchen and a recipe William and Dorothy might have eaten for you to taste. Ink and quill pens are ready in the clerk’s office, and if you play the piano, you might like to try the replica harpsichord.
The children’s bedroom is full of toys and dressing up clothes, and in the discovery rooms there are books and games to enjoy. Down in the cellar, the household’s ghosts are waiting to tell their stories.
The garden is packed with 18th-century vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers, just as it would have been when William played – and learned his love of nature – here.
Our 2020 exhibition, The Child is Father of the Man, celebrating the 250th anniversary of William’s birth has been extended into 2021
Reviews
Roast pheasant with a side of carrot pudding anyone? Steak and kidney with apple frazes? Drop in this week to see how the Wordsworths might have entertained - and take a last chance to see the emotional "Where Poppies Blow" WWI exhibition.
Get cosy by the fire, listen to spooky stories, help with the cooking and make your mark with a quill this half-term. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/…/go-w ild-at-wordsworth-ho…
An inspiring story from someone living on our doorstep.
The thrilling Tour of Britain team time trial, starring cycling superstars Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome, starts in Cockermouth on Thursday. Why not make a day of it and visit Wordsworth House and Garden? Pop into the cafe any time between 10.30am and 4.30pm to enjoy a free pot of tea or coffee with your food order. But before you travel, please check www.tourofbritain.co.uk/residents-info for road closures.
Happy birthday to the Lake District National Park! Why not make a cuppa and settle down to watch this lovely celebratory video?
What will your family get up to during the holidays? We’ll be hunting for amazing animals and beautiful bugs, eating flowers, making wild art and clapbread, dressing up and writing with quills and ink. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/…/go-w ild-at-wordsworth-ho…
First World War poet Edward Thomas died without a mark on him, but the diary he was carrying reveals the cause of his death. What will you find when you peek inside at the evocative Where Poppies Blow exhibition? https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/…/new- for-2018-at-wordswor…
Get your hands on history at Wordsworth House on Tuesday 24 July. Drop in between 1 and 3pm to handle original artefacts and try on uniforms from the 1914-18 conflict from the collection of Carlisle Military Museum.
Thank you so much to all the great businesses in Cockermouth whom we visited to chat about plastic-free projects. It's so encouraging to have such positivity and enthusiasm for being greener and leaving a better legacy for all our kids.
In one morning 17 fantastic local businesses have signed up to West Cumbria Friends of the Earth water refill scheme. This is a national initiative which started in Bristol to address the 5.5 billion plastic water bottles that end up in landfi...ll or in our oceans. Download the app from www.refill.org.uk and look out for it on shop and cafe doors.
Huge thanks also to our brilliant local butchers Tony Harrison and W. Lindsay and Sons and fantastic fishmonger Fyne Fish, who are happy for customers to bring their own containers when buying meat and fish. Please support them by bringing your own next time and reduce plastic bag use.
Big shout out for the Ecover refill scheme at Firns Home Hardware, a great local resource so you can refill your washing up or laundry liquid rather than buying another bottle.
We have 5 winners of our school poster competition, shortly to be announced... Posters are being designed at the moment and you'll be seeing them around town soon to show all those wonderful businesses who have got rid of single-use plastic bags. Thanks kids for your creativity and enthusiasm.
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Happy birthday to Britain's newest Word Heritage Site! It was exactly a year ago today that the Lake District become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the Lakes, the National Trust looks after England's highest mountain and deepest lake, more than 20 per cent of the national park and all sorts of wildlife and habitats.
People have been making some lovely bags in our workshops to promote plastic-bag free Cockermouth. Our next two workshops on Thursday 28 June and Saturday 14 July have been postponed until the autumn. Watch this space for new dates...
We're delighted that Cockermouth Town Council have given us a small grant to take this project forward and are very grateful for their help.
We have had some fantastic poster entries from local children for local businesses to display to show they promote this initiative. We'll be announcing the winners soon, thank you to everyone who took the time to enter.
If you've ever wondered what our National Trust rangers get up to, here's part of the answer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IBETkvXS fc
Get festive by Derwentwater this weekend! Keswick Mountain Festival is the ultimate outdoors weekend and it's supporting the National Trust's work to care for Lakeland's mountains. Challenge your personal best, be inspired by top speakers and listen to live music, while raising funds to rebuild the Scafell Pike summit cairn. Book at keswickmountainfestival.co.uk.
Do things run smoothly when you’re around? Got a few hours a week to spare? We’re recruiting for a volunteer to support our visitor welcome team when things get busy. To find out more and apply visit http://bit.ly/VolunteerWWHG
Thanks to all the lovely people who came along to support plastic-bag free Cockermouth and make a textile bag from recycled fabric. If you missed it the next workshop is at Riversmeet on Saturday 2 June, drop in 10am-2pm.
Drop in between 10am and 2pm tomorrow for the first of our free workshops to make a funky textile bag and support plastic-bag free Cockermouth. The hot drinks and biscuits are on us...
We're very excited to be part of a partnership project to work towards Cockermouth becoming a plastic bag free town. Come and make a beautiful bag from recycled textiles and find out other ways you can reduce, reuse and recycle. The tea, coffee and biscuits are on us!
Proudly supported by us, Riversmeet, Cockermouth Chamber of Trade, West Cumbria Friends of the Earth and Cumbria County Council.
The Wordsworth House costumed servants enjoyed a very jolly - and sunny - day out at fellow National Trust property Allan Bank, in Grasmere, recently. Quite a contrast to the last time they visited, when they trudged there through a snowstorm in their traditional working gear. A day out would have been a rare treat for the Wordsworths' real servants, as their only holidays were twice-yearly visits to the local hiring fair. Join their modern counterparts at Wordsworth House on Wednesday or Saturday in term-time, when they are hard at work in our unique 18th-century kitchen, to find out more about their lives.
What a wonderful place to visit lot's to see and lean
We visited on Wednesday when there was a "maid" in costume who presented food in the kitchen and gave a talk in the dining room - both added to the experience.
I also loved searching for the Beatrix Potter figures which were linked to the Wordsworth story.
The house is well presented and worth a visit.
We live 9 miles away from here and ashamed to say never crossed our minds to visit until today. What a gem, great Staff and made us feel very welcome. Very hands on and child friendly. Grandchildren got involved my Grandson even wrote a little poem which the Staff put on there Facebook page. We will follow the site and visit again. So folks if you are in Cockermouth on holiday or even if you are Local, give the house a visit, you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find. Thank you Staff at Wordsworth House for making it such a nice visit.
We had a brilliant day here! We came for the Easter egg hunt in the garden, but enjoyed so much more! Our 4 year old loved dressing up in the old clothes & we all enjoyed playing the old games & listening to spooky stories! The food in the cafe was lovely & they were very friendly & accommodating. Would definitely recommend a visit.
We didn't know what to expect before we got there. But we were quite impressed with the story that tells of the childhood of the Wordsworth children and some how we could connect his (Wordsworth) inspiration of his poems that most of them to be of natures after visited the beautiful garden on the back of the house. One of the thing that has to be mentioned, the staff was marvelous and very helpful for tourists from another country like us of how to get the most out of historic places of the U.K.
We bought 4 young children to Wordsworth house and gardens, we had a fabulous time! The gardens were so lovely, the house was beautiful and the staff were happy, polite and informative! Thank you so much
Very memorable place to visit. Most informative, will recommend friends to go and visit.
This was our 2nd visit to the house and gardens, been in the summer and now in the autumn, fabulous colours in the garden, beautiful house, staff were very friendly and informative. Will definitely visit again.
This is the first time that we have visited the house. We were treated to a presentation of what life was like in Wordsworth's time from a volunteer who had also bakedsome treats for tasting. Very interesting displays. All the staff and volunteers helped to make it an enjoyable experience.
The house was interesting and well preserved. However, the garden was a thing of great beauty!
Really enjoyed visiting the house and gardens, staff were very friendly and made us feel very welcome.
Lovely morning or afternoon out. Very helpful people in the National Trust Shop. Was absolutely wonderful x
It was really interesting. Good displays, beautiful gardens and great cafe! GO there......
He garden is amazing, crammed with a lovely mix of fruit trees, perennials & cute hens too
Fantastic day out in Cockermouth, highlight was this oldyworld house
Fabulous gardens and lovely house. The short background story as you go in really help set the scene. Definitely worth a visit.
Amazing experiences to be had by all the family.
Beautiful garden. I loved the poetry tree
Interesting but didn't take long to look round. Disappointed