Keswick, Cumbria

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Keswick, Cumbria

Keswick (pronounced "kez-ick" ) is a market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a law term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host Market, distinguishing them from villages and city....
within the district of Allerdale

Allerdale

Allerdale is a Non-metropolitan district with Borough status in England and Wales status, in Cumbria, England. It is Historic Counties of England part of the English county of Cumberland....
, Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England. With a population of 4,281, according to the 2001 census, it is situated just north of Derwent Water

Derwent Water

Derwent Water is one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park in the north of England.The lake occupies part of Borrowdale and lies immediately south of the town of Keswick, Cumbria....
, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake

Bassenthwaite Lake

Bassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest lakes in the Lake District of England. It is long and narrow, approximately long and 3/4 mile wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about ....
, both in the Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

The Lake District National Park is in the Lake District. The National Park was formed in 1951 to preserve what was valued there against unwelcome change which the wrong type of industry or commerce could cause....
. Keswick is on the A66 road

A66 road

The A66 is a major road in northern England which in part follows the course of the Roman roads in Britain from Scotch Corner to Penrith, Cumbria....
linking Workington

Workington

Workington is a town and port on the west coast of Cumbria, England at the mouth of the River Derwent, Cumbria. Lying within the borough of Allerdale, Workington is southwest of Carlisle, west of Cockermouth, and southwest of Maryport....
and Penrith

Penrith, Cumbria

Penrith is a market town in the county of Cumbria, England. It is in the Eden Valley, just north of the River Eamont, and lies less than outside the boundaries of the Lake District....
, as well as the A591 road

A591 road

The A591 is a major road in Cumbria, in the north-west of England....
, linking it to Windermere

Windermere (town)

Windermere is a town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. It lies about half a mile away from Windermere . Although the town Windermere does not touch the lake, it has now grown together with the older lakeside town of Bowness-on-Windermere, though the two retain distinguishable town centres....
, Kendal

Kendal

Kendal is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. It is south of Carlisle, on the River Kent, and has a total resident population of 27,521, making it the third largest settlement in Cumbria ....
and to Carlisle

Carlisle

Carlisle is in the City of Carlisle, a district of Cumbria in North West England. It is located at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, River Caldew and River Petteril, south of the Anglo-Scottish border....
(via the A595 road

A595 road

The A595 is a primary route in Cumbria, in northern England that starts in Carlisle, passes through Whitehaven, and goes close to Workington, Cockermouth and Wigton....
). It lies within the historic county boundaries

Historic counties of England

The historic counties of England are ancient subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxons kingdoms and shires....
of Cumberland

Cumberland

Cumberland is one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an Administrative counties of England from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
.

town is recorded in the 13th century as Cese-wic, indicating that it acted as a market for cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cattle, Water Buffalo, goats, or sheep's milk. It is produced by Coagulation of the milk protein casein....
.

ick was granted a charter for a market in 1276 by Edward I

Edward I of England

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Encyclopedia

Keswick (pronounced "kez-ick" ) is a market town

Market town

Allerdale

Cumbria

Derwent Water

Bassenthwaite Lake

Lake District National Park

A66 road

The A66 is a major road in northern England which in part follows the course of the Roman roads in Britain from Scotch Corner to Penrith, Cumbria....
linking Workington

Workington

Penrith, Cumbria

A591 road

The A591 is a major road in Cumbria, in the north-west of England....
, linking it to Windermere

Windermere (town)

Kendal

Carlisle

A595 road

Historic counties of England

Cumberland

Cumberland is one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an Administrative counties of England from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
.

History

Toponymy

The town is recorded in the 13th century as Cese-wic, indicating that it acted as a market for cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cattle, Water Buffalo, goats, or sheep's milk. It is produced by Coagulation of the milk protein casein....
.

Middle Ages

Keswick was granted a charter for a market in 1276 by Edward I

Edward I of England

Edward I , popularly known as Longshanks, the English Justinian, and the Hammer of the Scots , was a House of Plantagenet King of England who achieved historical fame by conquering large parts of Wales and almost succeeding in doing the same to Scotland....
. The market is held every Saturday in the pedestrianised main street in the middle of the town. The marketplace features the Moot Hall

Moot hall

A moot hall is meeting or assembly building, traditionally to decide local issues.In Anglo-Saxon England, a low ring-shaped earthworks served as a Moot hill or moot mound, where the elders of the Hundred would meet to decide on issues....
which once acted as the town hall

City hall

A city hall or town hall is the chief administrative building of a city or town's Local government and usually houses the City council town council, its associated departments and their employees....
but is now a local tourist information office.

During the 16th century, small scale mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
took place in Keswick, and it was the source of the world's first graphite

Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Greek language ??afe?? : "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead, as distinguished from the actual metallic element lead....
pencil

Pencil

A pencil is a writing or drawing instrument consisting of a thin stick of pigment and clay, usually encased in a thin wood cylinder, though paper and plastic sheaths are also used....
s. The pencil industry continued in the town until 2008, when the company moved to nearby Workington

Workington

Recent history

Keswick was the first place in Great Britain where police

Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
used riot gear. The equipment was on trial in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1853....
when there was a disturbance on lake road, in which a police car was turned over. Help was summoned, and the Greater Manchester Police

Greater Manchester Police

Greater Manchester Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, in North West England....
arrived in full riot gear, thus giving Keswick this footnote in police

Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
history.

During the Second world war students from Roedean School

Roedean School

Roedean School is an independent girls' school in Roedean, East Sussex on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The school overlooks the sea and is situated close to the marina....
were evacuated to Keswick.

Governance

The town is administered by Keswick Town Council and Allerdale

Allerdale

Urban district

In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
in its own right and was entirely surrounded by the Cockermouth Rural District

Cockermouth Rural District

Cockermouth was a rural district in Cumberland, England from 1894 to 1974.It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on Cockermouth rural sanitary district....
.

Present day

Today, the majority of Keswick's businesses are tourism related, providing accommodation and facilities for the tens of thousands of people visiting the area each year. The Keswick Tourism Association publishes an annual guide to the area, including details of annually inspected and approved visitor accommodation.

Many visitors to Keswick come for the town's annual film festival that in 2006 attracted almost 3,000 paying customers. Keswick is also host to an annual beer festival which takes place on Keswick Rugby Union Club field and an annual jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
festival. The Beer Festival is held the first weekend in June, run jointly by Keswick Rugby Club & Keswick Lions. Over 5,000 people attend and can sample 200 real ales plus many cider

Cider

Cider is an alcoholic beverage usually made from the fermentation juice of apples, although pears are also used.While any variety of apple may be used, certain cultivars are preferred in some regions, and these may be known as cider apples....
s, lager

Lager

Lager is the more popular of two main types of beer; the other being ale. Traditionally, lager is stored for at least three weeks before being served....
s and bottle beers. Live bands play throughout the festival.

A half marathon is held each May; the 13.1 mile course starts in Keswick, loops through Borrowdale

Borrowdale

Borrowdale is a valley in the Lake District in Cumbria, England.Borrowdale lies within the Historic counties of England of Cumberland, England, and is sometimes referred to as Cumberland Borrowdale in order to distinguish it from Borrowdale, Westmorland in the historic county of Westmorland....
and circles Derwent Water

Derwent Water

Fairtrade Town

Fairtrade Town is a marketing tool in which this status is awarded by a recognized Fairtrade certification body describing an area which is committed to the promotion of Fairtrade certification goods....
status.

Convention

Keswick is the venue for an annual Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
Convention

Convention (meeting)

A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at a arid place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest....
(called the Keswick Convention

Keswick Convention

The Keswick Convention is an annual gathering of evangelicalism Christians in Keswick, Cumbria, in the England county of Cumbria....
) that has been running since 1875 and now covers three weeks towards the end of summer.

In the Christian sphere Keswick is also the home to Castlerigg Manor

Castlerigg Manor

Castlerigg Manor is a Catholic Residential Youth Centre - also often referred to as Catholic Residential Youth Work - in Keswick, Cumbria, Cumbria, in the north of England's Lake District National Park....
, a leading Roman Catholic residential youth centre. The centre is in the manor house from which much of the local land was owned in the 19th century.

Places of interest

Keswick is the home of the modern Theatre by the Lake

Theatre by the Lake

Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, Cumbria, Cumbria, England is situated on the shores of Derwentwater in one of the most picturesque locations in the Lake District....
which is the permanent home for repertoire

Repertory

Repertory or rep, called stock in the US, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation....
and festivals. It carries on the tradition of summer season productions first started by Century Theatre

Century Theatre

The Century Theatre, originally known as the New Theatre, was a playhouse, "New York City's most spectacularly unsuccessful theater" . Envisioned about 1906 by Heinrich Conried, a director of the Metropolitan Opera House, its construction was an attempt to establish a great theatre at New York free of commercialism, one that, broadly sp...
in the 'Blue Box'. This was originally a mobile theatre which subsequently found a static home at Keswick for many years and is currently situated at Snibson Discovery Park in Leicestershire.

The town is home to the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum

Cars of the Stars Motor Museum

The Cars of the Stars Motor Museum is located in the England town of Keswick, Cumbria, Cumbria, and features a collection of celebrity television and film vehicles....
, a motor vehicle museum featuring celebrity cars from television and film, and Keswick Museum and Art Gallery

Keswick Museum and Art Gallery

Introduction The Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in Cumbria was founded in 1873 and had a number of temporary homes as it grew, including the Moot Hall in Keswick, Cumbria town centre....
; a Victorian museum which features the famous Musical Stones of Skiddaw

Musical Stones of Skiddaw

The Musical Stones of Skiddaw is a lithophone made of a type of hornfels rock found in Cumbria, England. Constructed between 1827 and 1840, the instrument has entertained royalty; it is now housed at the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in Cumbria....
.

Keswick is also the site of the Cumberland Pencil Museum. This details the manufacturing history of pencils and shows how pencils have been used through the ages. One of the exhibits is what is claimed to be the world's largest pencil.

Castlerigg stone circle

Castlerigg stone circle

Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick, Cumbria in England is one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain and is the most visited stone circle in Cumbria....
, a well preserved prehistoric monument, is two miles away.

Transport

The town used to be linked to Cockermouth

Cockermouth

Cockermouth is a town within the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England, and is so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent, Cumbria....
and Penrith

Penrith, Cumbria

Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway

The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 1 August 1861, for a line connecting the town of Cockermouth with the London and North Western Railway West Coast Main Line at Penrith, Cumbria....
which closed in 1972. There is a project to reopen the railway.

The town is served by a range of bus services providing connections with nearby towns such as Cockermouth, Penrith, Windermere and Kendal. However, the majority of visitors arrive by car, and are catered for by a number of town centre car parks.

Notable people

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an England poet, critic and Philosophy who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romanticism in England and one of the Lake Poets....
moved here with his family in 1800 and visited and collaborated with William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major England Romantic poetry poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
in nearby Grasmere

Grasmere

Grasmere is a village in central Cumbria, England. It is also the name of the adjacent lake. Grasmere's position in the centre of the Lake District National Park, as well as its connections with the Lake Poets, has made it popular as a tourist destination....
, frequently walking back and forth between the towns. Robert Southey

Robert Southey

Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic poetry school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843....
and his wife came to stay with Coleridge at Greta Hall in 1803 and ended up residing there until his death in 1843. Coleridge left Greta Hall in 1804 leaving his family in the care of Southey. Due to their residence in the district, the three poets are collectively known as the 'Lake Poets'. Southey is buried in the churchyard of Crosthwaite Church and there is a memorial to him inside the church.

Novelist Sir Hugh Walpole

Hugh Walpole

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs....
lived nearby, at Brackenburn on the shores of Derwentwater.

Pioneer mountaineers and photographers George and Ashley Abraham

George and Ashley Abraham

George and Ashley Abraham were brother climbers and photographers who lived in Keswick, Cumbria in the English Lake District. They made a photographic record of the exploits of many of the climbing pioneers, especially Owen Glynne Jones, with whom they formed a close climbing partnership from 1896 until his death in 1899....
lived and worked in Keswick.

Former British Gymnast Stephen Dykes was born in Keswick. He now resides in Nottinghamshire but still has a house in the town.

Ian Taylor, founder of the breadmaker Kingsmill

Kingsmill (bread)

Kingsmill is a brand of bread made by Allied Bakeries, being owned by Associated British Foods. The brand is mainly associated with white bread although it also produces other varieties....
was born in the town.

Dialect

The Keswick dialect is a variant of the Cumbrian dialect

Cumbrian dialect

File:Cumb.svgThe Cumbrian dialect is a local dialect spoken in Cumbria in northern England. As in any county, there is a gradual drift in accent towards its neighbours....
spoken around the Keswick and Cockermouth area.

Keswick, Cumbria

History

Toponymy

Middle Ages

Recent history

Governance

Present day

Convention

Places of interest

Transport

Notable people

Dialect

External links