William Wordsworth - Full Day - Up to 8 People

Situated in Cockermouth, Wordsworth House is imaginatively preserved to show it as it was when Wordsworth and Dorothy lived here with their parents, three brothers and servants in the 1770s. Presented on the kitchen and dining tables is produce from the garden with a real fire burning in the working kitchen. The children’s bedroom is full of toys and dressing up clothes, and the Wordsworth Room is where you’ll find books and games to enjoy. Down in the cellar, the household’s ghosts are awaiting to tell their stories. William learned his love of nature and Cumbria while living here. Historically important there is much to learn here. From the High Sheriff of Cumberland, Joshua Lucock who built the house in 1745, to Sir James Lowther, son of Sir Lowther who built Whitehaven and its port, and of course Wordsworth himself. Fast forward to the 1930’s when the town of Cockermouth handed the house to the National Trust. On 3rd June 1939 it was opened as a Wordsworth memorial, becoming a Grade 1 listed building.

Allan Bank is a grade II listed two storey villa standing on high ground slightly to the west of Grasmere village in the heart of the Lake District. It is best known for being the home of William Wordsworth from 1808 to 1811, but it was also occupied at various times by Dorothy Wordsworth, Dora Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Arnold, Matthew Arnold and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. It is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

In 1795 the Wordsworth’s stayed in a cottage in Dorset, where they met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. In the years ahead a close relationship developed between William, Dorothy and Coleridge. William and Coleridge then undertook a tour of the Lake District, starting at Temple Sowerby, and finishing at Wasdale Head, via Grasmere. At Grasmere they saw Dove Cottage, then an empty Inn called the Dove and Olive Branch. In December of 1799 William and Dorothy moved into Dove Cottage, in Grasmere. Dorothy was William’s secretary, as William dictated his poetry. In 1802 William married his childhood companion Mary Hutchinson, and the first three of their five children were born.

The first church in Grasmere was founded by Oswald of Northumbria, King of Northumbria, in 642. The present church stands on or near the same site, and is dedicated to him. It dates from the 14th century, and was doubled in size by the addition of a parallel nave to the north of the original nave between 1490 and 1500. The roof was rebuilt in about 1562, which involved adding a second tier of arches to the arcade. The windows and doors were restored in 1840 by George Webster. William Wordsworth lived in Grasmere from 1799, and his final resting place is at St Oswald's. The monuments in the church include one to Wordsworth by Thomas Woolner, with an epitaph by John Keble. The church has a sculpture of the Madonna and child by Ophelia Gordon Bell, who lived and worked in Grasmere.

Rydal Mount, in the heart of the Lake District , commands glorious views of Lake Windermere, Rydal Water and the surrounding fells. It was the home of William Wordsworth from 1813 to 1850. The house, which now belongs to the descendants of the poet, retains a lived in family atmosphere, and has changed little since Wordsworth and his family came to live here. They rented the house from Lady le Fleming, of nearby Rydal Hall. The rooms on show are those of the family bedrooms of William and Mary, Dorothy, and Dora, and Wordsworth’s attic study, which he used when he was Poet Laureate. The house contains portraits, personal possessions and first editions of the poet’s work. Wordsworth was a keen landscape gardener with the four acre garden remaining much as he designed it. Consisting of rare shrubs, fellside terraces, lawns, rock pools and an ancient 9th Century mound leftover from its use as a site for a Beacon Fire to warn of impending Border Raiders.

Explore one of the Lake Districts traditional Lakeland villages. Filled with shops, restaurants, parks, pubs and the hustle and bustle of village life today. Popular with walkers and climbers and the preferred starting point for the Fairfield horseshoe, a hillwalking ridge hike.

The Old Grammar School attended by William Wordsworth is in the picturesque village of Hawkshead. Founded in 1585 by the Archbishop of York, Edwin Sandys. The ground floor classroom retains many old desks covered in carvings done by the boys, including the poet William Wordsworth and his brother John. Upstairs is the headmaster’s study and an exhibition relating to the history of the school, the founder and William Wordsworth.