Keswick
For generations, visitors to Keswick have been impressed by the town's stunningly beautiful setting, surrounded by the great
fells of Saddleback, Helvllyn and Grizedale Pike. Tourism, now the town's major industry, actually began in the mid-1700s and was
given a huge boost by the Lakeland Poets in the early 1800s. The arrival of the railway in 1865 firmly established Keswick as
the undisputed 'capital' of the Lake District, with most of the area's notable attractions within easy reach.
The grandeur of the lakeland scenery is of course the greatest draw but, among the man-made features, one not to be missed
is the well-preserved Castlerigg Stone
Circle. About a mile to the east of the town, the 38 standing stones, some of them eight
feet high, form a circle 100 feet in diameter. They are believed to have been put in place some 4000 years ago and occupy a
hauntingly beautiful position. Beautiful, but forbidding, as evoked by Keats in his poem
Hyperion:
A dismal cirque of Druid stones,
upon a forlorn moor,
When the chill rain begins at shut of eve,
In dull November, and their chancel vault,
TheHeaven itself, is blinded throughout night.
Keswick old town developed along the banks of the broad River Greta, with a wide main street leading up to the
attractive Moot Hall, which now houses the town's and the National Park's tourist information centres. A little further south, in St
John's Street, the church of that name was built in the very same year as Moot Hall and its elegant spire provides a point of reference
from all around the town. In the churchyard is the grave of Sir Hugh Walpole, whose once hugely popular series of novels,
The Herries Chronicles (1930-1933), is set in this part of the Lake District.
In the riverside Fitz Park is the town's Museum and Art
Gallery, which is well worth a visit, not just to see
original manuscripts by Wordsworth and other lakeland poets, but also for the astonishing
Rock, Bell and Steel Band created by
Joseph Richardson of Skiddaw in the 19th century. Variously described as a stone dulcimer, rock harmonicon or geological piano, it's a
kind of xylophone made of 60 stones (some a yard long), 60 steel bars and 40 bells. Four
'musicians' are required to play
this extraordinary instrument. It was once taken to London to be played for Queen Victoria.
Surrounded by a loop of the River Greta to the northwest of the town is a museum that must be pencilled in on any visit
to Keswick. This is the Cumberland Pencil
Museum, which boasts the six-feet-long Largest Pencil in the World. The 'lead' used
in pencils (not lead at all but actually an allotrope of carbon) was accidentally discovered by a Borrowdale shepherd in the
16th century and Keswick eventually became the world centre for the manufacture of lead pencils. The pencil mill here, established
in 1832, is still operating although the wadd, or lead, is now imported.
At the Keswick Mining Museum nine rooms are filled with exhibits portraying Cumbria's mining history from the
Stone Age to the present day. For an additional small fee, visitors can try their hand at panning for gold. The museum also has a
shop selling new and second-hand books on topics related to mining.
Other attractions in the town centre include the
Cars of the Stars Museum, home to such gems as Laurel and Hardy's Model
T Ford, James Bond's Aston Martin, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Batman's Batmobile, Lady Penelope's pink Rolls-Royce FAB 1, the
Mad Max car, Mr Bean's Mini and Harry Potter's Ford Anglia. There are film set displays and vehicles from series such as
The Saint, Knightrider, Bergerac
and Postman Pat, and Del Boy's 3-wheel Reliant from
Only Fools and Horses is there, too.
The Teapottery makes and sells a bizarre range of practical teapots in the shape of anything from an upright piano to an
Aga stove. Keswick's most recent visitor attraction to open is
The Puzzling Place, an ingenious display of mind-bending
illusions, including computer video clips, three-dimensional holograms and an anti-gravity room where everything you've learned
about gravity will be turned on its head as you watch water flow uphill and other impossibilities. There's also a large selection of
puzzles, brain-teasers and associated novelty goods for sale.
A short walk from the town centre, along Lake Road, leads visitors to the popular
Theatre by the Lake, which hosts a year-
round programme of plays, concerts, exhibitions, readings and talks. Close by is the pier from which there are regular departures
for cruises around Derwent Water and ferries across the lake to Nichol End where you can hire just about every kind of water
craft, including your own private cruise boat. One trip is to the National Trust's
Derwent Island House, an Italianate house of
the 1840s on an idyllic wooded island. Entry is by timed ticket only.
Another short walk will bring the visitor to
Friar's Crag. This famous view of Derwent Water and its islands, now National
Trust property, formed one of John Ruskin's early childhood memories, inspiring in him "intense joy, mingled with awe". Inscribed on
his memorial here are these words: "The first thing which I remember as an event in life was being taken by my nurse to the brow of
Friar's Crag on Derwentwater." The Crag is dedicated to the memory of Canon Rawnsley, the local vicar who was one of the
founder members of the National Trust, which he helped to set up in 1895.
The four-mile long Keswick Railway Footpath
follows the track bed of the former Cockermouth, Keswick and
Penrith Railway, which closed to traffic in 1972. This easy trail passes through the lovely Greta Gorge to the charming village of Threlkeld.
Keswick is host to several annual festivals, covering films, Cumbrian literature, jazz and beer. And on the first Sunday
in December a colourful Christmassy Fayre is held in the Market Place.
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