The Western Lake District: Cockermouth

Cockermouth on the Around-England Blog

A small selection of posts on the Around-England blog referring to Cockermouth.

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Cockermouth Georgian Fair

March 24, 2012

Cockermouth is well known as the poet Wordsworth’s birthplace and is visited by many during their Lake District holidays. In addition to places like the Wordsworth House that are open all year long Cockermouth also has several major events at different times of year. I’ve previous mentioned Woolfest Cockermouth and today my attention has been [...]

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Cockermouth Woolfest

February 1, 2012

The Cockermouth Woolfest has been held annually since 2005. It takes place on a Friday and Saturday in June, and includes a great range of displays and activities relating to natural fibres, and especially wool. Spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting and felting are just some of the craft themes covered by well over 100 stallholders. Woolfest [...]

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Happy New Year from the Eden Valley

January 2, 2012

I had not expected to be sitting at my keyboard this afternoon. The sun was shining, there was blue in the sky, and it would have been an excellent opportunity to drive to one or two of the places here in the Eden Valley where I’ve been wanting to take photographs but have been waiting [...]

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Going to the Wordsworth House? Which one?

December 6, 2011

Wordsworth House, Cockermouth “We’re going to the Wordsworth House this afternoon.” “Oh good. You’ll enjoy that. Which one?” It’s easy to imagine that kind of conversation between Lake District visitors over a lunch table. Currently there are three houses with strong Wordsworth connections open to the public, and before long the three will be four. [...]

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Some Places to Visit in the Lake District

October 28, 2011

[Updated from a 2008 post]In addition to the lakes themselves there is a wide variety of things to do in the Lake District. There are places to visit ranging from the literary connections of Dove Cottage at Grasmere (home of the poet William Wordsworth) to the practicalities (although also with artistic potential) of the pencil [...]

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Cockermouth: More Men of Science

September 10, 2011

On our main page about the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth there is mention of John Dalton the eminent early-nineteenth century scientist who first proposed the atomic theory of matter. John Dalton was, however, not the only eminent scientist to be born in or around Cockermouth. Just a few years older was William Woodville (1752-1805), also [...]

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John Dalton: Scientist from Cockermouth

September 9, 2011

John Dalton was one of the scientific giants of the early 19th century. In the 1960s I often attended lectures at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on George Street, Manchester. (The “Lit and Phil” still exists, now based at the Manchester Business School). Inside the building great prominence was given to John Dalton, and [...]

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Wordsworth’s Birthplace, Cockermouth

August 9, 2011

This afternoon in the Cockermouth sunshine the confluence of the Cocker and the Derwent looked tranquil. On 19th November 2009 it was a very different picture. Record volumes of rainwater poured down the two rivers from the Lake District mountains and inundated the centre of this historic town. Parts of the town that day were [...]

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Wordsworth and the Lake District Rivers

January 18, 2011

I sat down to write about the River Duddon, but something more emerged. Recently I’ve been posting on Twitter a daily quotation from William Wordsworth, chiefly from his poetry.  The difficulty, though, is Twitter’s limitation to 140 characters.  It restricts one’s ability to do full justice to the bard.  Having started to write this morning [...]

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