KESWICK, CUMBRIA

'Keswick' is a market town within the district of Allerdale, Cumbria, England. With a population of 4,281, it is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park.

Contents

History

Toponymy

Middle Ages

Governance

Geography

Present day

Convention

Places of interest

Transport

Notable people

Dialect

Gallery

References

External links

History

Toponymy

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

Middle Ages

During the 16th century, small scale mining took place in Keswick, and it was the source of the world's first graphite pencils.^[1] The pencil industry remains today, including the Cumberland Pencil Museum and the world's largest pencil.

Governance

Keswick was granted a charter to be a market town in 1276 by Edward I of England, the market is held every Saturday in the pedestrianised main street in the middle of the town. The marketplace features Moot Hall which once acted as the town hall but is now a local tourist information office.
On January 11, 2005, Keswick was granted Fairtrade Town status.

Geography

Keswick is on the A66 road linking Workington and Penrith, as well as the A591 road, linking it to Windermere, Kendal and to Carlisle (via the A595 road). It has a population of about 5,000 (500 more than in 1901).

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. This information is also available on the KTA website. [1]
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 Club field and an annual Jazz Festival. A half marathon is held each May - the 13.1 mile course starts in Keswick, loops through Borrowdale and circles Derwentwater before finishing at Keswick Rugby Club.
In May 2007 Keswick will host a Mountain Festival.[2]
It is administered by Keswick Town Council and Allerdale Borough Council. Though previous to 1974 the town had been an urban district in its own right and was entirely surrounded by the Cockermouth Rural District.

Convention

Keswick is the venue for an annual Christian Convention (called the Keswick Convention) 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, a leading 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 famous Theatre by the Lake which is the permanent home for repertoire and festivals which carries on the tradition of Summer Season productions first started by Century Theatre in the Blue Box.
The town is also home to the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum, a motor vehicle museum featuring celebrity cars from television and film, and Keswick Museum and Art Gallery; a Victorian museum which features the famous Musical Stones of Skiddaw.

Transport

The town used to be linked to Cockermouth and Penrith via the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway which closed in 1972.
There is a project to reopen the railway [3].

Notable people

Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved here with his family in 1800 and visited/collaborated with William Wordsworth in nearby Grasmere by frequently walking back and forth between the towns. Robert Southey 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'.
Keswick was the first place in Great Britain where police used riot gear. The equipment was on trial in Manchester when there was a disturbance on the council estate in Keswick, in which a police car was turned over. Help was summoned, and the Greater Manchester Police arrived in full riot gear, thus giving Keswick this footnote in police history.^[2]

Dialect

The Keswick dialect is a diasystem of the Cumbrian dialect spoken around the Keswick and Cockermouth area.

Gallery

References

1. A Brief History of Pencil Making in Cumbria over the Last 400 Years (leaflet from the Cumberland Pencil Museum)
2.
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External links

★ keswick.org - Keswick Tourism Association's official guide to Keswick and the North Lakes

★ Keswick Tourism Guide to tourist attractions in and around Keswick

★ Theatre by the Lake - Year-round professional theatre, visiting arts and festivals

★ The official website of Keswick's annual film festival

★ Keswick's tourism and community website

★ Guide to Keswick and the Northern Lake District

★ Keswick Mountain Rescue Team