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Cockermouth can be used as a base for motoring tours into the lake
district. It is among the 51 towns recommended by the Council for British
Archaeology for preservation. This confluence of the Rivers Cocker and Derwent
was a strategic point for the Romans, and stone from their fort at Papcastle was
used in 1134 by Waithe of of Dun-bar to build a castle. It was partly destroyed
by Robert the Bruce, and after various other attacks and sieges was partly
dismantled after the Civil War. The present ruins (open to the public) are said
to be 13th- and 14th-cent.
In 1568 Mary Queen of
Scots was received at Cockermouth Hall after her flight from the Battle of
Langside via Workington. Cockermouth was the birthplace of several famous people, including John Dalton,
formula-tor of the atomic theory, and Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutiny
on the Bounty. The house where Dalton was born is at Eaglesfield, three miles
south west and
bears a commemorative plaque. Christian was born in 1764 at Moor-land Close, a
farmhouse near the southern boundary of the town beside the A5086.But the great figures of Cockermouth, of course, are the Wordsworths, and
Wordsworth House (open to the public) is internationally known as one of the two
principal residences of the poet to visit in the Lake District, the other being
Dove Cottage at Grasmere. That at Cockermouth is on the north side of Main
Street, near the west end, and was acquired by the National Trust in 1938 after
a public appeal. It is a handsome house built in 1745 and became the home of
William's father in 1766 when he was made steward to Sir James Lowther. William
was born here in 1770, and Dorothy in 1771. It is a house with many windows, and
the original staircase, fire-places and panelling are to be seen. A reception
book holds the names of famous visitors from many parts of the world. William
spent some time at a Penrith school, but when he was only eight, his mother died
and he went to Hawkshead. |
