Grasmere
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
. It takes its name from the adjacent lake
Grasmere (lake)
Grasmere is one of the smaller lakes of the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It gives its name to the village of Grasmere, famously associated with the poet William Wordsworth, which lies immediately to the north of the lake....
, and is associated with the Lake Poets
Lake Poets
The Lake Poets are a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known, although their works were uniformly disparaged by the Edinburgh Review...
. The poet William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
, who lived in Grasmere for fourteen years, described it as "the loveliest spot that man hath ever found".
Before 1974, Grasmere lay within the former county of Westmorland
Westmorland
Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...
, but today it is part of the county of Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
.
Geography
The village is on the river Roathay which flows into Grassmere lake which lies about 0.5 km to the south. The village is overlooked from the NW by the rocky hill of Helm CragHelm Crag
Helm Crag is a fell in the English Lake District situated in the Central Fells to the north of Grasmere. Despite its low height it sits prominently at the end of a ridge, easily seen from the village...
, popularly known as The Lion and the Lamb or the Old Lady at the Piano. These names are derived from the shape of rock formations on its summit, depending on which side you view it from.
A number of popular walks begin near the centre of the village, including the ascent of Helm Crag and a longer route up to Fairfield
Fairfield (Lake District)
Fairfield is a fell in the English Lake District. It is the highest of a group of hills in the Eastern Fells, standing to the south of the Helvellyn range.-Topography:...
. The village is also on the route of Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...
's Coast to Coast Walk
Coast to Coast Walk
The Coast to Coast Walk is a 192-mile unofficial and mostly unsignposted long distance footpath in Northern England...
.
A591 road
The A591 is a major road in Cumbria, in the north-west of England. The stretch of the road between Windermere and Keswick has been voted Britain's Favourite Road.-Route:...
connects Grasmere to the Vale of Keswick
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...
over Dunmail Raise
Dunmail Raise
Dunmail Raise is a hill in the English Lake District, the highest point of a pass on the Keswick-Kendal road, the A591, to the south of Thirlmere reservoir on the way to Grasmere, in the Lake District National Park...
to the north, and Ambleside
Ambleside
Ambleside is a town in Cumbria, in North West England.Historically within the county of Westmorland, it is situated at the head of Windermere, England's largest lake...
to the south. In other directions, Grasmere is surrounded by high ground. To the west, a long ridge comes down from High Raise
High Raise (High Street)
High Raise is a fell in the English Lake District, standing to the west of Haweswater Reservoir in the Far Eastern Fells. Note that another High Raise is the highpoint of the Central Fells.-Topography:...
and contains the lesser heights of Blea Rigg
Blea Rigg
Blea Rigg is a fell in the English Lake District, lying between the valleys of Easedale and Great Langdale. One of the Central Fells, it is a broad plateau with a succession of rocky tops...
and Silver How
Silver How
Silver How is a fell in the English Lake District, standing over the village of Grasmere. How, derived from the Old Norse word haugr, is a common local term for a hill or mound.-Topography:...
. To the east, Grasmere is bordered by the western ridge of the Fairfield horseshoe
Fairfield horseshoe
Fairfield Horseshoe is a classic circular hillwalking ridge walk route starting from Rydal or Ambleside in the English Lake District that takes in all the fells that surround the valley of the Rydal Beck....
.
Rushbearing
Grasmere's famous RushbearingRushbearing
Rushbearing is an old English ecclesiastical festival in which rushes are collected and carried to be strewn on the floor of the parish church. The tradition dates back to the time when most buildings had earthen floors and rushes were used as a form of renewable floor covering for cleanliness and...
Ceremony has ancient origins. The present day ceremony is an annual event which features a procession through the village with bearings made from rushes and flowers. In this procession there are also six Maids of Honour, a brass band, the church choir, and anyone who wishes to join in by carrying their own decorated rushbearing.
Grasmere Sports
The annual Grasmere Sports take place in August and were first held in 1852. This is the main event in the village's calendar and one of the most popular traditional events in the Lake District. Participants compete in a variety of sports, including Cumberland Wrestling, fell runningFell running
Fell running, also known as mountain running and hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty...
and hound trails (similar to drag hunting
Drag hunting
Drag hunting is a sport in which a group of dogs chase a scent that has been laid over a terrain before the hunt...
).
Grasmere gingerbread
Grasmere gingerbread is made to a recipe founded by Sarah Nelson. The well-kept recipe never leaves the walls of The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.Government
The former civil parish was for a time governed by an urban district councilUrban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
before becoming part of the Lakes UDC
Lakes, Cumbria
Lakes is a large civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, with a population of 5,127 according to the 2001 census. It covers the small town of Ambleside, and the villages and hamlets of Clappersgate, Rydal, Grasmere, Troutbeck, Chapel Stile, Elterwater, Little Langdale, and...
in 1934. The village is now part of Lakes parish. Grasmere is currently represented by a Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
politician in both the district council and county council, as well as at Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
. Grasmere has experienced population decline since the 1960s.
Notable persons
- William Wordsworth lived in Dove CottageDove CottageDove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of "plain living, but high thinking"...
, in the hamlet of Townend, on the outskirts of Grasmere, from 1799. He occasionally used to breakfast with Sir Walter Scott at The Swan, a 17th century coaching inn that is still in use, just outside of the village on the A591 main road. In his poem "The Waggoner", Wordsworth asks "Who does not know the famous Swan?", a line which is quoted on the Swan's pub sign to this day. In 1808 he sold Dove Cottage to his friend Thomas de QuinceyThomas de QuinceyThomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...
and moved to a larger house in the village, Allan Bank, where he lived until he moved to Rydal MountRydal MountRydal Mount is a house near Ambleside in the Lake District. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth from 1813 to his death in 1850....
, RydalRydal, CumbriaRydal is an English village located in the shire county of Cumbria, which is in North West England. Historically within Westmorland, the village of Rydal is situated on the A591 road....
, in 1813. He is buried in the churchyardChurchyardA churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....
of St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere, alongside his wife, Mary and their family. His sister, DorothyDorothy WordsworthDorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth was an English author, poet and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close for all of their lives...
is also buried alongside him. - Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
also spent time at Dove Cottage and is said to have muttered stanzas from his poem "The Rime of the Ancient MarinerThe Rime of the Ancient MarinerThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and was published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss...
" whilst walking across the fells to Grasmere. - Fred YatesFrederic YatesFrederic Yates was an English painter.He gave up a business career to study painting in the Paris ateliers of Léon Bonnat, Gustave Boulanger, and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. In 1886, he moved to San Francisco where his family had settled a few years earlier. In San Francisco, he became a popular...
the painter lived at "Cote How" near Grasmere from 1900 until 1906. During this period he painted the future United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
president Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
and John Haden Badley. - John Haden BadleyJohn Haden BadleyJohn Haden Badley , author, educator, and founder of Bedales School, which claims to have become the first coeducational public boarding school in England in 1893....
, the progressive educationalist and author who founded Bedales School, often spent time with his sisters the Misses Badley at their home "Winterseeds" in Grasmere in the first half of the 20th century. - Sarah Nelson was the original maker of the famous Grasmere Gingerbread, made to a secret recipe kept within the family to this day. The shop remains in the former village school, adjacent to St Oswald's Church.
- Sting and his wife Trudie StylerTrudie StylerTrudie Styler is an English actress and producer. She is the second wife of the musician Sting.-Life and career:Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. She attended North Bromsgrove High School, where one of her teachers was Clifford T. Ward...
have a house in the area. - World-renowned story-teller Taffy ThomasTaffy ThomasTaffy Thomas, MBE is a storyteller, based in Grasmere in the English Lake District.-Biography:In September 2009, Thomas accepted the honorary position of the UK's first Laureate for Storytelling, which was officially launched on 30 January 2010 at the British Library as part of a series of national...
has lived in the village for many years having moved from his native SomersetSomersetThe ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
.